We had so much fun today learning & celebrating Chinese New Year in Preschool! For lunch we had Ham & Pineapple Fried Rice with oranges & apples because the Chinese celebrate with fruit. The bright colors are for good luck. Thanks for sharing this recipe Rebekah! I really enjoyed it….three of the older ones ate *some*…I think it was the soy sauce they tasted so I’ll use less next time.
and the two younger boys cleaned theirs right up!
The highlight of the day was fortune cookies! They had one after lunch and took one home.
These kids sure have bright futures. We didn’t need fortune cookies to know that.
The paper lanterns turned out so pretty. The kids were very proud of them! Parents liked them too. One suggested putting in a battery operated tea light.
They looked so pretty on the table in the sun before going home.
I made one of these pages for each of the kids. We glued on their fortune slip from their cookies.
When J’s mom came tonight, J said “Mom! Stacy said I was born in the year of the pig and B & C in the year of the dog!” So they learned something. 
Dramatic play: I recently bought the piece of fabric, chopsticks, and Asian & Japanese foods. We read a couple of books from the library and decorated the table with lanterns. I’ve had a lot of fun lately working on adding multicultural influences & resources to our room.
I liked this idea: http://toddlercanread.blogspot.com/2011/01/chinese-new-year-craft.html (I found it through Living Montessori) but I didn’t have gold glitter {how can that be?!} . Here’s our version: “Fortune”
This is a great song & fingerplay by Nancy Stewart. Gung Hay Fat Choy – Chinese New Year Song & the kids caught on quick.
We also read these books:
Chinese New Year (Cultural Holidays) (9781602706002): Katie Marsico, Holli Conger: Books
Chinese New Year (Rookie Read-About Holidays) (9780516273754): David F. Marx: BooksI printed these Chinese cards from the Montessori Print Shop.
More Chinese New Year ideas.
Count to 10 in Chinese.
Printables
This is the first time we’ve done much for the Chinese New Year. It was so much fun and I learned a lot!
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That is SO great Stacy!!! I am going to check out your links, because last night after dinner Kinzie said, “What’s next?” I told her next year I would look into more crafts. Thanks for sharing…and celebrating. 😉
Loved this post! You did an awesome job with the celebration. I don’t ever remember the kids doing anything with the Chinese New Year at their schools.