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The Year of the Goat: Chinese Art

hannahcgersh
Mar 6, 2015
3 min read

Last month, we moved on from Australia and started a new unit on China. It was so much fun to dive into the various historical and cultural learning activities! We celebrated the Chinese New Year- the Year of the Goat- on February 19th. We were able to cover several topics, which I am excited to share with you!

In Kindergarten, we learned about the Chinese New Year and read a book called "Bringing in the New Year" by Grace Lin. I pre-made Chinese New Year dragon masks (I have found that some "crafty" projects work better for Kindergarten. At first I wasn't happy about this but they turn out SO much better than other things I have tried.). I used a template I found online. There are so many to choose from if you Google it. The one I used came from here. I attached a popsickle stick and two ribbons of streamers.

We also made Chinese dragons with paper, scissors, glue, and markers! I used this lesson from the lesson lady! They turned out really cute!

In first grade, we read "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, then we talked about China and their native Giant Pandas! We also discussed foreground, middleground, and background as well as warm and cool colors. We drew the panda and bamboo together using oil pastels and painted with watercolors. They are too cute! You can find this lesson for sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.

I loved these pandas so much that I used them for my hallway display! You can download the FREE PRINTABLE on how to draw a panda here.

In second grade, we studied the Ming Dynasty of China and used a lesson idea from Cassie Stephens on Ming vases. They are not finished, however, because the second grade play "It's a Jungle Out There" had them busy practicing (it was GREAT, btw). Anyway, more to come on those Ming vases!

In third grade, I was inspired by a lesson from the SMART CLASS blog on Chinese New Year Lion dancers. We talked about the Chinese New Year and I showed them pictures of Chinese New Year Lions and how the country celebrates the New Year by dancing in these costumes! We drew with oil pastels and painted with watercolors. Drawing the lion was a little challenging, but they turned out FANTASTIC!

You can find more of the completed Chinese New Year Lions if you follow me on Instagram here.

In fourth grade and sixth grade, we learned about Chinese culture and the significance of the dragon. I used a lesson from Deep Space Sparkle (my FAVORITE art teacher blog). You can find that lesson here. We really took great strides in drawing and using watercolors.

In fifth grade, we took the opportunity to study Chinese architecture. We looked at many pictures of pagodas and talked about typical Chinese architecture characteristics. Next, students designed their own pagodas using those characteristics. We drew with pencils and traced with black markers, then watercolored the scene. We created a border using a ruler and painted it with metallic tempera paint. I actually ran out of time on this lesson and several of my students were unable to finish. I used two 40-minute classes for the lesson, but should have used three. You can get the lesson here, at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.