Celebrating the Lunar New Year   

February 12, 2021 marks the Lunar New Year. Each Lunar year is related to a zodiac animal, this year represents the Ox. The Lunar New Year is celebrated amongst several Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand. This festivity is usually celebrated over 15 days and often includes dragon dances, lion dances, gift exchanges and fireworks. Preparation begins 7 days in advance and continues on being celebrated till the Lantern Festival. The colour red is associated with happiness, wealth, prosperity and protection from evil.  
 

Paper Dragons 

Today we will create paper dragons out of recycled materials. This will be a fun craft to use for our creative dance and movement activity for part two.  Allow your child’s imagination and creative expression flow by using different materials and color shades to make the paper dragons. 
 

What You will Need 

Process 

Engaging with Your Child 

Begin this activity by reading along the recommended book to introduce this activity to your child. Intentionally celebrating cultural diversity increases children’s awareness, appreciation and inclusion of diverse beliefs and cultures. Once you are ready to begin, encourage your child to develop their fine motor skills by cutting the strips of paper and taping/gluing them to the head of the dragon. Using scissors requires hand separation, which is difficult to do for little hands. If your child is young, you can ask them to tear paper with their hands. This will improve their fine motor abilities. Now it’s time to decorate the dragon’s head however they like – including eyes and nostrils. Once your child has completed their paper dragon, let them have some fun with it. 

 

Tip: Another craft activity you can do to celebrate the Lunar New Year is creating a “Fireworks” mural by following this activity here.