Having art & craft with children before Chinese New Year

Today (26th january 2011) we do art & craft with 4 years old children, we do a paper plate rabbit and fan decoration with them, because Chinese New Year is around the corner so we do some art & craft related with it. All the children sat on the floor with newspaper on the floor, they sat half circle and all the materials was put in front of them. There were 10 children and 2 teachers. Each children were given a fan that no decoration on. We prepare few water colours and different kind of bead to let the children decorate on the fan and all the materials that we need to do the paper plate rabbit. Before started the art & craft, teacher give them the instruction and tell the children purpose of we doing this art & craft. 


These are the materials we need to make paper plate rabbit:

• 9-inch paper plate
• Brown craft paint
• Cotton ball
• Small pink pom-pom
• Medium-sized wiggle eye
• 2 paper fasteners
• Scissors
• Pen
• White craft glue
• Paper plate bunny pattern

Here are the steps how to make it:

1. Turn the paper plate face down and color the back with brown paint. Then let it dry.
2. Cut the paper plate in half, and then trim off an additional inch from one half along the straight cut edge.
3. Using the pattern as a guide, cut out the head, legs, and ear pieces from the other half of the painted paper plate. Position the back leg over the bottom right side of the body. Holding the body and leg piece together, poke the tip of a pen through the pieces, and then insert a paper fastener. Repeat this step with the front leg as well. 
4. Attach the head to the back of the body using tape. Attach the ears to the back of the head using tape.
5. Glue cotton ball on as tail and the pink pom-pom on as the nose. Attach the wiggle eye using white glue as well.

Next, we do the fan decoration, here are the materials we need: 

• 3 sheets red construction paper
• Decorative foam stamps (we chose a swirl and an orange slice)
• Gold acrylic paint
• Paint brush
• Glue stick

Here are the steps how we made the Chinese new Year fan: 

1. Decorate the red paper with gold painted foam stamps. We chose a swirl design as well as an orange. Oranges are symbolic of wealth in Chinese culture. Paint the foam stamps with gold paint and press onto the paper. Let dry completely. 
2. Use a glue stick to attach all three decorated sheets together, end to end lengthwise.
3. Fold red paper accordion style, making the pleats about 1" wide. 
4. Gather all the pleats together and then hold firmly at one end. 
5. Wrap chenille stems around the end that you are holding to form the handle. Begin with gold chenille, then add red, and finish with gold.  
6. This step is optional, but if you prefer a longer handle, you can insert two jumbo craft sticks up inside the gathered handle. Squeeze a little glue into the opening to secure the sticks. Let dry. You can also paint the craft sticks gold or red. Children can decoration what ever they want.