Happy Chinese New Year!

This year we celebrate the year of the ox. 

If we were all at school today we would be taking time out of our normal lessons to spend time learning about, and celebrating, Chinese new year. We would be trying out Chinese food and challenging ourselves to eat with chopsticks, making red envelopes, lanterns, model dragons and performing the traditional lion dance. Just because we are learning remotely though, doesn't mean we can't have a go at a few or all of these activities. 

For today's home learning activities, I am going to post several ideas for learning about and celebrating Chinese new year on this page. Take your pick! You can do as many as you like. Whatever you choose to do though, have lots of fun and I'd love to see some photos of what you get up to. Don't forget to tune into our Google Classroom meet live at 1.05pm where I will be reading the story of the famous race to you all. 

I recommend that before you begin any activities, you watch the video below to find out what Chinese new year is and why people celebrate it. The video follows a little girl called Abbie, and her brother, as they prepare for Chinese new year. They will tell you all about what happens and why. 

Suggested Learning Activities:

• After watching the video of Abbie and her brother, we learnt that during Chinese New Year celebrations, children are sometimes given envelopes with money inside! With an adult, look at some coins and see if you can see any numbers on them. What numbers can you see? What shape are the coins? What colours are they?

• One of the colours often seen during Chinese New Year is red. Red is seen as a symbol of happiness and joy. The envelopes that children often receive with money in are red too. Can you make a list of words that rhyme with red (e.g. bed)?

• Fireworks are often seen during Chinese New Year. Can you paint or draw a firework picture. You could use crayons, pens, paint or glitter and glue.

• Take a look on the internet with an adult and see if you can find out which animal represents the year you were born in. Can you draw a picture of this animal and write its name? *Remember, from our internet safety day yesterday, it might be a good idea to check this on more than one website to check that you are not being tricked!

• Make a model dragon - you could use cardboard tubes, egg boxes, cupcake cases or carboard boxes, playdough, construction toys or natural materials like leaves and pebbles. Maybe you could draw a picture or take a photo of your dragon model!

• Can you read the words below. They are the names of some of the animals in the Chinese calendar. If you can read them, ask an adult to say one of the words and see if you can use your Fred fingers to spell the word in foam, sugar, glitter, salt or in coloured pen and pencils. 

dog

rat

ox

pig

• Why not try some Chinese food! What do you like? 

• Lanterns are used as decorations during Chinese new year as they are thought to scare away the Nian monster and bring good luck to people. Maybe you might like to make a paper lantern and decorate it today?

• The Lion Dance is a Chinese dance performed at the Chinese new year festival. It is performed as the lion is thought to chase away bad spirits and bring good luck. Learn how to do a Chinese lion dance with Jamie and Hannah!