Year of the Rat Craft

You will need:
Grey & Pink Contruction paper
Mini pink pompom (for nose)
Pink and white pipe cleaners
Googly eyes
Glue & Tape

Instructions:

• Cut a semi-circle from your grey paper, and roll it into a cone shape. You can glue or tape this together.
• Cut your white pipe cleaners into 1 or 2 inch parts (for whiskers).
• Glue the cut pipe cleaners to the pointed end of the cylinder to make whiskers. Next, glue a pompom to form the nose.
• At the open end of the cylinder, glue or tape a length of pink pipe cleaner for the tail.
• You can cut semi-circle pieces from constructions paper (pink) to make two tiny ears; glue to tape these on.
• Add on some googly eyes

Your finished; A NEW YEARS RAT!

Felt Snake Craft

Items you need:
Felt (Red)
2 googly eyes
Clothespins
Pipecleaners

Tools:
Glue
Ruler
Black marker
Scissors

Instructions:

• Lay the ruler on the long edge of the felt
• Use your marker to draw a line the length of the ruler
• Cut the felt strip
• Your felt strip should be the same length and width of the ruler
• Put pipe cleaner in the middle of the felt strip
• Glue along the long edge of the felt strip and one end of the felt strip
• Fold the felt over the pipe cleaner, so the long edges of the felt come together
• Pin the  felt together with your clothespins
• Cut a new piece of felt about 1/4" wide by 3/4" long.
• Cut a "V" shape in one of the short ends to make the snake’s tongue.
• Take the opposite short end and place it in the one end of the snake that you did not glue shut
• Glue the snake’s tongue in place
• Glue googly eyes on the snake above the tongue  
• Once the glue it dry you can remove the clothespins
• Your snake can be wound around your pen or pencil, to other object of your choice

China Red and Yellow Bracelet

Instructions at:
http://www.dltkholidays.com/china/mbracelet.htm

For Similar activities:
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/index.htm

Games:

Forcing the City Gate

Appoint captains, choose sides, and form into two lines facing each other. Everyone in each line, take hold of each other's hands tightly and sing:

He stuck a feather in his hat,
And hurried to the town
And children met him with a horse
For the gates were broken down.

One player from the other side runs with all his force throwing himself upon the hands of the children who had sung. The object of the game to being able to "break through," If successful, the two players whose hands were parted come to the his/her side. The other side then sings. One from this group will try to break through the line, and thus alternate until one side or the other is broken up.

The Chopstick Game

You can play as individuals or teams.
Age: 6+

Each child will need a pair of chopsticks, and each child or team will need two bowls and a number of marbles, maltesers, smartees, peanuts or marshmallows.

Place the bowls about 6-8 feet apart, on tables or chairs. Put the objects in one of the bowls. When you call "start", each child must pick up one of his objects, using only his chopsticks, and carry it to the empty bowl. He then returns for the next object, and so on until he has moved all his objects safely across and is the winner.

Hands must not be used at any time! If an object is dropped, it must be picked up and put back in the first bowl. You are only allowed to move one object at a time.

You can make this game easier by varying the objects. Marbles are hardest, marshmallows are easiest!

If you are playing with individual children, we suggest at least 10 objects to make the game last a decent time. For a team challenge, you might want only 3 or 4 objects, depending on the number of children in the team.