CHINESE NEW YEAR

Diane Meeker and Susan WilsonEmden Elementary School

Summer 2006

This lesson will introduce students to elements of Chinese culture and their celebration of the holiday, Chinese New Year. Students will be able to compare and contrast traditional American New Year rituals with those of the Chinese New Year.

Overview/ Materials/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension

Overview Back to Navigation Bar

Objectives Students will: describe community celebrations. describe various customs of families. obtain information about Chinese New Year using a

variety of visual sources, the internet, and texts.Recommended time frame 5 lessonsGrade level 1st gradeCurriculum fit Language Arts, Social Sciences, Fine ArtsMaterials Class quantities of red cardstock (4 per child).

Copy paper, 8.5 x 11 and 8.5 x 14 size. One brown grocery bag per student. Construction paper, assortment of red, yellow, green

and blue colors. Red crepe paper. Glue, scissors, markers and crayons. Gold marker pens. Gold glitter. Popsicle sticks. Red bulletin board paper. Gold metallic acrylic paint. Chinese firecrackers. Gold Mylar sparkler wands. Groceries: oranges, tangerines, red apples. Digital camera, photo paper.

Illinois State Learning Standards Back to Navigation Bar

Language Arts: GOAL 2: Read and interpret a variety of literacy works 2B.1a : Respond to literary materials by connecting

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California Historical Society, San Francisco. DIGITAL ID cubcic brk2982

them to their own experience and communicate those responses to others.

GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes. 3A: Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation,

capitalization and structure.

Social Sciences:GOAL 16: The student understands events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations. 16D.1(W): Identify how customs and traditions

from around the world influence the local community.

GOAL 18: Understand social systems, with an emphasis on the United States. 18A: Compare characteristics of culture as reflected

in language, literature, the arts, traditions and institutions.

Fine Arts:GOAL 27: Understand the role of the arts in civilizations, past and present. 27.A.1b: Identify how the arts contribute to

communication, celebrations, occupations, and recreation.

Procedures Back to Navigation Bar

Review background knowledge of customs and culture as presented in the Christmas Around the World unit in early December.

Day One: Introduce and motivate Ask children to discuss personal New Year

celebrations they have taken part in. Read and discuss Chambers, Catherine. Chinese New Year. Show map from Resource Table.

Students receive individual copies of Chinese Lunar calendar(see handout) to include in their Chinese memory book.

Begin Chinese memory book. Students will color and glue a copy of the dragon picture (see memory book cover handout) ,on the cover of their memory book. Students will color and create a page

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depicting their birth year animal (see lunar animal handouts). Students will write two sentences, describing characteristics that they share with that animal.

Day Two: Read and discuss Schaefer, Lola.Chinese New Year. Discuss traditional American holiday customs such

as buying new clothing for the holidays, cleaning and decorating the house for the holidays.

Return to today’s read-aloud, emphasizing what occurs to ready the house and themselves for the holidays.

Brainstorm ideas to draw and record in the memory book ways the Chinese prepare for the New Year.

The children will complete page 2 of the memory book, which includes a drawing and writing to record their ideas.

Day Three: Read and discuss Spirn, Michele. New Year. Students will create dragon masks, using brown

paper grocery bags. They will decorate them with construction paper, crepe paper, markers and crayons. Each mask will have a long crepe paper tail to join the children together for the dragon parade, held on Day 5.

Students will draw a picture of themselves wearing their decorated dragon mask to include in their Chinese memory book. Teacher will photograph group picture of students wearing their masks to include in memory book.

Day Four: Read and discuss Behrens, June. Gung Hay Fat Choy. Introduce concept of good luck symbols. Discuss

color (red), fruits (oranges, tangerines, red apples), Chinese writing characters, and paper money.

Students will practice writing Chinese characters on handout (see Chinese-Western numbers handout). Save to include in memory book.

Students will make red paper envelopes using template (see lucky red envelope handout) and decorate with gold glitter pens.

Create a pocket page from legal size paper to include this project in memory book.

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Day Five: Review traditional American New Year and Chinese New Year celebrations. Show students pictures of Dragon parades from

Resource Table. Compare and contrast on Venn Diagram handout.

Unit will culminate with the dragon parade, using their dragon masks, Chinese firecrackers, Mylar wands and snacks of apples, tangerines and oranges.

Evaluation Back to Navigation Bar

Chinese character handout. Compare and contrast handout, Venn Diagram. Chinese memory book. Kloze activity handout. School student self-evaluation. Rubric

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Class creates a large banner, using red bulletin board paper and gold paint, displaying good luck symbols, to be hung outside classroom on wall.

Students will make Chinese dragon puppets (see handout). Students will decorate their dragons with bright colors and glitter. Next, the children will accordion fold a precut piece( to fit width of dragon) of construction paper and glue one end to each section of the dragon. Glue popsicle sticks to each end to form a puppet.

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Primary Resources from the Library of CongressBack to Navigation Bar

Chinese New Year

Images Description Citation URL[Chinese New Year: dragon parade, sidewalk perspective]: From San Francisco Chinatown (post-1910): SF Chinatown (post-1910): General Street Scenes

California Historical Society, San Francisco. [call number, e.g. CO-Placer: Auburn: FN-34385]

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cic:@field(DOCID+@lit(chs303))

Dance of the magnificent lion, Chinatown, San Francisco, Calif.: From Miscellaneous California views from the collection of Joseph A. Baird

California Historical Society, San Francisco. [call number, e.g. CO-Placer: Auburn: FN-34385]

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cic:@field(DOCID+@lit(brk2982))

"Carrying New Year's Presents.": From San Francisco Chinatown (1895-1906)

California Historical Society, San Francisco.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cic:@field(DOCID+@lit(chs51))

China Created and maintained by the Asian Division, Collections and Services Directorate

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/asian/china/china.html

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RubricBack to Navigation Bar

RUBRIC FOR Chinese New Year Unit

Exceeds (E) Meets (M) Does Not Meet (N) Letter Score

Memory Book-Lunar Calendar Animal page

Neatly colored; 3 sentence text telling about the daily activity.

Colored within lines of picture; 2 sentence text telling about the daily activity.

Hastily colored, not within lines of picture; 1 sentence text telling about the daily activity.

Dragon Mask Mask constructed using own ideas.

Mask constructed exactly like example.

Incomplete construction of mask.

Chinese Character Pages

Neatly completed.There are no errors.

Completed with some errors.

There are many errors or is incomplete.

Compare/ Contrast Venn Diagram

Five entries in each circle.

Four entries in each circle.

Picture may or may not match info; Poor use of materials/paper space; little to no detail

Kloze Activity using a Word Bank

8 of the 8 blanks are correctly completed

6 of the 8 blanks are correctly completed

4 of the 8 blanks are correctly completed

Effort Demonstration of excellent effort.

Demonstration of moderate to very good effort.

Demonstration of little to no effort.

Teacher Comments: Final Grade

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Chinese New Year

fireworks holiday good luck moneycleaning meal red dragons

1. The Chinese New Year is a __________ that takes place during January or February.

2. People wish for ___________ in the New Year.

3. People prepare for the Chinese New Year by ___________ their homes and buying new clothes.

4. People hang words of good luck on __________ paper.

5. Families gather to eat a special _______.

6. Adults give children gifts of __________ in red envelopes during Chinese New Year.

7. _____________ and paper ___________ end the celebration.

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Student Self-Evaluation

Name: ___________________________________________ Date: ________________

I participated in group discussions.

I showed my learning through the class project.

I did my very best.

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Venn Diagram

_________

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American New YearChinese New Year

American and Chinese New Year

HandoutsBack to Navigation Bar

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Memory Book CoverLunar Animal Coloring Pages

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Behrens, June. Gung Hay Fat Choy. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1982.

Chambers, Catherine. Chinese New Year. Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1997.

Cheng Hou-tien. The Chinese New Year. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.

Erlbach, Arlene. Happy New Year Everywhere. Brookfield, Connecticut: The Millbrook Press, 2000.

Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane. Celebrating Chinese New Year. New York: Holiday House, 1998.

Kaplan, Leslie. Chinese New Year. New York: PowerKids Press, 2004.

Schaefer, Lola M. Chinese New Year. Mankato, Minnesota: Pebble Books, 2001.

Spirn, Michele. New Year. Woodbridge, Connecticut: Blackbirch Press, 1999.

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