Chinese New Year for kids

It's the year of the Monkey ! 

And not just any monkey. On February 8th, 2016, Chinese communities everywhere will be celebrating the year of the Red Fire Monkey, which, considering is supposed to bring nothing but bad luck, I’m wondering what there is to celebrate about? BUT…apparently there are some antidotes to help if you are born in this zodiac year. Phew.

Top Monkey tips ! 

  1. Wear Red. It drives away bad spirits and brings you luck, prosperity and happiness. Red underwear is especially good, but under no circumstances can you buy it yourself. Luckily this year the Chinese New Year is quite close to St Valentine’s Day, so start hinting early. 
  2. Wear Jade pendants, earrings or bracelets to ward off bad luck. You can buy these yourself, which is just as well because you might be pushing your luck on the Valentine's front.
  3. Make sure you face North East, opposite to Tai Sui the ‘God of Age’ star, which isn’t really a star. It roughly coincides with Jupiter and takes 12 years to orbit the earth. This means quite a lot of hard work, but take it as an opportunity to spring clean. Move the position of your bed, seats, desks, even move house!

In red fire spirit, we’ve decided to make some red fire breathing DoddleDragons.

You’ll need a few easy to come by bits and pieces.

1)     Paper fire templates

2)     Felts

3)     Scissors , pinking scissors if you have them helps add to the drama

4)     Pipe cleaners

5)     DoddleCaps

6)     DoddleBag

7)     DoddleStickers

8)     A bit of ribbon

9)     Some googly eyes if you like, but not necessary

10)  A finger disco LED ligh

 

Get some paper and cut out some fire shapes

Connect two 30cm pipecleaners together, and thread them through the caps. When you get to the last cap, bend the pipe cleaner back in on itself.

Screw the top cap onto the DoddleBag

Make a couple of nicks in one of your felt flames, and thread the pipe cleaner through

Stick on a flame cover

Put a DoddleSticker on the head and apply a googly eye

Stick flames on the head

Open the zip and put in your LED light

Whilst the zipper is open, put in some more tongue flames

Zip it up.

Attach a ribbon

Dance with your DoddleDragon

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!