A Trip To Chinatown

Aloha friends or should I say Kung Hee Fat Choy?  It's Corinna from Surfin' Through Second.

Depending on what part of the country or world you are in this Chinese New Year greeting may be pronounced differently.  Here is Hawaii Kung Hee Fat Choy means "May Prosperity Be With You".

January 31st marks the official beginning of Chinese New Year.  Here in Honolulu we have our own little Chinatown.  I took my girls on a trip there this week to pick ups some items for my class and to get ready for our Chinese New Year parade next Friday.

These lions guard the entrance to a little market area in Chinatown.  

It is the year of the Horse, so there were a variety of decorations with a horse figure.

The Chinese zodiac has 12 animals. That each represent a year in the 12 year cycle.

Red and Gold decor is found throughout Chinatown.  Chinese families decorate their doors and windows with these bright colors.

Eating a fresh, whole fish on the Lunar New Year is good luck.

We ran across these guys on our trip through the market.  I don't think Bull Frog is on the menu for Chinese New Year!  My daughters begged me to buy them one as a pet.  Ummm, no thank you.

We stopped at the Chinese bakery and grabbed some Chinese Buns.  These had hotdogs in them, mine was filled with BBQ pork.  Yumm!

This is a sticky rice pudding called Gau.  Eating it during the new year is supposed to bring good luck.

These sesame balls are also a traditional food.  They are called Jien Duy.  They are usually filled with a sweet bean paste, but this one was filled with sweet coconut.  This is what I always eat on my trips to Chinatown. They are delicious!

We picked up some fun trinkets as well.  Drums and cymbals are great noise makers for Chinese New Year parades. 

 I picked up some packs of red envelopes to give to my students.  These are called Lai See.  Traditionally they are filled with crisp new money (bills) to be given from Seniors to Juniors.  Meaning an adult to a child, an employer to an employee, married couples to single friends.

Mine will not be filled with money.  I picked up a bag of Chinese candy to fill mine.

Our last purchase was our own lion puppet.  In a traditional lion dance you feed the lion money to bring you luck in the new year.

We had lots of fun on our trip and came away with some great items for this week.

In class we made these great dragons from Teach Kids Art.  We will attach a wooden dowel to the neck to carry them in our parade.

We will also be using some activities from this wonderful pack. 

Katie Knight created this unit and has a great post on Chinese New Year as well. {Click Here}

I will leave you with a little freebie that I made for my class.  Perfect for my early finishers.

Click on the picture to grab this freebie in my TpT store.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you gained a few new ideas for Chinese New Year!