Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet

Chinese New Year is coming soon!  We've been so engrossed in Valentine's day crafts lately, that I almost forgot about the holiday.  But today we're rectifying that mistake.  Last year we made these 2 really easy dragon puppets.  (Definitely check them out because they were super cute and super easy.  Plus, I included free printable templates!)

This year we're keeping with the dragon theme and making this Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet from recycled cardboard!  It's an upgraded version of last year's craft because you can actually move this dragon around!

Recycled Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet

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Chinese New Year Paper Bag Lion Masks (And a book list!)

One of the nicest things about having kids is seeing things through their eyes.  I remember loving Chinese New Year as a child.  The lion dance, the dragons, the red envelopes, the yummy food, the time spent with family... those are all the traditions and memories that I'd like to pass onto my sons as well.  Recently we've been knee deep in Chinese New Year Crafts and today's is my son's favorite so far.  We turned paper bags into our very own lion masks to wear and dance around in!

Paper Bag Lion Masks for Chinese New Year!       

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Two Chinese New Year Dragon Crafts

Ready for a fun Chinese New Year Craft?  Chinese New Year is one of those really fun holidays that I enjoyed celebrating as a kid.  Yummy food, wearing new clothes, red envelopes filled with money, and watching cool dragon and lion dancing?  Come on, what's not to love?  Since the holiday is just around the corner, I showed Chuck some lion dancing videos (Youtube to the rescue!) and then thought it'd be fun if we did some dragon crafts together:

Two Chinese New Year Dragon Crafts

Little background about me- Growing up I always felt like a "twinkie."  Yellow on the outside, white on the inside.  You see, I looked Asian, but I didn't always feel that way.  Now that Chuck's getting a bit older, hubby and I are trying to figure out how two twinkies like us pass down their cultural traditions. (Ehh... it's a work in progress....)

This craft is one way that we're trying to pass down our tradition.  And, in the interest of full disclosure, Chuck really enjoyed making the handprint dragon.... but he wasn't too keen on coloring my paper bag dragon pieces.  However, once I colored and glued everything down for him, he enjoyed playing with it like a puppet.

So, do you wanna see how we made these two dragons?  (I've got templates too!  Ooh la la!)  Keep on reading!

(And if you like this craft, definitely check out this dancing Chinese Dragon Puppet.  It actually dances and is made from recycled materials!)

Paper Blossoms for Chinese New Year

The quest for easy Chinese New Year Crafts continues!  I've been reading up a bit on the holiday to help me explain it to my older son.  Recently I learned that we often see plum blossom flowers decorating homes around this time of year.  Apparently they represent perseverance, courage, and reliability.  (Beautiful, right?)  Well, we don't have any plum blossom flowers around here.... but we do have pink tissue paper and twigs.  So we grabbed our crafting materials and then set to making ourselves some really easy and beautiful flower decorations for the New Year!

Tissue Paper Flower Kids Craft

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Chinese New Year Folded Lantern Kids Craft

Chinese New Year is coming up!  Today we're adding to the blog's growing list of Chinese New Year Crafts with this super easy, modern, and colorful folded paper lantern craft!

Chinese New Year Accordion Folded Lanterns

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Gorgeous Painted Paper Lanterns for Chinese New Year

Hi friends! Today I'm sharing what could be my favorite Chinese New Year Craft ever. I know. It sounds like an exaggeration. But have you ever seen homemade paper lanterns that look like these?  Aren't they gorgeous? And guess what? You don't need a template. They're super easy to make. AND they involve some fun origami folding (also easy too, I promise!)

How to Make Painted Paper Lanterns with Kids 

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Chinese New Year Pig Watercolor Paintings

Did you know that this Chinese New Year is the year of the pig?  A couple of nights ago my boys and I began making our annual Chinese New Year Crafts together.  One of my good friends is an art teacher and she painted some lovely pigs with her students.  I loved her idea so much that I wanted to try the activity out with my two boys too.  (Thanks, Alicia for the awesome idea!!!!)

Tada!  We all had fun trying our hand at painting some watercolor pigs for Chinese New Year!

Painting Watercolor Pigs for Chinese New Year!

(Can you guess which one my preschooler painted?  He fully enjoyed himself and got immensely messy!)

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Cute Mandarin Pig Craft (For Chinese New Year!)

Hosting a Chinese New Year event and looking for a super cute Chinese New Year Craft that also doubles as decor?  This is it!  Halos Mandarins recently reached out and challenged me to make a craft using their fruit.  Well, these adorable mandarin pigs definitely fit the bill.  These sweet pigs are a yummy and cute way to celebrate the Year of the Pig.

(Many thanks to Halos for sending me craft supplies and boxes of yummy mandarins!)

Super Sweet Mandarin Pigs for Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year of the Rabbit Puppet Craft

 Happy Chinese New Year! In honor of the year of the rabbit, today we're making some paper rabbit puppets.

How to Make Chinese New Year Rabbit Puppets with Kids

Giant Chinese New Year Dragon Collaborative Art

This past weekend we celebrated Lunar New Year with several friends.  There were tons of yummy snacks and (of course) several Chinese New Year crafts and activities!   One of my favorites was this giant, collaborative Dragon painting, so I thought I'd share it here today.

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Awesome Chinese New Year Dragon Kite Puppet

Happy belated Chinese New Year!  This past week I visited my son's classroom and did some Chinese New Year themed crafts with his friends.  I'd love to claim today's craft as my own because it's so awesome.  But, I can't take any credit.  My son actually made it in his class.  (The teacher found the idea in  The MailBox and graciously allowed me to share it here.)  Isn't it super neat?

Awesome New Year's Dragon Kite Puppets!

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Chinese New Year Paper Chain Dragons (Printable included!)

Looking for an easy Chinese New Year Craft that you can make with kids of all ages?  Try making these paper chain dragons.  Can't draw?  Don't worry!  Download the free printable below and you'll be making tons of dancing paper dragons in no time!

How to Make Chinese New Year Paper Chain Dragons

Easy Lunar New year Rat Paper Cutting Craft

The rat is 2020's Chinese New Year animal. Today I'm sharing a fun paper cutting craft that celebrates the rat. This project is enough that elementary kids can enjoy the art of paper cutting while also celebrating traditional Chinese culture and the New Year. (I also particularly love today's craft because it's cute AND combines my affinity for making Chinese New Year crafts,  trying out different origami and kirigami crafts, and cutting fun designer snowflakes!)

How to Make A Rat Paper Cutting... with kids!

Watercolor Painted Paper Fans

I've recently been looking into making more Chinese New Year crafts together as a way to celebrate the upcoming holiday.   With my current infatuation with  watercolor crafts, we recently made these watercolor painted paper fans together.

Watercolor Painted Paper Fans

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Invitation to Create: Watercolor Rats

Hi everyone! Just stopping in to share another super easy kids Chinese New Year Art and Craft Activity! Last week we made these adorable Rat Paper Cuttings. Today we're going to celebrate the Lunar New Year with these easy Watercolor rats!

Inviting Kids to Create: Watercolor Rats

Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons (Free Printable included!)

Happy Chinese New Year!  How will you be celebrating the new year?  Tomorrow I'm going to celebrate in my son's class by giving out red envelopes, reading a fun storybook about the animals of the Zodiac The Great Race, and making these super cool Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons!

Do these dragons look familiar to you?  Well, I used the same face, legs, and tail from my paper chain dragons and the results came out pretty cool!

How to Make Dancing Paper Slinkie Dragons

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FREE Lunar New Year Drawing Sheets

Happy early Lunar New Year! We're looking forward to celebrating in the coming weeks. Right now I'm in the mood for all things red, gold, dragon, and bunny-related, I whipped up these free printable draw-the-other half sheets to share with you! As I mentioned before, I LOVED doing these sorts of symmetric drawing sheets as a child, so I figured some of your kids might as well! :) Enjoy!!

Free Printable Lunar New Year Draw-the-other-half Sheets

FREE Lunar New Year Count and Find Sheets

If you're looking for more Lunar New Year printables for the kids, I'm sharing these cute Count and Find sheets. They're a great math activity for preschoolers and kindergarteners. And if you want to make the activity more challenging, you can have children write the numbers in another language! 

Free Printable Lunar New Year Count and Find Sheets

Lunar New Year of the Rabbit Drawing Activity

This year's Lunar New Year animal is the rabbit! And as I was thinking about what crafts to do with my kids, I realized something about the Chinese word rabbit--- it looks like a rabbit! 

Lunar New Year Rabbit Kids Drawing Activity

Chinese New Year

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, Chinese New Year was last week and today is Valentine's Day.  But, I just wanted to post these photos because hubby, Chuck, and I celebrated the New Year with family members that we love very much.  (And isn't love what today is all about?).

Hope you have a wonderful day enjoying the company of loved ones.

(I didn't have my camera on me, so special thanks to Esther for taking these photos on her i-product.)