This post will have several Chinese New Year Activity Ideas for preschool and kindergarten students. The Chinese New Year activities for kids in this post will be specifically to target speech and language but can be used with all students in this and early elementary age groups. If you are looking for ideas for Chinese New Year activities for preschoolers, you are in the right place!
Chinese New Year Quick Facts
Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival is another name for the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year ranges from January 21 to February 20. This year, in 2023, it happens on January 22. It is an important time for families to reunite and be together, honoring those who have gone before them. There is a lot of conversation about what is lucky and many things are forbidden during the time due to the risk of bringing bad luck into the new year. Find more specifics here.
Chinese new year children’s songs
Here are some wonderful Chinese New Year children’s songs that teach vocabulary and target common language goals.
best Chinese new year picture books
Some of the best picture books for targeting language are those with real photos. The National Geographic books are great to use with students. THIS ONE has beautiful, colorful real photos that show actual celebrations of Chinese New Year. If you do not have a copy, you can play the video read aloud.
If you love the “How to Catch A…” series, your students will be happy to hear that there is now a How to Catch a Dragon book! If you can’t find a copy, just use the video to read aloud. Pause and ask questions or make predictions as you go through.
Some other Amazon favorite read alouds (Affiliates included) for Chinese New Year are:
- Bringing in the New Year
- Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas
- Dragon Dance (A Lift-A-Flap Book)
Chinese new year crafts and activities
Paper lanterns, dragons, fans, and other paper crafts are easy Chinese New Year activities for kids. When working on crafts with students who have language impairment, you can easily work on goals for following directions, spatial concepts, and descriptive terms. Felice Clark, The Dabbling Speechie, has some cute paper crafts for Chinese New Year in this YouTube video.
Chinese New Year Animal Puppets
Another craft idea that students love is making paper bag puppets. One activity during the first week of February in speech therapy could be to use the Animal Paper Bag Puppets for Articulation. Each year is represented by an animal. For example, a tiger, monkey, snake, dog, and pig are all in this set as well as many others!
Chinese new year activity sheets
This was a new theme for my speech room so I created these Chinese New Year dragon printables to use in speech therapy. It is always exciting to add to this growing bundle of themed worksheets! Students love creating their own code to color by. I love all of the articulation practice they get while using the worksheets in speech therapy.
As a Texas school-based SLP, I try to align my sessions with the classroom themes and state standards. One of the state standards includes learning about holidays around the world. Many of my students struggle with vocabulary when they are exposed to it only once or twice in the classroom. By using this theme in your speech room or classroom, I hope your students learn about new traditions and cultures resulting in new vocabulary and language experiences.
Feel free to share any favorite books or songs in the comments below!
For more February activities, check out this post for Valentine’s lesson plans for preschool.
All of the resources I have mentioned here today can be accessed any time in the Speech Room Resource Library.
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