🧧 My Lunar New Year Classroom Visit
First off — here’s what I brought:
📖 Book: Twelve in a Race by Catherine Little
💁🏻♀️ Show-n-Tell: lion dance model, fai chuns, tray of togetherness, red pockets
✏️ Activity: Colouring red pockets
🧧 Gift: Actual red pockets for all the kids
There are lots & lotssss of great LNY books, but the class was large (30+ kids), and kids were relatively young (4-5yo), with short(ish) attention spans
It was important to me the kids stay engaged, were not bored, and associate Lunary New Year with “fun” & “interesting” — esp if this is their 1st exposure to Lunar New year
I opted for a book that isn’t too long, or “too small” (small illustrative details are loads of fun when the book is front of me to pore over, but not so fun for the kid at the back in a large class ☹️)
Twelve in a Race had a fun rhyme and large beauuuuutiful spread-spanning illustrations of animals! The themes of animals + counting were also very easy to grok for that age.
It was a hit, and they loved it!
Instead of using a book to “explain” traditions, I followed up with a show-n-tell, which worked out well! The children were super into seeing real-life items.
I wasn’t sure how long I was going to take, so I added a “padding” activity that can be as long or as short as we needed it to be, and was minimal prep/work for the teacher — a red pocket colouring activity
At the end of the day, each child also went home with a red pocket.
Parents emailed and told me afterwards how thrilled their child was to receive the red pocket; it was unexpected and super sweet 🥰
Overall, I’m glad I did it — I dunno how many more years before my kid won’t want their mom in the classroom lolol (🤪). So now felt like the time to create these “core memories” (❤️ Inside Out)
P.S. These tips are very specific to my kid’s class. I may choose a different book + activity for older kids, or smaller groups?
What about you? Did you go into your kids’ classroom? Any additional tips?