Chinese New Year Program

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The lunar new year starts January 26 of this year (2009) ushering in the Year of the Ox, our good friend as evidenced by the book, How the Ox Star Fell From Heaven by Lily Toy Hong. Sorry, I don't have a book cover for this. The story and illustrations are so cute and particularly apt for this year. Other books I am using this month are:

Two of Everything, also by Lily Toy Hong,

Red Is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong,

The Warlord's Beads by Virginia Walton Pilegard. This last book also has a great craft activity in the back, making an abacus from corregated cardboard, pipe cleaners, and loopy cereal.
I found the following little song online:
Chorus -
Gung Hay Fat Choy, Gung Hay Fat Choy, (patting a rhythm first one hand up and then the other)
Sing Happy New Year, Gung Hay Fat Choy.

The new moon tells us exactly when (hold up one hand in c shape for moon)
To celebrate with family and friends (rhythmic clapping resumes)
Chorus

Clean up the house and get out the broom (pretend to sweep)
Sweep out the old year, bring in the new.
Chorus

Bring out the apples, the oranges too (hold out one fist and then the other)
Their colors bring joy and good luck too.
Chorus

The dragon dances, the lanterns light (place hands together and snake around)
The firecrackers light up the night. (alternate right and left fists opening quickly to imitate fireworks)
Chorus.

There were some cute Chinese nursery rhymes I found online and one of them I made into a flannelboard story:
He climbed up the candlestick,
The little mousie brown,
To steal the tallow,
And he couldn't get down.
He called for his grandma,
But his grandma was in town.
So he doubled up ... into a wheel
And rolled himself down.

Other nursery rhymes:
Firefly, firefly,
Come from the hill.
Your father and mother
Are waiting there still.
They've brought you some sugar
Some candy and meat,
For baby to eat.
(Me: Does that sound like a rhyme you already know ... such as Ladybug, Ladybug? Kids, rolling their eyes: Nooo.)

You'll find whenever the New Year comes
The Kitchen God will want some plums.
The girls will want some flowers new;
The boys will want firecrackers, too.
A new felt cap with please Papa
And a sugar cake for dear Mama.

Other craft ideas: Make a dragon puppet, a long one, from a series of colorful gift bags (lunch bag size) stuffed with newspaper and taped together, putting eyes on the front and twisting a tail out of the other end.
Make a fish. The Mandarin word for Luck, Fu, apparently sounds like the word for fish. This is like saying "I hope you get your wish" and someone thinking you said, "I hope you get a fish." Make sure it's orange or red, for luck.
I handed out die-cut ox (okay, it was a cow) stick puppets to remind the children of the Ox Star story. This story lends itself to reenactment, especially the part where the silly ox delivers the mixed up message.

Other good books:
The donkey and the rock by Demi
Wishbones by Barbara Ker Wilson and Yeh-Shen by Ai-Ling Louie (both Chinese Cinderella stories)
LonPoPo, a Red Riding Hood story by Ed Young, who has many other great Chinese stories.
The Rooster's Antlers, a story of the Chinese zodiac, by Eric A Kimmel