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 . . .

How to Make Newspaper Reporter Activity Goodie Bags { plus Free Printable Press Passes & Word Search }

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing the goodie bag essentials for our classroom-friendly newspaper reporter activity kits.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Although our oldest has moved onto middle school this past fall, our twins are still in grade school.  Their school has a strict policy against sending in sweets for birthdays, so I always send in non-food goodie bags.  Since their birthdays are in January, one of the coldest months of the year, I try to send in themed activity kits the children can do (if they choose to) during indoor recess.  This year, I decided to make Newspaper Reporter Activity Kits for the twins' goodie bags because they are in the middle of studying non-fiction in both their classrooms.  They were so easy to make and the possibilities are endless for what types of inspiration you would like to include in the kits.

What you'll need to make Newspaper Reporter Activity Kits . . .

12"x18" Newsprint Paper (3 sheets per kit)

5" Spiral Notepads

Calendar Pens

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Stickers

Monster High Stickers

Big Hero 6 Stickers

Team Sports Sticker Scenes

Movie Theater Sticker Scenes

8.5"x12" Colorful Plastic Bags

News Reporter Word Search (Free printable below)

DIY Personalized Press Passes (Free printable below)

Clear Gaming Card Protective Sleeves

Arrow-Shaped Paper Clips

After you have everything you need, there is some assembly required for the actual newspaper and the press passes.  I created the word search puzzle shared below with the help of Discovery Education's Puzzlemaker.

For the newspaper:  I folded 3 sheets of newsprint paper together in half once and then in half a second time so that they resembled a newspaper folded into quadrants.

For the press passes:  I saved the digital image of the sheet of press passes onto my computer and used a graphics program to add the first and last names of each child.  You could also simply write the name of each child on the paper with a thin marker.  Then I cut out the press passes and slid each one into a clear gaming card sleeve protector.

After I put all the contents into each bag, I used a paperclip to secure each child's press pass on the outside of the bag.  Please note that the 8.5"x12" bags fit a standard piece of paper perfectly, so it may take some patience to get the paper to sit flat, but it can be done.

With the stickers provided, the children can be inspired to write news stories about who won the big game, who their favorite Star Wars or Big Hero 6 characters rescued this week, or even fashion editorials using Monster High stickers for the photos.  Our son, who is a huge Star Wars fan, decided to dedicate his newspaper to Star Wars and what he would imagine a newspaper would be like during those times.

Print the DIY Press Passes and News Reporter Word Search Puzzle below . . .

TO PRINT:  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right click and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page, if needed.

Like this goodie bag activity idea?  Pin it for later . . .

Check out last year's DIY Comic Book activity goodie bags . . . 

Have some ideas about other things that could go in a Newspaper Activity Kit for kids? Share them with us in a comment here.

Fun Non-Candy Activity Goodie Bag Party Favor Ideas (Plus a Free Printable Zombie Word Search)

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing the party favors used in creating the activity goodie bags featured below.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Earlier this week, my oldest turned 11.  He'll be moving onto middle school next year and I'm still having a little trouble accepting it.  Since this is his last year of grade school, I wanted to make sure we sent some fun goodie bags to school for his birthday.  We always send non-food goodie bags due to there being so many students suffering from a variety of allergies, plus the school does not allow sweets to be sent in for birthday celebrations.  We do this for all 3 of our children, who all happen to have birthdays in January.  Sometimes it's difficult to come up with a fun new idea.  Thank goodness I found some inspiration from Oriental Trading Company!

Our twins will be turning 8 later this month.  Their goodie bags were easy to put together.  Since our family went to the local Super MegaFest comic convention, our children have been obsessed with drawing their own comics.  So, when I saw these superhero-themed party favors, I just knew I had to create something fun with them.  That's when I had the idea to make DIY comic book kits for the twins' 2nd grade classmates!

What you'll need for DIY Superhero Comic Book Goodie Bags . . . 

Publish Your Own Book Journals

Superhero Super Stickers

Superhero Roll of Stickers

I Love To Write Pencils

Silver Size Comic Book Bags

There are 100 stickers on the roll, so I had enough to put one sticker inside each of the goodie bags and to place one outside of each bag to seal it.  These books have a framed space for drawing on each page, as well as lines below for writing.  I think one frame per page is perfect for 2nd graders.  The twins can't wait to hand these out to their classmates!

Like this idea? Pin it for later . . .

For my oldest son, the theme of his goodie bags changed several times.  One thing that stayed the same was the nose pencil sharpeners.  After he saw them on Oriental Trading, he just had to have them.  After playing with a few different body part themes, we settled on the ever-popular zombie theme.

What you'll need for Zombie Activity Goodie Bags . . .

Nose Pencil Sharpeners

Eyeball-shaped Erasers

Brain-shaped Erasers

3D Skull Key chains

Zombie Roll of Stickers

Zombie Pencils

Printable Zombie Word Search (at bottom)

Silver Size Comic Book Bags

Apparently zombies are extremely popular with 10 and 11 year olds.  The goodie bags were a big hit and our son was thrilled to finally have a nose pencil sharpener.

Pin this idea for later . . . 

TO PRINT:  Check to make sure your computer's printer is on and ready to go.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back button to return to this page.

Zombie Word Search (plus Answer Key)

I made the above free printable word search puzzle with the help of Discovery Education's Puzzlemaker.  This particular puzzle is difficult and would be perfect for adults and older children.  Enjoy!