Chinese New Year

So . . . this teacher grew up in China.  And this teacher loves to share the excitement of Chinese New Year with her students.  (These small town kids could do with a little more culture.)  It's something small and new to add into one class during this time of the year, but everyone loves it.


This year I just did a small 15 minute "lesson" at the end of the period.  I wrote 新年快乐 (xinnian kuaile––Happy New Year) on the board and taught them how to say it.  We talked about the color red and some of the things people do to celebrate the new year.

When you add some Chinese characters on your whiteboard, it's easy for kids to forget normal routine (i.e. come in quietly before the bell and start your bell ringer).  It seems like every single one of them asked me "Miss, what is that?" "Miss, what does that say?"  I probably should have ended their curiosity right then and just told them.  Instead, I told them to finish their bell ringer and I'd tell them afterwards.  It took a lot longer to get through the bell ringer than I thought, because they still kept asking me what the characters said. (Didn't you hear what I just told your neighbor?)

Small decoration on the smart board.

They all wondered why I hadn't brought food in for them.

I taught them the story of the Chinese Zodiac, using a power point I found online that had the story. I added a couple of slides at the end as we talked about the zodiac, and they discovered which animals they belonged to.  My eighth graders were either in the year of the dragon or the snake, and they all enjoyed that.

from rekyen.tk

from creativechinese.com

I then got out my little jianzi (Chinese hacky-sack thing with feathers) and let them try it out.  The boys all liked this more than the girls, but it was lots of fun to spread the tables apart and let them figure this out.  It's a lot harder than it looks! (I know this isn't a CNY thing, but it's a Chinese thing for them to experiment with.

jianzi

We watched this video so I could show them how good people can get at this game.  After trying it for themselves, they were super impressed.

Happy New Year!  Happy Year of the Ram!