Chinese New Year: Year of the Snake

Snack: Mandarin oranges and chocolate coins

Group Activity: Chinese Zodiac

http://spoonful.com/printables/chinese-new-year-zodiac-wheel

Using the zodiac sheet, kids figure out which animal they are.  Do the characteristics match their personality?


Craft: Chinese Lanterns

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6c/31/96/6c3196e1b74acafa637bc39494805f5c.jpg

1. Stamp red construction paper with gold ink images.
2. Add red ink dots and gold ink dots.
3. Fold paper in half length-wise.  Cut along pre-marked lines.
4. Unfold paper, roll into cylinder and staple together.
5. Punch holes and add red yarn for hangers.

Craft: Coiled Snake

http://funart4kids.blogspot.com/2011/03/interactive-spring-bubble-snakes.html

1. Decorate coils with markers or crayons.
2. Glue on google eyes.
3. Glue on craft stick for a tongue.

Game: Chinese Zodiac Animal Noise Game

1. Kids pick zodiac animal name from a hat.
2. Everyone must go around the room making their zodiac animal noise, trying to find their zodiac partner (person making the same noise).

Game: Chopsticks Relay

1. Divide kids into 4-6 teams.
2. Give the first person on each team a pair of chopsticks and a bowl of small items (cotton ball, rock, marshmallow, paper cup, etc.)
3. Children must pick up one object from the bowl using their chopsticks and carry it across the room, placing it in a second bowl.  If the object drops, it must be picked back up with the chopsticks.
4. Player returns to original bowl and hands chopsticks to the next player.

Evaluation:

The kids had a little trouble making the lanterns.  Some cut the top part off, not realizing they needed to cut up to that line.   A little more one on one help would keep that from happening next time (or telling them not to cut anything until we tell them).  We also let them use red glitter, which was a HUGE mistake.  They ended up getting glitter everywhere and many of their lanterns didn’t dry in time to get them cut and formed before the end of the program.  The Coiled Snakes turned out great.  Each kid’s was unique and fun.  The animal noise game was a nice filler at the end of the program, with the kids asking for a new animal once they located their partner.  The relay game was hard, but the kids had fun trying to hold on to everything.