Rooster Crafts and Activities for Chinese New Year

The year that begins with Chinese New Year on Jan. 28 is the year of the rooster, so I thought it would be fun to share some rooster crafts and activities you can make to learn about and celebrate the new year. Make some lanterns, too, and you’ll be all ready to celebrate!

Holidappy has some great templates for a rooster with the Chinese character for rooster on the body. The post shows making a little felt rooster, which would be great. You could also paste the cut out shapes to a small paper plate, or use the half rooster template on a plate folded in half, use the black and white versions (some are quite embellished) as a coloring sheet and more.

Kids Play Box has a beautiful process art activity for painting a rooster using a fork to make the feathers. The recycled rooster from Art Projects for Kids is fantastic, too.

This is from what looks like the Russian version of Pinterest, and there’s just a picture, but don’t these cutout roosters (and swans) look amazing? If you can draw a rooster head shape the rest is pretty straightforward.

Or make a handprint rooster puppet, from See What We Did Today, or a cardboard tube rooster (these instructions are in French, but you get the idea).

And if you’d like a dragon craft or two, I adore this cupcake liner dragon from IHeartCraftyThings. So cool and pretty easy to make, too.

Tips from a Typical Mom has a great collection of Chinese New Year activities you might want to try, as well as even more rooster crafts and projects. Make sure you print a dragon mask or two to color.

Do you craft for or otherwise celebrate Chinese New Year? I’d love to hear what you do.

Looking for more resources? Check out these Chinese New Year books for kids.

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Celebrate the Year of the Dragon

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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