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The New Year is a great time to motivate students to set
new goals, expand their interests and develop an appreciation
for others. As such, the Chinese New Year (Jan. 22) provides
an excellent opportunity to create lessons that tie together
standards in geography, art, reading, writing and social studies.
Here's a sample lesson plan.
- Have students use these sites to research New Year's celebrations
around the world.
- Next, give them baseball-card-sized blank construction
or heavier paper. On one side, they trace or draw the country;
on the other, they list interesting things about that land's
celebration.
- They place these cards on a blank map of the world complete
with time zones.
- Finally, they compare and contrast the celebrations with
their country of origin, the country where they currently
live, and China.
- Teachers can add age-appropriate craft projects.
I like to have students make Chinese fortune cookie slips
with quotes from a book they are reading or from the social
studies textbook. They write the person's name on one side
and the message on the other. Here are two recipes for fortune
cookies. Both work, but be quick with the fortunes.
All
Recipes Fortune Cookies I
Diana's
Kitchen Fortune Cookies
For more mature students, see this large quote site.
Bartlett's
Familiar Quotations
Start your multicultural New Year's lesson by choosing from:
China Lesson Plans
ABC
Teach -- China
Explore this general site about China -- very complete. It
includes work search, Venn diagram to compare China to another
country, panda cutouts, Chinese Similes and lots of printables.
Ask Asia
A very large site for K-12 materials on Asia from the Asia
Society.
China
Online -Find Your Animal Sign
Chinese Animal Signs and Characters.
The
Chinese Zodiac
A fun look at how Chinese calendar symbols came to be.
Chinese
Zodiac Matching Game
Constitutional Studies
Alan Haskvitz’s integrated unit of study on the history of China and Chinese education includes a comparison of Constitutions. It has some dead links, but you can find more updated constitutions at:confinder.
History
of China
Teach-Nology:
China Lesson Plans
A link site with several lessons, including those dealing
with modern China.
Yahoo
Directory - China Maps
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Chinese New Year Lesson Plans
Arts
and Crafts for Chinese New Year
The best site for downloading printables about everything,
including the Chinese New Year.
Asian/Chinese
New Year Holiday Craft Activity and History Lesson
Chinese lantern pattern -- download these two printable pages
with illustrations, instructions, and background information
for a holiday lesson plan.
Chinese
New Year 15-day Celebration
Get Chinese decorations, recipes and an overview of this 15-day
celebration.
Chinese
New Year Grades 2-3
A very large and complete unit of study.
Chinese
New Year - Kristy Ambrogio
Try a lesson from a teacher who uses literature.
Chinese New Year’s Traditions
Favorite
Chinese New Year Sites
Large link site from The Family Culture.
Holiday
Fun - Chinese New Year
Laba
Zhou and Traditions of Chinese New Year
A
Multicultural Study: Chinese New Year
Parade
Dragon Puppet
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Chinese Study Abroad
As teachers, we get a deduction for educational travel.
These sites offer possibilities for China. As always, to gain
first-hand knowledge, ask for the names of teachers who have
completed the tours. I recommend those associated with a university
first.
Internet
Guide for China Studies
For higher level resources.
Inter-university
Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua
Marshall
University's Appalachians Abroad - Teach in China
Study
Abroad Asia WWW Virtual Library
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New Year's Celebrations around the World
These offer opportunities to develop compare-and-contrast
lessons, as well as a starting place for studies on time.
New
Year's Around the World
New
Year Traditions - New Year's Around the World
Two
Jewish New Years
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Related Topics
Basic
Chinese Grammar
Chinese
Cultural Studies: Chinese Logographic Writing
Chinese
Ink Painting Lesson Plan
Chinese
Paper Cuts and the Zodiac
Chinese-English
Dictionary
Geography
Lesson Plans and Resources: Asia
Some maps.
Happy
New Year! Or is it?
Whose calendar is it? Take a look at dates through history.
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Time Zones
Celebrate
New Year's Around the World
This one has a short quiz on time zones.
Earth
Cam New Year's
And while you're teaching time zones, have students check
out these Earth cams that show what's happening in those areas
(need fast connection).
A
Multilingual Happy New Year
Explore how to say "Happy New Year" in a variety
of languages. Good luck, there's no pronunciation guide.
When
New Year's Starts Around the World
A great way to teach time and time zones.
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