We have a fabulous book, and a BUMPER set of ideas for Chinese New Year crafts for kids for you in this article. Ideas that will be perfect to bring in the Lunar New Year, and a wonderful free eBook if you are part of the Shelf Care club, to help you understand just what Chinese New Year is all about.
Our book is filled with creative and fun craft ideas that are perfect for children. From making dumplings to creating red envelope decorations, there is something for every age group and skill level. These crafts not only provide entertainment, but they also give children a hands-on learning experience about Chinese culture. There are so many amazing traditional around Chinese New Year, from chinese lanterns, to paper fortune cookies. But where do these ideas come from?
Check out our book club, or the book, and you’ll find out. Scroll down, and you can even join in with some of these fun Chinese New Year craft ideas, as we are sharing the following with you too in printable format:
- Cook your own dumplings,
- Make your own lucky red envelopes,
- Make your own paper lanterns,
- Create a dragon puppet, and
- Other amazing activity ideas from the book Lunar New Year from Quarto Kids.
We think that this is an amazing idea, good luck with all the activities too – we hope you have loads of fun. These crafts are a great way to keep little hands busy, and a fun way to celebrate the New Year. If you read the book alongside the crafts, you can see the ways Asian countries celebrate the Chinese calendar.
So what’s the book all about then?
Lunar New Year
Dive into the vibrant and joyous celebration of Lunar New Year through the eyes of Ling and her family in this engaging and educational book. Perfect for both children who celebrate Lunar New Year and kids who wish to better understand and appreciate their friends’ cultural practices, this narrative lets you experience one of the grandest Chinese festivals in a relatable and enjoyable manner.
The book takes you on a 15-day journey, sharing the excitement, preparations, and symbolic traditions that mark the Lunar New Year. Join Ling, her sister Mei, and their grandmother Po Po as they embark on festive activities like cleaning their home thoroughly, gathering fresh flowers, visiting loved ones, and parading with radiant red lanterns in their community. The reader gets an authentic glimpse into Ling’s family life and the intimate details of their Lunar New Year celebrations.
A 16-page ‘factivity’ section follows the narrative, offering a deeper understanding of the festival’s significance in China and other parts of the world. It also features enriching activities such as solving riddles, creating your own red envelope, and even a recipe to make mouth-watering Lunar New Year ‘pot sticker’ dumplings.
Focus on Lunar New Year fun
The book uncovers the magic of Lunar New Year by taking you through:
- The meticulous preparations leading up to the spring festival
- The family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve as part of the festival celebrations,
- The spectacular New Year’s Day fireworks
- The thrilling dragon dances, Chinese drum, and the New Year Monster
- The radiant lantern festival with the colorful Chinese paper lanterns… and so much more, including all the Chinese New Years crafts we promised!
As part of the Celebrations & Festivals series, this book welcomes you into the heart of a family’s festivities, offering a delightful exploration of various religious and cultural celebrations worldwide. The heartening story is complemented by a fun ‘factivity’ section that provides more details about the festival along with exciting activities, recipes, and craft projects for you to indulge in.
We are sharing with you to help kids of all ages appreciate the joy of the Dragon dance, and all the different animals involved within the Chinese zodiac. Why not check out the book and find out if you were born in the year of the Tiger, or the Year of the Rabbit. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, one of our personal favourites. We do have a fabulous paper plate dragon craft that you can check out too. Below is the chance to make your own Chinese dragon with a Chinese New Year dragon puppet – perfect for this year’s (and other years too) Chinese New Year celebration.
What does the activity pack look like?
As always, alongside the amazing book we are covering for you today, we have an activity pack. This time this includes some stand alone printable template ideas for you with easy craft options for fun activities to do with the kids as part of the celebrations. The simple crafts included within the pack are a lot of fun for the kids, and don’t take much preparation either. As always, we are sharing with you the sheets that come with our 13-page activity set of easy Chinese New Year crafts. We really hope you like them:
Cover and coloring page
Our first two pages are the cover of the book, with its colorful designs, Chinese zodiac animals, and Ling’s family members illustrated, having lots of fun with their Cinese New Year activities – fireworks, their very own huge Chinese dragon puppet, and lots of jumping around and joy. The second page is a coloring image from the book – you can either color in the Chinese characters and dragon, or pick out the suggestions to color. The choice is yours.
Now we are going to share with you some of the amazing crafts and templates we have in the activity pack.
Cook your own dumplings
The next activity is a baking ideas for the kids for Chinese New Year, to complete the crafty ideas that we have. There are just 10 steps to make your very own Chinese dumplins so as you can bring in a Happy Chinese New Year with these traditional favourites. Such a great idea for the kids to help them get stuck into the celebrations.
How to make Chinese red envelopes craft: Our first Chinese New Year crafts for kids
For our next craft, we have the traditional Chinese red envelope template for you all – download it today, and get crafting. This is another simple, and fun craft for the new year that we know the kids will love, particularly if there ends up being real money in your envelopes too 😂
Chinese lantern template
For our next printable page, we have an awesome red lantern craft, where you can make your own good fortune lantern for you and the kids. We have a lantern template for you to cut out, and then instructions for making it. All included on the printable for you.
Chinese dragon template
We love a template on KiddyCharts, and we are sure you have noticed this 😂. We now have a fabulous dragon puppet template for the Year of the Dragon, or any celebration of the Chinese New Year. This is a perfect Chinese New Ywear dragon craft, but don’t forget to check out some of our other Chinese New Year ideas too, including our paper plate and cup dragon, and the Chinese dragon coloring we have too.
Chinese New Year Trivia, and draw your own dragon
For our next two ideas, we are moving on from our Chinese Near Year crafts ideas for kids, and we are sharing with you some trivia questions around the Chinese New Year from the New Lunar Year book – if you want the answers, you can get the book as they are all in there! Our second idea gives your kids a chance to get a little creative. Draw your own dragon for the Chinese New Year!
Color a kite and honour your ancestors
For our next activities for Chinese New Year, we have another coloring activity. For this one, you can design and color a kite that you might like to fly with Ling after the celebrations. Consequently, we would love if you can remember someone within your family that you have lost. As they do within the book, and as part of the New Year celebrations in Asia. Honour one of your ancestors too, perhaps a grandparent, parent, auntie, or uncle that has died.
What about discussing them with your family too, so you can remember them together?
What is compromise activity
For our final activity within the set of 13 pages, we have a couple of thoughts and ideas for slightly older children, introducing the idea of the importance of compromising to children. Arguments are bound to happen in our lives, and it is about learning to compromise with those around us to show respect for others, and kindness.
Why not work through these with your children to help them to cope with arguments? It will help to improve their empathy for others too.
We really do hope you like this. Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE book club for kids to get a free eBook every single month. As we have already said, you can also win the hard copy of the book if you are UK based too.
To download the activity pack – just click on the button or the image below:
We really hope you like this activity. Do check out some of the other ideas for have for Chinese New year here too:
Other Chinese New Year ideas on KiddyCharts
Here are some more ideas on KiddyCharts that are relevant to Chinese New Year.
Wild animals mindfulness colouring book for kids and adults: Raising money for charity
Our mindful coloring book includes a Tiger - so why not take a look and see if you like it. Have fun colouring it in!
Chinese dragons coloring pages for kids
We have some gorgeous Chinese dragons for you to colour in for the New Year as well.
Chinese dragon coloring pages for adults and kids
These dragons are part of our series of adults and kids mindful colouring sheets. We have a few on the site, and these are perfect for Chinese New Year.
10+ great Chinese New Year crafts for your kids
A collection of wonderful ideas for Chinese New Year crafts for kids from loads of other amazing sites.
Simple Chinese New Year crafts: Paper plate dragon
Our favourite Chinese New Year craft - a fabulous Paper plate dragon fit for any Chinese New Year celebrations!
We love a dragon on KiddyCharts. These ideas work for 2024. Additionally, you can also search on other animals on the site too. There are loads of fabulous ideas across the board here:
Dragon coloring pages and crafts
More dragon fun for you with these dragon coloring pages.
Sea Dragon coloring page pictures to print
Take a look at the beautiful sea dragon coloring pages for older kids and adults.
Kawai coloring page: Dragons and Unicorns
Embrace mythical creatures with these dragon and unicorn Kawai coloring pages.
Chinese dragon coloring pages for adults and kids
This chinese dragon coloring pages for adults and kids are a fun way to spend an afternoon, have a go!
Here are some more ideas for Chinese New Year crafts for kids off site:
Dragon resources external
Here are some ideas for Dragons from off site - why not use these to compliment with ones on site - you'll have LOADS to do then!
Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons (Free Printable included!)
Try out this free printable dancing paper slinkie dragon.
Chinese New Year Crafts And Activities
This post is full of activities for Chinese New Year, but there are also some fab dragon related crafts. Take a look!
We think there are LOADS of things for you to do with the kids for Chinese New Year. Have loads of fun.
Take care,
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!