Chinese New Year: Chinese Zodiac Animals and Personality Traits
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Last updated almost 6 years ago
5 questions
Note from the author:
This is a fun formative about how much your Chinese Zodiac animal represents your personality, and contains fun facts and images about Chinese (Lunar) New Year! This is most suitable for 4th-8th grades, but very adaptable for older/younger students.
About this formative
This formative is adapted from ReadWriteThink's activities: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/chinese-year-starts-today-20424.html. (Please do not delete the citation at the bottom of the page when you assign this formative.)
Background
January 25th, 2020 is the first day of the New Year on the Chinese lunar calendar. Each year of the calendar's 12-year cycle is represented by an animal. According to the Chinese zodiac, people born during a given year share traits with that animal. 2020 is the Year of the Rat.
To use this formative
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Note:
If you're adapting this formative for younger grades, then https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/chinese-horoscopes/ or https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/ may be better websites for the students to use to research the Chinese Zodiac.
Chinese New Year 🏮 🎑 🥁 🎉
Nine Asian countries celebrate the Lunar New Year with public holidays and special activities. It is a 15-day holiday, beginning on the first day of a new moon and ending with the full moon on the day of the Lantern Festival.
(Image: ChineseNewYear.net)
About 1/5 of the world's population will celebrate this year, and New Year's Eve is the world's biggest annual migration, with over 200 million people making every effort to get home for a big celebratory dinner with their extended families!
(Image: ChineseNewYear.net)
The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar year, so the date of the Lunar New Year changes every year. The Chinese calendar also follows a 12-year pattern, with each year named after an animal. There are various stories which explain this. The simplest is that Buddha (or the Jade Emperor) invited all of the animals to join him for a New Year celebration, but only 12 animals turned up. To reward the animals that did come, Buddha named a year after each of them in the order that they arrived, starting with the Rat, followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.
(Image: ChineseNewYear.net)
Depending on the year you are born, you are believed to have the various character traits of that year's animal.
(Source: Activity Village)
10 points
10
Question 1
1.
How would you describe your own character traits? Think about what makes your personality unique, and write 5 - 8 characteristics in a list below.
(Note: these should not be physical characteristics like hair color or height, but qualities such as "a good sense of humor," "honest," or "a risk-taker.")
0 points
0
Question 2
2.
Read about the Chinese Zodiac below. (If the website doesn't display well on your device, you can click to visit it here.)
What was the Chinese Zodiac animal for the year you were born?
10 points
10
Question 3
3.
Go back to the same website and read about the characteristics of that zodiac animal, then pick 4 to write about in this table.
Think about how much each characteristic represents you; give it a score out of 10 (10 = I am completely this characteristic; 0 = This characteristic is not me at all) and give an example of a time when you showed, and didn't show, this characteristic.
0 points
0
Question 4
4.
Read about the other Chinese Zodiac animals and their characteristics. (If the website doesn't display well on your device, you can click to visit it here.)
Which Chinese Zodiac animal do you think best represents your personality?
10 points
10
Question 5
5.
Write an essay explaining why this animal best represents you. You must:
Include facts from the website about the animal and its personality traits
Include specific examples from your life of how you have shown those traits.
Happy New Year! 新年快乐!恭喜发财!
(Image: ChineseNewYear.net)
This formative has been adapted from an activity by ReadWriteThink: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/chinese-year-starts-today-20424.html