Literacy Volunteers - Middle Earth "Chinese New Year" Storytime/Craft

 

Plans here: S.T.E.A.M. Storytime - Chinese New Year - Year of the Horse

"Middle Earth" kids & families celebrated with Chinese food:

Stories:

Opened with "This Next New Year" followed by a video version of "Sam & the Lucky Money"

Read "The Race for the Chinese Zodiac" then found everyone's Chinese Horoscopes

And shared "The Dancing Dragon" fold out book which got longer & longer

then flipped over to depict the whole parade...

Crafts -- paper lanterns & walk-through paper magic trick (details here)

coloring dragons and lucky Chinese symbols

Everyone had fun Making Noise-makers....

 & Creating a Giant Dragon!

And taking it on a parade around the cafeteria!!

Video of the Dragon Parade

2/25/26 Bound Brook

S.T.E.A.M. Storytime - Chinese New Year - Year of the Horse

 

Storytime / Craft

Opened by discussing different kinds of New Year
(Jan 1st, Chinese, Rosh Hashonah, Sept school beginning)

Read: This Next New Year by Janet S Wong

Show video Sam & the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn 

(musicalized reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzsvSrtns9g)

(Another good film option: Reading Rainbow: Liang & the Magic Paintbrush)

Read: The Race for the Chinese Zodiac by Gabrielle Wang

(The Great Race; The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Dawn Casey is another good choice)

then figured out their birth year animals - horoscopes here:

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/chinese-new-year-celebration.html

Finished with fold-out book: The Dancing Dragon by Marcia Vaughan

Craft Stations:

· Group Dragon – Kids decorate bulletin board paper or tablecloth to make a dragon. (materials: scissors, gluesticks, tape, staplers, markers, curling ribbon, crepe paper)

·Cut paper lanterns http://thecraftingchicks.com/2011/06/paper-lantern-kids-craft4th-of-july-style.html (materials: red construction paper, scissors, gluesticks, hole punch or tape, ribbon, optional: sequins)

· Chinese Leisees – red good luck envelopes (materials: red construction paper,  good luck symbol for outside, markers, anything else to use for decorating) - based on Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn

· Noise-makers (folded paper plates – kids decorate then fold (or use two plates together), fill with beans and staple or tape shut, optional: crepe paper streamers) and/or Dragon’s Breath (toilet paper tubes, kids glue colored paper around the tube, add google eyes and scales, then attach tissue paper streamers to the end of the tube – when you blow into the tube it looks like the dragon is breathing fire.)

· Write Your Own Fortune Cookie (materials: circles cut from manila colored oak tag or heavy paper, folded in half and then in half again, strips of white paper upon which kids write fortunes to tuck inside).

Finish with dragon parade around library (carrying group dragon and using noisemakers) used Lion Dance music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jORRVTC4M9Q

CDPL 2/11/26

Mock Caldecott - Bedminster School K-2 classes

 

Mock Caldecott 2026

Due to sickness & snow, this was rescheduled twice but we finally got to run our annual Mock Caldecott. We had to combine into two groups, used the technique described here:  https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/mock-caldecott-committee-be-judge.html

Group One:
Gold: Cranky, Crabby Crow
Silvers: Moon Song, Nunu and the Sea, Papilio

Group Two:
Gold: Broken, Fireworks, Cranky, Crabby Crow, In the World of Whales

Bedminster School 1/27/26