There are so many fun ways to celebrate Lunar New Year with your classroom. Here are some ideas that I’ve done:
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Paper Lanterns
Students decorated pieces of yellow and red construction paper with gold glitter, then we cut them to make lanterns.
I used some string to hang them from our window and ceiling on Lunar New Year! These were a beautiful decoration for our classroom celebration.
Symmetrical Dragon Paintings
Using paint and paper, students created their own Lunar New Year dragons. First, they put paint on one side of the paper, then folded it in half to create their symmetrical dragon. Then, we added googly eyes to complete their painting!
Lunar New Year Crafts
We made our own Lunar New Year headbands to wear during our celebration and lanterns to decorate the classrooms. Some years, we have made necklaces and bookmarks as well. You can find the templates here:
Loose Parts Provocation
Students explored loose parts and different images (find a copy here on Canva). I found different red and yellow items and had students create and build with them.
Sensory Bin
Our classroom sensory bin was given a Lunar New Year theme with red shredded paper, red envelopes and pompoms. I also added vocabulary cards with different symbols of the holiday.
You can find a copy of the cards on Canva.
Lunar New Year Books
Friends are Friends Forever was a Forest of Reading’s Blue Spruce pick in 2023. My students loved this story about friendship!
I wrote a 3-Day Read-Aloud plan for this book. You can see it written out on my Instagram, or get the digital version.
To learn more about the holiday, we read a few different books:
- This Next Year by Janet S. Wong
- Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee
- A Sweet New Year for Ren by Michelle Sterling
- Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim
- I Love Chinese New Year by Eva Wong Nava
Find even more great recommendations from MaiStoryBook.
Red Envelopes
I like giving out a red envelope to each student to celebrate the holiday. I add a chocolate coin to each one!
Do you celebrate the Lunar New Year with your students? What do you do to celebrate? Let me know in the comments!