Tag Archives: Chinese new year

3 Fun Dragon Games for Celebrating the Chinese New Year

As a preschool teacher, I’ve always found multicultural classrooms to be very exciting and challenging places. Every year we celebrate holidays from different cultures, and this year I decided to incorporate the current mania for dragons within our Chinese New Year celebrations. Unlike online dragon games, the three real life activities I came up with do not depend on technology and are hands-on in the truest sense.

Who can Catch the Dragon’s Tail?

This traditional Chinese dragon game needs plenty of space (preferably a playground) and at least 10 players.

How to play

  • Invite the kids to stand in line.
  • Then have them place their hands on the shoulders of the child in front.
  • The first in line is the dragon’s head, the last is the dragon’s tail.
  • The dragon’s head must catch the tail (hands firmly on the shoulders of the child in front) by manoeuvring the dragon’s “body.” He/she is not allowed to break the line.
  • The players in the “body” must do their best to prevent the head from catching the tail.
  • When the head manages to catch the tail, they exchange positions and the game starts again with all the other kids moving back one position.

Dragon Bowling

This fun dragon game-cum-craft was a great hit among my students!

You will need

  • 10 half gallon milk bottles
  • Water
  • Construction paper
  • Permanent markers

How to make dragon bowling pins

  • Invite the kids to decorate the bottles to make them look like dragons.
  • They can use the construction paper to create tongue, scales, wings and ears and draw eyes and nose with permanent markers.
  • Next, fill up the bottles with water and seal the lids tightly.
  • Set up the bottles like bowling pins and let the fun begin!
  • (Hint – If the pins don’t knock over easily, reduce the amount of water.)

Dragon Puppets

The kids can play any number of imaginative dragon games with these pretty puppets.

You will need

  • Paper bag, googly eyes, green paper, red paper, scissors, glue and black marker for each child

Instructions

  • Supply each child with the materials.
  • Have them cut the green paper into triangle and ear shapes and glue them onto the bottom of the bag.
  • Next, have them glue the googly eyes and use the marker to draw the dragon’s mouth and nose.
  • Once this is done, they can cut out the tongue from red paper and glue it in the mouth.

These fun dragon games certainly added zing to our Chinese New Year festivities!