Kindergarten Lesson: New Year’s Celebration
Grading Period/Unit (CRM): 3rd9 weeks CRM 3
Estimated timeframe: 4 days
Lesson ComponentsLesson Objectives:
Students will know:
- The New Year starts on the first day of January in some countries.
- People use a calendar to show when the New Year occurs.
- There are reasons why New Year’s Day is celebrated.
- There are reasons why Chinese New Year is celebrated.
- There are similarities and differences among people, such as their music, clothing, and food, their kinship, laws and religion.
- Family customs and traditions are important.
- There are similarities and differences among people such as their family customs and traditions.
- With a partner, use a calendar to show when the New Year begins for some countries and when the Chinese New Year begins. Be able to explain the chronological order of those dates using the vocabulary listed in the TEKS.
- Use graphic organizers to describe ways that people celebrate and observe traditions for both New Year and Chinese New Year festivities.
- Using a T-chart, compare and contrast New Year’s Day and Chinese New Year celebrations and traditions, including music, clothing, kinship, laws and religion.
Students will listen to stories, and videos, speak in small groups and whole groups about New Year’s Day and Chinese New Year. Students will utilize vocabulary related to New Year’s Day and Chinese New Year in the form of sentence stems, class discussion and group activities.
Standards(Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills):
K.3 History. The student understands the concept of chronology.
- 3A place events in chronological order; and
- 3B use vocabulary related to time and chronology, including before, after, next, first, last, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
- 11A identify similarities and differences among people such as kinship, laws, and religion; and
- 11B identify similarities and differences among people such as music, clothing, and food.
- 12A describe and explain the importance of family customs and traditions; and
- 12B compare family customs and traditions.
Essential Questions:
- How have beliefs, ideas, and philosophies shaped our history?
- Societies are shaped by religious, legal and philosophical traditions.
Vocabulary
Essential: Celebration, holidays, New Year’s, Chinese New Year, calendar, month, before, after, next, first, last, yesterday, today, tomorrow, celebración, días festivos, el año nuevo, el año nuevo chino, calendario, mes, antes, después, próximo, primero, al final, ayer, hoy, mañana
Supporting:customs, traditions, activities, compare, contrast, alike, different, costumbres, tradiciones, actividades, comparar, contrastar, igual, diferente
Lesson Preparation
Contruction paper
Chart paper
Actual items/artifacts related to Chinese New Year and New Year’s
Pictures of items related to Chinese New Year and New Year’s
Chinese Symbols Chart (found below)
Technology:
Discovery Education supporting videos:
- The Chinese New Year (9 min.)
- Global Stories: 2012-02-02 (4 min.) Chinese New Year
- Eureka!: China: Fun and Firecrackers: Eat, Play, Boys, Girls (14 min.)
- Eureka!: China: Fun and Firecrackers: Brush Painting (14 min.)
- Eureka!: China: Fun and Firecrackers: Magic Lantern (14 min.)
YouTube:
•New Year’s Song for children:
•Chinese New Year cartoon:
•Chinese New Year Parade:
Anchors of Support
Chinese New Year Dragon Craft
Chinese Lantern Instructions
Compare/Contrast Venn Diagram
Lesson Cycle
Engage
See Engage section of Day 1 Lesson Plans
Lesson Stages
Books:
- Bringing In the New Year by Grace Lin
- The Dancing Dragon by Marcia K. Vaughan
- Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan’s Chinese New Year by Kate Waters
- Lucky New Year! by Mary Man-Kong
- Happy, Happy Chinese New Year! by Demi
- D Is for Dragon Dance by Ying Chang Compestine
- Chinese New Year by David F. Marx
- My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
- Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn (English and Spanish)
- Lanterns and Firecrackers: A Chinese New Year Story by Jonny Zucker
- Ten Mice for Tet! byPegiDeitz Shea and Cynthia Weill
- Celebrate Chinese New Year with the Fong Family by F. Isabel Campoy & Alma Flor Ada (English and Spanish)
- Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
- Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Dragons, and Lanterns by Carolyn Otto
- The Runaway Rice Cake by: Ying Chang Compestine
- The Runaway Wok : a Chinese New Year Tale by: Ying Chang Compestine
- Añonuevo chino by: Nancy Dickmann (English and Spanish)
- Happy New Year, Everywhere! By: Arlene Erlbach
- Max celebra el Año Nuevo Chino by: Adria F. Klein
- New Year's Day by David F. Marx
- Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by: Pat Miller
Day 1: American New Year’s
- Engage- Choose a book or short video from the list above
- Mini-Lesson- After the video discuss with the students what they did for New Year’s this year and what other customs and traditions they noticed during the book/video. Create an anchor chart of American New Year’s traditions and activities (i.e. ball drop, sparklers, fireworks, dinner, countdown, etc). Discuss the difference between Christmas and New Year’s. On the calendar show where New Year’s falls for the US.
- Student Activity- Students illustrate and label what they did for New Year’s over Winter Break or choose something from the anchor chart to illustrate and label.
- Engage- Read Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution or any other book related to making resolutions.
- Mini-Lesson- After discuss what resolution Squirrel made and what is a resolution. You might want to share with them some examples of other people’s resolutions. Have students brainstorm resolutions or goals they can make for this year and create an anchor chart with their ideas.
- Student Activity- Students will write about and illustrate their New Year’s Resolution using the sentence stem “This year I promise to…” If time allows, students can share their resolutions with their partner.
- Engage- Read a story or choose a short video from the list above related to Chinese New Year.
- Mini-Lesson-After story/video discuss what sorts of customs and traditions the students noticed that are celebrated. Create an anchor chart of customs, traditions, activities related to Chinese New Year. Show students the Chinese New Year Parade YouTube video and then model how to create their own paper dragon using construction paper. Cut the paper into strips then glue the links together as seen in the picture. Refer to Chinese symbols below and allow students to try and put some Chinese symbols on their dragon or lantern.
- Student Activity- Students will create their own Chinese Dragon with Chinese symbols (found below). If time allows they may also create a Chinese lantern and then pretend to have a parade in the classroom.
- Engage- Read a story or watch a short video from the list above or from your own library related to either New Year’s or Chinese New Year.
- Mini-Lesson- Review the New Year’s anchor chart and the Chinese New Year anchor chart and compare/contrast the customs, traditions and activities for each. Create a Venn diagram with the class as seen above.
- Student Activity- Students will choose their favorite New Year (American or Chinese) and create a non-fiction book about that New Year. They should include facts, activities, pictures, labeling, cover page, table of contents, etc. Students may share their book with their partner when finished.
Differentiation Strategies
Special Education:
•Vocabulary picture cards
•Sentence stems for writing and speaking
•Movements
•Pair work
English Language Learners:
Students will have access to visual vocabulary cards as well as modeling from the teacher. Students will have access to word banks and sentence stems and may need more time when participating in whole group discussions.
Extension for Learning:
Students can create a skit to compare and contrast the two New Year’s. Students will include customs, traditions, activities, props, characters, etc. in their skit.
Closure Activity
Creative Learning Initiative: Across the Room
Directions:
•Separate the room into two sides (one side is for Chinese New Year and the other for American New Year).
•Students will stand in the middle of the room to begin.
•Teacher will state a fact, custom, tradition or activity about one of the New Year’s without saying which holiday it belongs to (i.e. “This New Year’s has a ball that drops.”)
•Upon hearing the teacher’s statement the students will decide which New Year’s the statement belongs to and go to that side of the room.
•If they are not sure or believe that it is true for both New Year’s then they will remain in the middle of the room.
•After each statement and the students have moved, pause to discuss their reasoning.
Check for Understanding (Evaluation)
Formative: observations, class discussion/participation, student tasks
Summative: Can student compare and contrast New Year’s Day and Chinese New Year? Can student identify and describe various customs/traditions related to each New Year? Can student find the American New Year and the Chinese New Year on the calendar?
College and Career Readiness
College and Career Readiness:
- I. Interrelated Disciplines and Skills
- A. Spatial analysis of physical and cultural processes that shape the human experience
- Use the tools and concepts of geography appropriately and accurately.
- Analyze the interaction between human communities and the environment.
- Analyze how physical and cultural processes have shaped human communities over time.
- II. Diverse Human Perspectives and Experiences
- B. Global analysis
- 1. Apply social studies methodologies to compare societies and cultures.
- V. Effective Communication
- A. Clear and coherent oral and written communication
- 1. Use appropriate oral communication techniques depending on the context or nature of the interaction.
- 2. Use conventions of standard written English.
21st Century Skills
Creativity and Innovation
•Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)
•Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively
•Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work
•Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas
Communication and Collaboration
Communicate Clearly
•Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal
•communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts
•Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes
•and intentions
•Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate
•and persuade)
•Utilize multiple media and technologies, and know how to judge their
•effectiveness a priori as well as assess their impact
•Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multi-lingual)
•Collaborate with Others
•Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams
•Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary
•compromises to accomplish a common goal
•Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual
•contributions made by each team member
English Language Proficiency Standards
2. The ELL listens to a variety of speakers including teachers, peers, and electronic media to gain an increasing level of comprehension of newly acquired language in all content areas.
•(F) listen to and derive meaning from a variety of media such as audio tape, video, DVD, and CD ROM to build and reinforce concept and language attainment;
3. Cross-curricular second language acquisition/speaking. The ELL speaks in a variety of modes for a variety of purposes with an awareness of different language registers (formal/informal) using vocabulary with increasing fluency and accuracy in language arts and all content areas.
•J. Respond orally to information presented in a wide variety of print, electronic, audio, and visual media to build and reinforce concept and language attainment.
4 The ELL reads a variety of texts for a variety of purposes with an increasing level of comprehension in all content areas. ELLs may be at the beginning, intermediate, advanced, or advanced high stage of English language acquisition in reading.
(I) demonstrate English comprehension and expand reading skills by employing basic reading skills such as demonstrating understanding of supporting ideas and details in text and graphic sources, summarizing text, and distinguishing main ideas from details commensurate with content area needs;
Chinese Idioms for Spring Festival
恭喜发财May you be happy and prosperous!
恭贺新禧 Best wishes for a Happy New Year!
新春快乐Happy New Spring!
年年有余Each year may you have plenty!
万事如意May you have all your wishes!
大吉大利May you have good luck and great fortune!
© Austin ISD K Department, 2015/2016
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