• Chinese New Year is a vibrant celebration with colorful decorations.Dragon puppets celebrating the Chinese New Year holiday image by nextrecord from Fotolia.com
  
  While most of the world celebrates the new year on the first day of January, Chinese New Year is an annual event that takes place during either January or February, depending on the phases of the moon. This bright and colorful holiday usually involves parades and other rituals to signify the coming of a new year. Children can partake in Chinese culture by creating arts and crafts projects to celebrate the day.
  
  

Paper Fans

• Paper fans are a craft that is easy for all age and skill levels. Gather several sheets of construction paper in your desired color. Decorate your paper as desired. You can try rubber stamping Chinese-inspired imagery, such as dragons, pandas or lanterns. You could also use paint, glitter, or markers to create your design. Attach your sheets of paper together with glue, arranging end to end lengthwise. Fold your paper over one inch, then repeat in alternating directions as if you were making an accordion. Gather your fan at the bottom with glue or a rubber band and fan out the top.
  
  

Animal Puppets

• In Chinese culture, different animals represent people born in different years. For example, the year 2000 was the year of the dragon. There is also the year of the goat, dog, horse, snake, rabbit, tiger, ox, rat and boar. Paper bag animal puppets are a favorite of young children because they are simple to make and fun to play with. Make a puppet by setting a brown paper lunch bag on a flat surface, flap side up. Decorate the puppet with pieces of paper, felt, yarn, paint, markers or any other chosen material. Depending on the material, these can be glued in place with white school glue or hot glue. Once the glue is dry, children will enjoy slipping their hands inside the paper bag and playing with their new puppet.
  
  

Dragon Crafts

• Perhaps one of the most iconic images from Chinese New Year is the dragon. There are many different crafts projects you can make that depict dragons. You could make a paper kite by cutting out a large diamonds shape out of poster board. Paint your dragon image on the kite or use crayons and markers if preferred. Decorate with glitter. Trim your kite with ribbon and string a long piece of fishing twine through a punched hole in the bottom of your kite. You could also create a dragon mask by painting a paper plate and cutting to shape. Yet another dragon craft option is to make a long puppet out of construction paper and sticks. Arrange several sheets of construction paper end to end and glue together. Trace out your long dragon shape and cut out with scissors. Hot glue popsicle sticks to the bottom of your dragon so it can be carried and moved. Decorate as desired.