This celebration is also known as Lunar New Year!
I have always loved teaching young children about this celebration. Even if you don't celebrate Chinese New Year in your family, it's important children learn about other cultures, religions and celebrations from around the world. This is a great opportunity for children to also taste new types of food, learn how to say Happy New Year in Chinese, practise some dragon dancing and even study the Chinese writing too!
Perhaps you have a Chinese supermarket near you? These are a great place to visit and stock up on some resources!
Resources:
You don't need to spend a lot of money to create a box of resources for Chinese New Year, a few key items can be used in lots of ways! Red and Gold are particularly important to the Chinese culture so have a look at what you have at home already, things like; play dough, paint, lentils etc. And then perhaps a few items carefully selected. I like to use chop sticks, envelopes, bowls and dragons.
Here are a selection of fun ways you can help your children to learn about Chinese New Year:
Cleversticks
This is a lovely story and great way to introduce talking about Chinese New Year and appreciate other peoples cultures.
Noodles
A lovely messy play activity you can set up in a tuff spot or tray and let your little one explore the texture and use the tools to handle them!
Rice Sensory Tray
A small tray filled with a covering of rice is lovely for scooping and pouring and if you have any red or Chinese themed resources to add, all the better!
Chopsticks
These are a fun way of introducing your child to chop sticks and learning how to manipulate their hands to use a tool...plus lots of fun with wool noodles!
Red Envelopes
At Chinese New Year young children are given red envelopes containing coins. This is a good opportunity to create your own and even practise some numbers and counting!
Below are two links to download role play resources to print out and use at home for Chinese New Year and a video you can watch with your children:
Click here to download the printable resources from Twinkl website.
watch the Chinese New Year video by Cbeebies on YouTube
Happy Chinese New Year!
Claire x