8. Teacher Notes

Chinese New Year is celebrated on Feb 12 in 2021 and on Jan 25 in 2020. The year 2020 was the year of the rat, and 2020 is the year of the ox. Why is Chinese New Year celebrated on the different day each year? Why are the Chinese years named after animals? In this WebQuest, students will find the answers to these questions and discover how the Chinese celebrate their New Year(Spring Festival).

Students explore all the different aspects of the Chinese New Year: the Chinese calendar, celebrations, folk story of NIAN, traditional food, traditional customs including red envelope, and decorations. Sending students to local Chinese community to have real life experience of Chinese culture will enhance their knowledge on culture learning and benefit their whole life. From this project, since all the groups of students will focus on different aspects of Chinese New Year, they will learn from each others' life experience and the presentations in class. Students also get to know the differences on celebration between Christmas in the west and Chinese New Year.