Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and today I thought I would share some art and craft activities I have done with my classes over the year.
I always start the session with a discussion about the customs and traditions surrounding the New Year and then show a YouTube video about Nian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uJbp8d_d9c
The Nian tells of a monster that comes to eat people (favouring children) and is frightened away by loud noises (firecrackers, music, banging) and the colour red which is why these form a part of New Year celebrations.

With my grade one class we looked at Chinese blossoms and used strips of brown paper to make the tree then added scrunched up tissue paper for the blossoms. With an older class its great to add a haiku to the picture.

These are egg carton dragons. The students painted a half egg carton then added eyes, wings and crepe paper stripes for tails. This was also with a grade one class so they may not look too much like dragons but a quick google search and you can see what they can potentially look like with an older class. You could provide templates to make the dragons look better but I prefer to allow my students creative freedom.

I wanted to make Chinese lanterns but thought making them out of red paper was a waste (why do you always use up red items in a classroom before any other?) and we could make the task into a more involved activity. I got my students to cover an A4 piece of white card in crayon (most chose to do rainbow) and then paint over it in thick black paint. Once dry they attempted to scratch Chinese writing into their lanterns along with other patterns.