Chinese New Year Celebrations in the Classroom

Chinese New Year celebrations in the classroom is SO fun! It is so important to learn about different cultures and traditions. Today’s blog post will share a few ideas for celebrating Chinese new year in the classroom!

If you are looking for general tips about holidays in the classroom, check out an old post HERE. For other January ideas visit my January category on my blog! For other seasonal activities, consider January Binder Tasks, January Directed Drawing, or January Vocabulary Activities.

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What Is Chinese New Year?

Students may or may not have celebrated Chinese New year in the past. It is important to teach them the meaning of the holiday as well as some of the traditions associated with the holiday. This social story briefly reviews the holiday for you! It comes in three different levels to help you with easy differentiation in the classroom.

Chinese New Year Picture Books

Below are some of my favorite picture books for Chinese New Year. In addition to Chinese New Year, I like to teach about the zodiac animals this month too. Below there are some books to help you understand the Lunar New year as well as the 12 zodiac animals!

Chelsea’s Chinese New Year by Lisa Bullard
First Words in Chinese by Jane C Thai
Lunar New Year by Hanna Eliot
Home for Chinese New Year by Wei Jie
Peppa’s Chinese New Year by Eone
Chinese Zodiac Animals by Sanmu Tang
Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin
12 Lucky Animals by Vickie Lee
Chinese New Year for Kids by Baby Professor
Dragon Dance by Joan Holub
Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim
Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee

Communication on Chinese New Year

For Chinese New Year I have two different communication pages/aides for you to implement in your classroom. One page is all about the Lunar New year and the second page has the 12 zodiac animals. While you may already have pages about animals in your communication book, I thought it was fitting to have a page of just the 12 too. These pages will help build communication during any Chinese New Year discussions, art activities or celebrations you may have in your classroom!

Chinese New Year Goodies

If you are celebrating Chinese new Year in your classroom, a few goodies will help! Below are some of my favorite things to help you celebrate just right in the classroom this year!

Chinese New Year Crafts and Sensory Activities

Below are some fun ideas for Chinese New Year that I wanted to share with you! Click on each image to be taken to the original author for more information!

Check out this super simple lantern craft from Nurture Store!

I’m obsessed with this Chinese New Year Sensory bin idea from Learning and Exploring Through Play.

The last thing I wanted to share is this awesome Chinese New Year Play doh recipe also from Nurture Store!

Holidays can be a blast in the classroom if planned out ahead of time. I know this blog post is full of all sorts of goodies, and I completely understand if you can’t incorporate all of these ideas every year. I do hope you found some of these tips and tricks helpful for this holiday season. If you plan on discussing more holidays this year, check out my Holiday social stories discounted bundle!