Chinese New Year Classroom Goodie Bag Ideas plus Printable Chopstick Race Game

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing Chinese New Year goodie bag items for this project.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Chinese New Year comes early this year!  Since our twins' birthdays fall in late January, I thought it would be fun to make Chinese New Year-themed goodie bags to send in for their classrooms.  I had a few ideas, but thought that I might have trouble finding enough items to fill our goodie bags.  I had no idea that Oriental Trading Company's Chinese New Year party supplies & decorations section would have so many classroom-friendly goodie bag options.

One of the ideas I had was to create a fun game the students could play during indoor recess.  Looking through the items on Oriental Trading sparked an idea to make a game using chopsticks.  It's super-easy to make.  Here's what you'll need . . .

Chopstick Race Game

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Mini Lucky Money Goody Bags

Decorated Wood Chopsticks

Mini Insect Erasers

Chopstick Race Printable (Below)

The object of the game is to pick up the various insects up with the chopsticks and move them one at a time to the jar.  These cute little insect erasers from Oriental Trading Company were the perfect size to use for this game.  The students can race against each other or try to beat their own best time.  It's a fun way to master the art of using chopsticks.

TO PRINT: Make sure your printer is on and ready to go.  Click on the image below to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

Clipart from 1001FreeDownloads.com

I found lots of fun things to include in these Chinese New Year goodie bags, but it occurred to me that some of them may seem random to the children.  This led to my making a basic label to attach to the outside of each bag.  If you're making a goodie bag like ours, then you can print these labels below.  Now the children will understand which items were included in the bag because they're considered symbols of good luck.

What's in our Chinese New Year goodie bags?

• (1) Chopstick Race Game
• (1) Laminated Jumbo Chinese Zodiac Bookmark
• (2) Chinese Zodiac Pencils
• (1) Fortune Cookie Eraser
• (3) Colorful Goldfish
• (3) Chinese New Year Goldtone Coins
• (1) Chinese New Year Sticker

To complete the presentation, I pasted a printable label to the outside of each bag.  I opted for brown paper lunch bags because they were the perfect size to hold the larger items, and they fit our label perfectly.  After filling each bag, I just folded the top of the bag down twice, holding it in place with a Chinese New Year sticker.  The stickers came in a roll of 100, so I had enough to include one inside and one on the outside of each goodie bag.

Like this idea?  Pin It for later . . . 

What other ideas do you have for celebrating Chinese New Year in the classroom?  Share them with us in a comment here.


Check out our other ideas for classroom-friendly goodie bags . . .

Ruby Tuesday: Fire Breathing Dragon

Last week, we took the children to see a Chinese New Year Lion Dance for the very first time.  This dragon puppet was lying on the stage before the show.  We saw more than one toddler pick him up and try to run off with him.  Who could blame them?  He is far more endearing than ferocious.

If you'd like to see more Ruby Tuesday photos, go visit Mary at Work of the Poet!

Photos of The Chinese New Year Lion Dance

As a February school vacation treat, a school in one of our surrounding towns hosted a free event in honor of Chinese New Year.  The main attraction was to be a lion dance by the Boston Chinese Freemasons.  I remember watching lion dances when I was little in the streets of Boston's Chinatown.  The drums and the firecrackers were terribly loud for my little ears.  That is why we have not taken our little ones yet.  This show seemed like the perfect opportunity for them to watch a traditional lion dance in a controlled environment, where they were less likely to become overwhelmed.  They had read about such dances in children's books about Chinese New Year, so they were already somewhat familiar with it.  They soon learned that reading about the lion dance in a book does not compare to experiencing one in person.

The show started a bit late and the natives were starting to get restless . . . 

We received a brief introduction about Chinese New Year . . . 

Before the lion dance commenced, we heard a story illustrated by shadow puppets.  Then it was time to wake the lion . . . 

The drummers and the dancers did an excellent job engaging both the children and the adults . . . 

All three of our children enjoyed the lion dance very much.  Our preschoolers thought the lion was a bit scary, but still very cool.  Only our 4 year old son accepted the invitation to gently pet the lion after the show.

The entire show lasted less than 45 minutes, but I think it helped to create some fun memories for our children.

Valentine's Day and the Year of the Tiger

This year, two holidays land on the same day. February 14th, 2010 is both Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year!

It is the Year of the Tiger. Are any of you tigers out there? You're a tiger if you were born in any of the following years . . . 1902, 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, or 2010.

Whether you are only celebrating one holiday or both this year, I wanted to wish all my readers a Happy Valentine's Day, as well as a Happy Chinese New Year!