Year of the Monkey: Chinese New Year Fun

I love Chinese New Year! I first began celebrating this holiday with my kindergartners when I had a student of Chinese descent, simply because her grandparents had a Chinese Restaurant in town and offered to brings us some mini egg rolls. Little did I know that from those small beginnings would grow my desire to say Gung Hay Fat Choy year after year.

Chinese New Year is a great way to discuss customs and cultural diversity and awareness with young children. And as this is the “Year of the Monkey,” celebrating will be hard to resist. 

Make your lesson planning a breeze by using our Cross-Curricular Thematic Unit. Each unit includes an easy to use planning guide for easy lesson planning. Here is an overview of the Chinese unit.

Chinese New Year Thematic Unit
$8.00

Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!

Product Description

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Are you looking for the perfect Thematic Unit that relates to China and the Chinese culture? This unit will allow the students in your classroom or homeschool setting to learn more about China and Chinese New Year in a fun way.

This Chinese New Year unit is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, independent practice, creative writing, word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. 

The Contents: 

Literacy Activities

Karate School-Kicking Vowels: Vowels

Chinese Blossom Festival: Demonstrating Graphophonemic Knowledge of Alphabet Letters

Beware The Chinese Dragon: Replacing Initial Consonants

The Lantern Race: Naming Alphabet Letter Sounds Fluently

The Lantern Race: Naming Sight Words Fluently

Lantern Walk: Writing Letters

Lantern Letters: Writing Lowercase Letters

Middle Sounds: Identifying Middle Sounds in Words

Math Activities

Dragon Squeeze: Identify a Given Number by Using Greater Than and Less Than

Building Teen Number: Building Numbers Using Tens and Ones

Light The Lanterns: Comparing Numerals to 20

The Missing Dragons: Ordering Numbers 0-20

Dragon Squeeze

China Number Hunt: Write the Room Math Journal Activity

Art Projects

Chinese Dragon Fan

Chinese Dragon 

Paper Chinese Lantern

Songs

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Dragon Dance

Writing Prompts/Word Wall

China Word Wall Words

Chinese New Year Zodiac Chart

What I Know About China

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Guided Reading Books

The Dragon

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Mexican Celebrations

You might wish to add to the unit by using this original song poster to the tune of "Yankee Doodle," viewing the following youtube video, or by using Nancy Stewart's delightful song.


It's easy to teach important activities when they are incorporated with engaging concepts. I hope these resources will help you celebrate the "Year of the Monkey". Gung hay fat choy!