Holiday: Chinese New Year

This year the first day of the Chinese New Year started on February 8^th, which was Monday of this week.  This also happens to be the year of the Monkey.  Since this is a holiday that is rarely discussed, I thought it would be nice for our students to learn a little bit about Chinese culture.

In Kindergarten I read a non-fiction book titled, Chinese New Year by Julie Murray that talked a lot about the different traditions associated with the holiday.  After reading that book, I read Max Celebrates Chinese New Year by Adria Klein.  This fiction story had a lot of the same traditions from the non-fiction book that were woven within the story.

First Grade was a little more familiar with Chinese New Year as we had learned a little about it while discovering how to research different holidays using the online encyclopedia Pebble Go.  I read Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin and it also had some of the same traditions that the students had remembered from watching Pebble Go.

For Second Grade, I read The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compestine. This story was more of a folktale and didn’t have as much of the traditions as the other books.  The students loved the story and how the “evil” rich man and his family got justice from the magic wok and the poor family lived happily ever after.  This story was a little like a Robin Hood story where they take from the rich and give to the poor.

All of the students really seemed to enjoy learning about the different traditions of Chinese New Year.