While we’ve just celebrated the Western New Year, the Lunar New Year is right around the corner on 29 January 2025, which is another opportunity to explore festive STEM learning with children. Also known as Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, Lunar New Year is an important holiday in many East and Southeast Asian countries including China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, with each community marking the occasion with their own traditions over many days or weeks.
Read on for STEM-based learning ideas to explore Lunar New Year with your children. Don’t forget to share your Lunar New Year STEM explorations with us! Join Little Scientists’ Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to exchange STEM ideas with educators all over Australia.
IDEAS: The Sun and the Moon
Lunar New Year is based on a lunisolar calendar, which means that the year follows the phases of the moon and the time that it takes the earth to move around the sun. The Lunar New Year falls on the first new moon after the earth has completed its orbit around the sun. While the lunisolar calendar can be a confusing concept for younger children, you can help them extend their understanding of the moon and sun through age-appropriate STEM explorations. For example:
🌔 Explore the different phases of the moon. Real-time observation can be tricky due to the longer days during summer, so you can create a simulation of the moon phases instead (read the full activity instructions here). All you need is some styrofoam or playdough balls, a lamp, and some popsicle sticks.
☀️ Invite the children to document the sun’s movements. For example: Have the children take a photo of one area of your space at the same time each day and identify areas the sunlight is hitting. Compare how this changes each day or week.
Another way to document the sun’s movements is to trace shadows in your outdoor space and check later in the day to see how far the shadows have moved away from the outlines.
🪴 Track the sun’s movements using plants. If your garden has “heliotropic” or solar-tracking plants, such as daisies or sunflowers, invite the children to watch how they follow the sun throughout the day. Do taller plants move faster or slower? Learn more about the science behind heliotropic plants here.
IDEAS: Firecracker Acoustics
A familiar sound during Lunar New Year celebrations is the “pop” of firecrackers, which are believed to ward off evil spirits. Engage your children in different acoustics explorations that dive into ways you can make noises. Be ready for some loud sounds!
📣 Invite the children to create soundmakers out of an acoustic materials buffet. You can use whatever you have on hand, for example:
- Wooden and metal spoons
- Metal pots and pans
- Wooden blocks
- Frisbees
- PVC pipes
- Plastic bottles
- Bowls of water
- Marbles
- Cardboard
- Musical instruments
Here’s a guide for how you can engage the children with the materials buffet:
- Find out about children’s prior knowledge. Ask them if they’ve heard firecrackers before: What did the firecrackers sound like? If the children haven’t heard firecrackers before, listen to some examples here.
- Discuss the sounds. Did the children notice that firecrackers make lots of quick popping sounds? Do they hear other sounds? Can they recreate the sounds using their own voices or hands?
- Encourage the children to explore the materials buffet to make firecracker-like noises.
- Prompt the children to think about the noises they’re making: Are they pops or are they another type of sound? Do some materials produce louder sounds than others?
- Record the sounds and play them back for the children. What materials sound the closest to firecrackers?
- Extend the exploration: What other sounds can the children make? Can they make sounds that recreate clicks, whirrs, bangs, or whooshes?
🧧 Explore the force of air by making popping paper with the children. This experience is more suitable as a demonstration by educators due to the motor skills required. However, children aged 4 years and above may be able to do this activity.
Encourage the children to think about how force, air, and the material affect the sound produced. Ask the children why they think the paper makes a popping noise and encourage them to hypothesise what would happen with papers of different sizes or different thickness.
Looking for a popper craft that can be adapted for younger children? See our holiday STEM blog for instructions on how to make our confetti party popper.
IDEAS: DIY Dragons
Another iconic Lunar New Year tradition involves lion and dragon dances, which are thought to bring good luck and fortune for the year ahead. Use this activity to engage the children in a design challenge and explore these mystical creatures.
🐲 Invite the children to make their own DIY lion or dragon. Provide the children with everyday materials, such as:
- Cardboard boxes
- Crates
- Scrap fabrics or old blankets
- Pipes
- Ropes
- Egg cartons
- Cardboard rolls
- Plastic punnet containers
- Pipe cleaners
- Streamers
- Paddle pop sticks
Instructions:
- Ask the children if they’ve seen a lion or dragon dance before and to share their experiences. If they have not seen a lion dance, watch this video.
- Encourage children to design their own dragon or lion with the materials buffet. Prompt them to think about how they would design their dragon or lion so that it can dance. For example: Will the movements be controlled by some strings like a puppet?
- Encourage children to think about the materials they would use and share their designs with each other.
Develop your STEM skills with pedagogy-based STEM PD:
- Browse our in-person STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM Hours.
- Book an in-service workshop for your team.
- Book a STEM Family Workshop for your families.
