Chinese New Year Activities 2

A few more ideas for activities relating to Chinese New Year.

Transferring pom-poms with chop sticks, sorting two colours.

Oriental dolls and food for celebrating book which one of the children found on the bookshelf.

Pop up dragon game.

Ordering numbers relating to the order of the story of the Chinese new year.

Matching photos to symbols loto, animals of the Chinese New year story.

Oriental purses with money in to put in lucky envelopes, with New Year cards. I was going to add numbers in the envelopes for children to put the correct money into the envelope, but instead let them explore and discuss money. We verbally added up how much was in each envelope.

A small collection of Chinese artefacts, including a rabbit relating to the Year of the rabbit 2011

Transfering dry rice from chinese bowls with a spoon.

Rabbit shaped cards, decorated with a selection of collage materials.

Chinese New Year Activities

A dragon mask which will form the head of a dragon, with body made out of paper plates.

Telling the story of the Chinese new year.

Chop sticks are difficult for little inexperienced hands.
Determination, and practice certainly pays.

Spooning and transferring rice in the sensory tray.

A perfect played with mess!

Felt Chinese food

More felt chinese food made, now awaiting play!

Chinese fortune cookies and Wontons

Well it's Chinese New Year on Wednesday, so I've set to work making some felt chinese food. We do have a chinese food play set but as with all occasions it's always nice to add to it. The fortune cookies were made using these instructions on Youtube by lillybeanplayfood, except I hand sewed rather than using a machine. There are lots of now sew instructions if you google "felt fortune cookies".
For the felt I used felt cleaning cloth from a pack of 12 from poundland. For the stuffing I simply used the scraps from cutting the felt into the required shapes. These wontons were made using the same fabric, by simply cutting a circle (I used a roll of tape as my template). I then tied a piece of green floss about a cm from end, then sewed a running stitch approx 4 cm from the perimeter of the circle. Stuffed then pulled floss tight and tying working end to the knotted end, creating a tie imitating the seaweed used to tie wontons.

I'll probably make some more food tomorrow and may break habit and post results on a Sunday! I think I will start with dumplings from with instructions from Burnt Muffin

Marvellous marble machine

A while back I was discussing a school challenge of making a marble run out of junk that would last for 20 seconds release to finish. One would think this would be an easy task, but really it isn't- honestly! So Mr Inventor set to work on a new design, which actually ended up lasting even longer than 20 secs!!
Any way the task is not simple and in this presentation certainly not suitable for preschoolers, however for older children it is certainly a great problem solving challenge. For younger ones, perhaps shorten the time, and use larger junk e.g. cardboard tubes stuck together and leant against blocks or a climbing frame, extend and adapt where needed.
Remember the important part is the children's own thinking it is so easy to step in and help but doing so prematurely is not productive, instead prompt and scaffold with questions or simple statements to encourage a line of thinking.

Ten in the Bed

Fed up with seeing the vast array of expensive ten in the bed resources, which usually incorporate ten teddies I set off on a search to find ten similar looking bears. I didn't wait long before I came across these teddy key rings in a clearance sale, 50p each so a total of £5. Bed was made using an old GHD box and sticking a piece of fleece for a blanket onto the box and coloured scourers for pillows. The head board was made using a plastic folder of the same colour as the box cut to size and then velcroed to the back. I also made coloured tabards and matching hats for each of the teddies, two of each so we could look at colours, matching and the concept of the same. All teddies live inside.

Intently counting to those tired teddies!

Felt butterflies

It's late car broke down so quick post. I may have already posted this but found these pics while looking through photos, and reminded my how lovely this activity was and how we must do it again.

This was such a simple activity to create, using coloured scoring pads as the base although felt would work just as well. Butterflies created by felt cutouts I provided at least two of each coloured shape to ensure they could create symmetrical butterflies.