Chinese Lantern Festival Learning Activities
- Make paper lanterns in celebration of the Chinese Lantern Festival.chinese lantern image by Luisafer from Fotolia.com
At the end of the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar, families celebrate the Chinese New Year with a week-long celebration featuring craft projects, festivals and parades. On the final day of the New Year celebration, families make lanterns signifying their wishes for the New Year and carry them in the Chinese Lantern Festival parade. Help children learn about the Chinese New Year and the Chinese Lantern Festival by creating and decorating paper lanterns and other traditional crafts and decorations. - Paper lanterns are a wonderful way to educate kids about the Chinese Lantern Festival. The festival centers on a parade in which families and children display their homemade lanterns, according to the Parent's Choice website. Lanterns can be made from construction paper and decorated with traditional Chinese symbols. Begin by folding a piece of colored construction paper in half the long way. The Chinese mark calendar years with a series of 12 zodiac animals. Assign students a zodiac animal and help them trace their animals onto the paper using an animal stencil. Color in the animal with markers. Cut along the fold line toward the top of the paper in a series of about a dozen cuts. Do not cut all the way to the top of the paper. Unfold the paper and glue the short side of the paper together. Create a handle from an additional strip of paper. Lanterns can be strung together on yarn to create classroom decorations, according to the Enchanted Learning website.
- A festival parade during Chinese New Year is not complete without the Chinese New Year's dragon. The Chinese New Year dragon makes an appearance at every New Year parade, including the Chinese Lantern Festival. Kids may create their own dragons from egg cartons, according to the Kaboose craft website. Cut apart the cups of a paper egg carton and smooth out the edges so the cups will sit upside on the table. Paint the cups with bright colored tempura paint. Allow the cups to dry and punch holes through the sides of each cup. Lace a ribbon through the cup to tie the dragon together. Glue two pom-poms and googly eyes to the top of the first egg cup. Draw a mouth on the front with black marker and attach a red tongue cut from construction paper.
- With all the lanterns and Chinese dragons complete, students may finish their study of the Chinese Lantern Festival with their very own lantern parade. Map at a route through the school, a local park or neighborhood. Have students gather their lanterns and dragons. Make signs announcing the Chinese New Year and walk along the parade route for a fun, educational activity.
