Chinese New Year: Free Teaching Resources

Celebrating the Chinese New Year is a terrific way to introduce kids to the concept of holidays around the world. Your students may not realize that people in other countries often celebrate completely different holidays, or they may celebrate the same holidays but have different holiday traditions.

For example, most countries celebrate the new year on the first day of January, but the Chinese New Year can fall anywhere between January 20th and February 20th. In 2017, the Chinese New Year begins on January 28th. New Years celebrations in most countries include festive events like parades and fireworks, but there are also many differences in New Year's Day traditions.

I'd like to share two activities I developed to help students explore the similarities and differences between the Chinese New Year and New Year traditions in the United States. The first activity consists of a Venn diagram and facts to sort about the Chinese and American New Years. The second activity is a guided discussion based on the book Sam and the Lucky Money.

Both of these activities are in my February Activities pack, which is free for my newsletter subscribers. If you aren't on my mailing list, click here to sign up for Candler's Classroom Connections, and I'll send you this free 26-page February Activities pack.

Comparing Chinese and American New Years
A Venn diagram is a great tool for exploring the similarities and differences between the Chinese New Year and New Year celebrations in other countries. Here's a lesson outline you can use with upper elementary students, but feel free to modify it as needed with your own students.

1. Prior Knowledge Sorting Activity 
Before you begin, assign partners and ask students to sit with their partners. Tell the class that they will be learning about the Chinese New Year, and ask them to talk with their partners about anything they may have learned in the past about this holiday is similar to or different from the American New Year.

Next, give each pair one copy of the American and Chinese Facts printable and have them cut apart the fact slips. Then give them the Venn diagram printable or have them draw a Venn diagram with the two circles labeled Chinese New Year and American New Year. Tell them that you'd like them to guess where each fact goes on the Venn diagram. To do this, have them to shuffle the slips of paper, stack them face down, and take turns flipping over the facts. As each fact is revealed, the students talk over where they think it should be placed on the Venn diagram, and they place the slip of paper accordingly.

2. Reading and Researching the Facts

Leave the slips of paper in place for the next part of the activity, but cover the Venn diagram with a sheet of paper. Or use a digital device to take a snapshot of each Venn diagram if you aren't able to complete the lesson in one sitting.

Read aloud aloud a children's book like Chinese New Year for Kids or an informational text article about the Chinese New Year. As you read, ask your students to think about where they placed the slips of paper representing the facts about Chinese and American New Years. When you finish reading, ask students to uncover their Venn diagrams and move any slips they feel need to be changed. Before moving any of the fact slips, they need to discuss those changes with their partners.

If there are any fact slips that were not mentioned in the book or article, allow time for students to research those facts online or in the school media center. An answer key is provided in the freebie.

If your students discover other Chinese or American New Year traditions that are not described on the slips of paper, ask them to write the new facts directly on the Venn diagram.

3. Interview Family Members About New Years Traditions
For homework, ask students to interview a parent, grandparent, or other family member to find out what they know about New Year traditions in their own country. They should also ask if their families have any special New Year customs or traditions of their own. When students return to school the next day, provide time for them to share what they learned and add any relevant details to their Venn diagrams.

4. Lesson Wrap Up: Read Sam and the Lucky Money
For a final look at Chinese New Year traditions, read and discuss the favorite children's book, Sam and the Lucky Money. This story is based on the tradition of giving money in red envelopes on special occasions. In this touching story, a young boy named Sam learns what it means to be lucky. You can use these discussion cards to lead a whole class discussion, or use the cards with one of the cooperative learning discussion strategies I described in my post, Task Card Talk: 6 Strategies to Boost Learning.

Discover More Freebies in the February Activities Pack
Are you wondering why this activity is in my February Activities pack when the Chinese New Year is in January? As you might have guessed, this freebie is one I created several years ago, and the Chinese New Year was in February the year I developed the activity. So that's where it's stayed, despite the fact that sometimes the holiday is in January. In addition to these activities, you'll find loads of other printables and lessons for February, including resources for winter, Black History Month, International Friendship Month, and Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

Sweet Statistics: Jelly Bean Data Analysis

I used to think jelly bean math activities had no place in the upper elementary classroom. Sure, sorting jelly beans and graphing them by color is fun, but who has time for “fun” holiday activities when you have a rigorous curriculum to teach? But that was before I realized that you can do a whole lot more with jelly beans than just graph them! In fact, you can turn a fun candy-themed lesson into a powerful learning activity just by sneaking in some challenging academic content!

For example, the Jelly Bean Egg Challenge is a sweet statistics lesson that requires students to measure, estimate, collect, compile, and graph jelly bean data in order to analyze it and draw conclusions. Give each student a plastic egg filled with an assortment of jelly beans, and let the fun (and learning) begin!

Celebrate Do Something Nice Day!

Did you know that October 5th is Do Something Nice Day? No, I'm not making that up! Google it and you'll see! What a great way to focus on being a good citizen and thinking of others! If you are reading this after October 5th, why not pick a day this week and call it Do Something Nice Day?

To help your students celebrate, I created this fun printable you can use with your students. Click HERE to download this freebie. You'll notice that I didn't include the date of October 5th anywhere on the page, leaving you free to declare any day you want as Do Something Nice Day!

Before you give the printable to your students, spend a few moments discussing what it means to do something nice for others. It's often the small things mean the most, but these actions may seem so ordinary that your students might not realize that they are "doing something nice" for someone. Work with your students to brainstorm ideas, and create a class list to get them started. How about complimenting someone, sharing something, or offering a word of encouragement to a classmate who is discouraged? What about offering to unload the dishes at home or helping mom or dad prepare dinner?

Then give each student a copy of the Do Something Nice Day printable. Challenge them to do at least 6 nice things for others and write one action on each cloud. Ask them to bring the activity page back to school the next day. You might not want to ask them to share everything they did with the class because some actions may be personal, but you can have them talk about how they felt doing good deeds for the day. You could also ask them to write about their experiences in a journal. Then remind them that every day can be Do Something Nice Day!

$25 TpT Gift Card Giveaway! ( Ends at midnight PT on 10/5/2017)

I wanted to do something nice to celebrate Do Something Nice Day, so I'm giving away a $25 TpT gift card! The giveaway ends at midnight PT on October 5th, and I'll randomly select a winner on October 6th. To enter, share the giveaway with at least one other teacher, subscribe to Candler's Classroom Connections, and fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below. Check your email after the contest ends to find out if you won. Good luck! Have a terrific day, and remember to do something nice for someone today!




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Book Character Day - Fun and Educational!

Is there a school district anywhere that still allows traditional Halloween activities? Most elementary students love to dress up on Halloween, but many schools no longer allow Halloween parties and activities. However, there's fun and educational way to sneak in a dress-up activity if you can get it approved! Host a Book Character Day!

Your students can dress up as their favorite book characters and take part in activities to explore character traits. If Book Character Day happens to end up on October 31st, so much the better! The event includes activities based on character development skills and concepts that are aligned with Common Core Standards RL 3.3, RL 4.3, and RL 5.3.

If you are really adventurous, you can dress up, too! Unfortunately, I didn't have a picture of myself from our Book Character Day to share. So Melissa Mazuur of Common Core and So Much More graciously let me use this picture of her when she was dressed up as Camilla from a Bad Case of Stripes. Your students will love it if you dress up, too!

Book Character Day Freebie

Book Character Day was a hit with my students, so I put together a free packet of materials to help other teachers get started with this event. I know it's not even October yet, but this activity does take a bit of planning. I wanted to share the materials now so you could start thinking about the best way to host your event. The packet includes a letter you can use as a guideline for your own correspondence with parents. It also includes suggestions for activities dealing with character traits and a blank rubric you can use for evaluation purposes. As you can tell from this list of resources, Book Character Day can be hosted any time of the year and not just in October.

Where to Find this Freebie
This Book Character Day packet is a freebie for my email newsletter subscribers. It's just one of over 75 freebies you can download from Teaching Resources after you sign up. If you are already a subscriber, look for a link to Laura's Best Freebies in a recent newsletter.

Do you have a principal who expects you to cite the Common Core Standards for every activity? Not a problem for upper elementary classrooms because the CCSS are right in the back of the packet. These activities are aligned with the standards that address character traits in grades 3, 4, and 5.

Book Character Parade
Another activity that would work well with Book Character Day is a Book Character Parade. Here's a snapshot that Barbara Gruener of the Corner on Character shared with me from a Book Character Day that was held at her school. You can tell how much this young man is enjoying the chance to portray a book character from that adorable grin!

Have your students ever participated in book character activities like these? If so, please share your ideas with us in a comment on this post!