Holiday Celebrations Around the World: Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a popular choice when doing a holiday celebrations around the world unit. If this is not a holiday you celebrate personally, you may not know a lot about it. These facts about Chinese New Year and resources will help you plan and prep a comprehensive unit.

Chinese New Year in China is an interesting topic to explore with elementary students. This Chinese New Year resource can be used as a stand alone unit or as part of a larger holiday celebrations around the world unit. It includes everything you need to teach your students about this special winter holiday.

Why You Should Teach Students about Chinese New Year

The month of December is a great time of year to teach students about the different holidays and celebrations that take place around the world this time of year. Students are already thinking about the upcoming holidays, so it makes sense to use this excitement to engage them in their learning. There are so many different ways to tie this topic into your curriculum – especially social studies and literacy standards!

Chinese New Year is a particularly interesting topic to explore because some of your students may have never heard of it before. Students can learn about a culture and set of traditions that are different from their own. Learning about this holiday creates an interesting opportunity for students to compare and contrast this holiday’s traditions and what their holiday traditions look like. For your students who do celebrate this holiday, it’s a great way to invite them to share about their experiences and recognize the value in their holiday.

5 Facts about Chinese New Year

It is a 15-day holiday that begins on the first day of a new moon and ends with the full moon.
The Chinese New Year is symbolic of letting go of the past and welcoming new beginnings.
It’s a popular time for spring cleaning.
In honor of the New Year, children receive red envelopes with money inside.
The dragon is a Chinese symbol of strength.

Chinese New Year Unit

What’s Included?

This Chinese New Year resource includes the following:

resource overview that identifies all of the printables included in the product
teaching ideas that offer suggestions for how to implement the resources in your classroom
organizational tools to help you keep track of the resources you add to this thematic unit
book suggestions to help you find relevant read alouds you might like to use as part of your unit
close reading passage for both teachers and students to learn more about the holiday
printable book for students to use to learn about the holiday
two-column notes graphic organizer so your students can organize their ideas and the research they collect
top-down web graphic organizer so your students can take the information they collected and transfer it into a paragraph framework
cover pages that students can color in or design their own illustration
geography map to help students make sense of where the country is in relation to themselves
flag bunting that looks great displayed on a bulletin board
flag coloring page that pairs well with the writing project and makes a great bulletin board
postcards so students can show what they learned in a fun and creative way
travel scrapbook so students can show what they learned in a fun and creative way
travel journal so students can show what they learned in a fun and creative way
art project to engage your students in a fun learning experience based on an academic topic
recipe for students to bring home, share with their families, and enjoy a hands-on learning extension
digital version of the product so students can access the materials in school and at home

5 Reasons Why You Will Love It

This resource includes a bunch of activities, so it’s a great value!
Many of the resources are completely print and go, which saves you lots of prep time.
You can customize it to fit your needs by selecting which included activities you implement.
The activities are open-ended, which makes it easier to differentiate and make modifications. It also enables you to use this in multiple grade levels.
It’s a great way to keep students engaged during a month where that can feel extra challenging!

A Quick Summary

This is an excerpt from the reading passage and student mini-booklet that can be found in the unit:

“Chinese New Year is an important Chinese holiday. It is a time of feasting with the family, celebration, fireworks, and gift-giving. It is a 15-day holiday. It begins on the first day of a new moon. It ends with the full moon. New Year’s Day is the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar. Chinese New Year is at the end of January or in February. The Chinese New Year is symbolic of letting go of the past and welcoming new beginnings. It’s a popular time for spring cleaning.”

Tips for Activating Schema

Like all lessons, you will want to begin by activating student schema and engaging them in their learning. It’s a great way to see if your students are familiar with the holiday, celebrate it personally, or know any facts about Chinese New Year. You can do this by:

Locating China on a map.
Discussing China’s climate.
Inviting students to participate in mapping activities that help them understand where your students are in relation to China and the rest of the world.

This Me on the Map project has long been the most effective way I know to teach students where they are located from a global perspective.

Many teachers use it as part of a map skills unit at the start of each school year, but it also works so perfectly as an introduction to your Christmas around the world or holiday celebrations around the world lessons.

Printable Resources

Please note that you can either choose to get these resources specific to Chinese New Year in China on their own or as part of the popular cost-savings Holidays Around the World Bundle which includes the following countries and holidays:

Australia
Brazil
China
France
Germany
Mexico
Italy
Israel
Holland / The Netherlands
Sweden
Spain
The United States
Christmas
Chinese New Year
Boxing Day
Diwali
Epiphany
Hanukkah
Kwanzaa
Las Posadas
St. Lucia’s Day

The bundle also includes the following bonus materials:

Access to a digital portal for easy planning
Passports and country stamps
Luggage craft activity
Boarding passes
Travel map
Compare and contrast countries with Venn diagrams
Craft ideas
Scrapbook cover
Recipes

3 Craft and Project Ideas

In addition to the Holidays Around the World resources spotlighted above, a study about Chinese New Year lends itself to a variety of other complementary projects like travel brochures, an animal research project and crafts.

1. Travel Brochures

You could have your students create travel brochures by researching the country. It’s a fun and creative way for students to share the facts about Chinese New Year they learned. This can be done in class or as a homework assignment to complement what you are doing in school. These printables travel brochures make it super simple!

2. Animal Research Projects

You could have your students learn about the wildlife native to China. This print and go animal research resource packet can be used over and over again through the school year because it was designed to be used when researching any animal.

If you need ideas specific to China, I suggest:

Asian elephant
Sable
Dugong
Pallas cat
North China leopard
Binturong

3. Chinese New Year Crafts

Take some time to do a craft with your students to represent the country you are focusing on. It is so hard to fit in creative activities, but this is a perfect time.

Here is what we made when we studied China:

You can see the instruction if needed for how we made this (as well as these other crafts we made to complement a study of many other countries) on my holidays around the world Pinterest board.