Chinese New Year Unit Study

Chinese
New Year Unit Study
Chinese New Year Unit Study for Preschoolers

Note :
The activities below are meant to be done primarily in Chinese, even though I try to
give English explanation as much as I can. Most of the instructions are written in
English. However, I can’t translate every single thing. As the activities are designed
mainly for young children, I doubt parents want to go into great details in the
explanation, especially for some of the more difficult sayings.
For the decoration activities, I suggest you keep all the mailers and brochures from
malls and retailers during the period leading up to the Chinese New Year. They are full
of Chinese New Year themed pictures and graphics which you can cut and paste for craft
work.
There are lots of other Chinese New Year activities on the web. They tend to focus on
things that the westerners are fascinated with, like the Zodiac signs. Another thing to
note is that Chinese New Year practice varies from place to place even within Mainland
China. What you find here are mainly Singaporean practice.
Lastly, it is impossible for me to type Hanyu Pinyin with all the tone marks. Hence , I
have resorted to the web convention of writing the phonics with a number right after to
indicate the tone, e.g. 1 is the 1st tone, 2 is the 2nd, and so on.

Other activities :
1. Paper Doll – Design new clothes and shoes and put them on the doll for visiting.
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/paperdolls/tp/paperdolls.htm
Or if you are diehard traditional outfit fan

http://www.makingfriends.com/friends/f+china.htm
2. Chinese Zodiac Colouring Sheet
http://www.abcteach.com/free/m/matching_chinesezodiac.pdf
3. Get red paper and do some calligraphy on it.
4. Hong Bao craft
http://www.crafty-‐crafted.com/animal-‐crafts/red-‐packet-‐fish-‐tree-‐ornament/
http://craftbox.blogspot.com/2007/02/ang-‐pao-‐lantern.html
5. Help decorate the house for Chinese New Year!
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Chinese New Year Unit Study

紅色

Cut whole piece out
and fold into half.
Colour bottom half
Red

Cut this out
新年的颜色
and stick it on
the cover .
春

Print these words on red construction paper (or print on plain paper and get your child
to colour the squares) and cut out the two squares to make Chinese New Year
decoration. The first character means ‘Blessings’ and the second character means
‘Spring’. Some people like to paste the first character upside down because “upside
down” in Chinese sounds like “arrived”. Red is the lucky colour for Chinese New Year.
12 Chinese Zodiac Signs 十二生肖

鼠
牛虎

兔龙蛇

猴
马羊

鸡狗猪
Simple explanation for the Zodiac System

Ancient Chinese developed this system to help them keep track of years, like how we
number our years 2000, 2001, 2002…. so that we know which year we are talking about.
The actual system is more complicated but this explanation should suffice for young
children.

今年是
年

Use this and the activity below with the Zodiac Cards. I use 今年 (this year) to refer to
the New Year to avoid confusing the kid because when this activity is done, the New
Year has not arrived yet so technically, it is still the ‘old year’.
My Family’s Zodiac Sign
我属
爸爸属
妈妈属
哥哥属
弟弟属
姐姐属
妹妹属
I assume you know the zodiac signs your family members are born under. If you don’t,
you can check on the internet using the birth years based on the Gregorian Calendar.

How to Remember the 12 Zodiac Signs in Order
Memorise this way :
鼠牛虎
兔龙蛇
马羊猴
鸡狗猪
1 2
天春
增滿
歲乾
月坤
人福
增滿
壽門
福五福臨門
Correct placement for Chinese New Year Couplets (春联)
Refer to the diagram below :

斗方

横批
下联上联
＃2 ＃1
1. The numbers on top of the long red couplets indicate which line should come first and
correspond to the numbers on the above diagram. Chinese reads right to left.
2. The 2 brown rectangles are doors. Cut out the two doors as one piece and paste on
another piece of paper (or in your lapbook). Cut out all the red pieces and paste them
around the doors according to the diagram above, with the two long couplets on both
sides of the doors, the short one above and the diamond shape one right on the top. In
the diagram, I have indicated the correct terms for the various pieces in Chinese.
3. Note that sometimes, the long couplets are pasted on the doors instead of at the sides.
Certain dialect groups hang a long red cloth over the door instead of the 横批 and 斗方.
4. The characters in the couplets are in Traditional form. This is the norm for
calligraphy.

5. What do they mean? Very roughly :
天增歲月人增壽－ In simplified form , it is 天增岁月人增寿 (tian1 zeng1 sui4 yue4
ren2 zeng1 shou4). This means “As the heavens grows in age (as in time), humanity
grows in longevity/life”.
春滿乾坤福滿門 – In simplified form, it is 春满乾坤福满门 (chun1 man3 qian2 kun1 fu2
man3 men2). This is hard to translate. 乾坤 can mean the cosmos, radical changes.
Loosely, this has the meaning of spring bringing about fresh changes and abundance of
blessings in the household.
五福臨門 -‐ in simplified form, it is 五福临门(wu3 fu2 lin2 men2). This means the ‘Five
blessings (longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and natural death) descending upon
the household.
福 -‐ this means ‘blessings’.

Trace the big word 春 . It means Spring. Chinese New Year is also known as the
Spring Festival.
新年也叫做春节
春
Chinese New Year Card Activity

1. What you see is the outside of the card. A traditional Chinese New Year saying is on
the front side. Design your own Chinese New Year Card by drawing in the same box.

迎
春
接
福

Hong Bao Template
Chinese New Year Greetings/Etiquette

Common Greetings :
1. Gong1 Xi3 Fa1 Cai2 恭喜发财
2. Xin1 Nian2 Kuai4 Le4 新年快乐
Children should greet their elders before receiving Hong Bao. Hong Bao should be
received with both hands. Opening up the Hong Bao in front of the giver is considered
bad manners. It is also customary to bring 2 mandarin oranges 桔 when visiting friends
and relatives because 桔 sounds like luck 吉 in Chinese. When guests leave, the host
should also return 2 oranges for the guests to bring home.
Put a tick or a cross next to the pictures.

What do we do on….

Fold along the blue line and cut along the red line. Paste the title on respective covers
and the pictures in the correct boxes.
吃团圆饭拜年
除夕新年

Common Chinese New Year Auspicious Sayings
1。出入平安 2。迎春接福 3。五福临门 4。生意兴隆
5。财源广进 6。金玉满堂 7。如意吉祥 8。年年有馀
9。花开富贵 10。万事如意 11。大吉大利 12。招财进宝
Do You Know What This Is?
招财进宝（招財進寶)
过年的时候，
有……
挥春
舞龙舞狮
爆竹
年花
年画红包
春联年货市场
Cut out the pictures and paste in the correct box. Then cut out the boxes, stack them
together and staple them into a minibook.
我喜欢
吃…….
年糕
饼干糖果
腊肠，腊肉瓜子
桔子

Cut out the pictures and paste in the correct box. Then cut out the boxes, stack them
together and staple them into a minibook.

Children Chinese New Year Song
快乐新年来到快乐新年来到
爸爸妈妈兄弟姐妹
恭喜你！
快乐新年来到快乐新年来到
长大以后我要做个好孩子
简谱 (Numerical Score) for the Children Chinese New Year Song
5 3 3 5 4 2 | 4 2 2 5 3 1 |

6 1 1 2 5 6 7 1 | 2 6 5 —— |
   

5 3 3 5 4 2 | 4 2 2 5 3 1 |

6 1 1 2 5 6 7 1 | 2 3 1 —— ||
   

Glossary For Parents who may need help with Chinese
1. 除夕 (chu2 xi1) – Eve of Chinese New Year
2. 新年 (xin1 nian2) – New Year
3. 团圆饭 (tuan2 yuan2 fan4) – Reunion Dinner where all family members gather
together for a feast.
4. 拜年 (bai4 nian2) – to wish someone good wishes for the New Year. This usually
means going to someone’s house to visit or people coming to visit you.
5. 属(shu3) – belong to [zodiac sign}
6. 挥春 (hui1 chun1) – writing of auspicious saying or characters on red paper, to be
put up as decoration for New Year.
7. 舞龙，舞狮 (wu3 long2, wu3 shi1) – Dragon Dance, Lion Dance
8. 爆竹 (bao4 zhu2) – Firecracker
9. 年花 (nian2 hua1) – Flowers that blossom during New Year, or flowers that are
typically used for New Year decoration due to their bright colours, or some auspicious
qualities associated with them.
10. 年画 (nian2 hua4) – Paintings depicting auspicious subjects used for New Year
decoration.
11. 红包 (hong2 bao1) – Red packets containing money given by elders to young people
or children. Only people who are married are eligible to give Hong Bao and only those
who are unmarried can receive Hong Bao.
12. 春联 (chun1 lian2) – Auspicious saying, in two verses, written on long strip of red
paper, used as decoration for New Year. Usually pasted at the side of the main door.
13. 年货市场 (nian2 huo4 shi4 chang3) – Special bazaar set up to sell all kinds of New
Year items.
14. 年糕 (nian2 gao1) – Sweet, sticky rice cake made for New Year, signifying promotion
as 糕 (gao1) sounds the same as the first character in 高升 (promotion to higher places).
15. 饼干 (bing3 gan1) – general term for cookies.
16. 糖果 (tang2 guo3) – sweets and candies.
17. 腊肠，腊肉 (la4 chang2, la4 rou4) – cured sausage and cured meat.
18. 瓜子 (gua1 zi) – melon seeds. Popular during Chinese New Year as it signifies
abundances of offsprings.
19. 桔子 (ju2 zi) – mandarin oranges. Popular during Chinese New Year because the
name sounds like luck in Chinese.
20. 春节 (chun1 jie2) – Spring Festival. Another name for Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Unit Study

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Chinese

New Year Unit Study

Chinese New Year Unit Study for Preschoolers

Or if you are diehard traditional outfit fan

Cut this out

12 Chinese Zodiac Signs 十 二生肖

Simple explanation for the Zodiac System

My Family’s Zodiac Sign

Memorise this way :

Correct placement for Chinese New Year Couplets (春联)

Refer to the diagram below :

5. What do they mean? Very roughly :

福 -­‐ this means ‘blessings’.

Chinese New Year Card Activity

Hong Bao Template

Chinese New Year Greetings/Etiquette

1. Gong1 Xi3 Fa1 Cai2 恭喜发财

2. Xin1 Nian2 Kuai4 Le4 新年快乐

Put a tick or a cross next to the pictures.

What do we do on….

Common Chinese New Year Auspicious Sayings

1。 出入平安 2。 迎春接福 3。 五福临门 4。生意兴隆

5。 财源广进 6。 金玉满堂 7。 如意吉祥 8。年年有馀

9。花开富贵 10。万事如意 11。大吉大利 12。招财进宝

Do You Know What This Is?

Children Chinese New Year Song

简谱 (Numerical Score) for the Children Chinese New Year Song

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12 Chinese Zodiac Signs 十二生肖

福 -‐ this means ‘blessings’.

1。出入平安 2。迎春接福 3。五福临门 4。生意兴隆

5。财源广进 6。金玉满堂 7。如意吉祥 8。年年有馀