Chinese New Year
Age: Teenagers/Adults
Level: Upper intermediate (B2)
Time: 45 minutes
 list of the animals on the wheel. If students find this
Activity: In this lesson, students will:
1. read about Chinese New Year;
2. read a Chinese legend;
3. discover their Chinese animal sign;
4. read a character description.
 pig, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake
Language focus: reading; speaking; animal
vocabulary; character adjectives
Materials: one copy of the worksheet per student
Procedure
1. Hand out the first two pages of the worksheet.
Ask students to work in pairs and talk to their
partner about last New Year using the opening
three questions in Exercise 1. If you have different
nationalities in your class, ask them to explain any
interesting New Year’s traditions in their country.
When they have finished, ask each pair to report
their partner’s answers to the class. Tell the students
that in China, New Year is celebrated in January or
February depending on the lunar calendar.
2. Tell students they are going to read and learn about
Chinese New Year. Ask students to read questions
a–e individually, then go through the questions as a
class to check their understanding. Ask students to
read the short article and then answer the questions
in pairs.
Key:
a) on the first day of the first month on the Chinese
lunar calendar (Feb 8th 2016, Jan 28th 2017, Feb 16th
2018)
b) to get rid of bad fortune and welcome some good
c) Kung hei fat choy
d) lucky money
e) 15 to 20 days
3. Ask students to look at the Chinese Astrological
Wheel in Exercise 2. Ask them what the symbol at
the centre is called. (It’s called yin and yang and
symbolizes the principle that all things exist as
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Adults/Celebrations: Chinese New Year
Teacher’s notes
contrary opposites – male/female, dark/light, old/
young.) In pairs, ask them if they can think of any
more opposites in English. Next, ask them to make a
difficult, write the words on the board and ask them
to match the words to the animals.
Key:
The 12 animals are: horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog,
4. Now hand out the remaining worksheet pages. Ask
students to look at Exercise 3. Students read the first
part of a legend about the 12 animals and put the
rest of the story in order. Try to elicit the meaning of
any difficult vocabulary like envoy and oversleep.
Key:
1. f
2. e
3. g
4. a
5. b
6. c
7. d
5. Tell students to work in pairs and decide on a
character adjective that they think represents each
one of the twelve animals. When they have finished,
ask them to compare their answers with another
pair.
6. Next, ask students to complete Exercise 4 in
pairs, then check answers as a class. Did they get
many answers right? Or do they see the animals
very differently to Chinese tradition? Model the
pronunciation of any difficult words and get
students to practise saying the words.
Key:
1. rat
2. ox
3. tiger
4. rabbit
5. dragon
6. snake
7. horse
1
 Chinese New Year Teacher’s notes
8. sheep 8. Explain to students that a motto is a short sentence
9. monkey or phrase chosen as encapsulating the beliefs or
10. rooster ideals of an individual, family or institution. Give
11. dog them a couple of examples (Boy Scouts: Be Prepared;
12. pig Nike: Just do it) and ask if there are any mottos in
their language that they can translate into English.
TEACHING TIP: When teaching new
vocabulary, ensure that students learn the
correct pronunciation by asking them first to identify
the number of syllables in the word, and then to
identify which syllable carries the main stress in the
word. This can done by writing the word on the
board, underlining all the syllables, then highlighting
the stressed syllable, e.g. sym pa the tic.

7. Ask students to look at the list of character

adjectives and decide whether they are positive or
negative. When they have finished, conduct whole
class feedback and ask students if there are any
other adjectives that they would like to add to each
list. Ask students to look at the Astrological Wheel
and find their Chinese Zodiac animal. Do they agree
or disagree with the adjectives that describe it? What
adjectives would they add?

Key:
Positive: affectionate, alert, artistic, attractive,
brave, charming, confident, determined, energetic,
fair, friendly, generous, hard-working, independent,
intelligent, loyal, lucky, noble, optimistic, passionate,
polite, popular, sociable, strong, successful,
sympathetic, trustworthy, wise

Negative: impatient, quick-tempered, self-centred,

selfish, stubborn

Could be either: curious, competitive, sensitive, shy

TEACHING TIP: Ask students to write

a homework assignment using the new
vocabulary learnt in class. For example, you might ask
them to write an essay describing a family member in
which they have to use five of the new adjectives from
this class.

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 Chinese New Year Worksheet

Exercise 1: Chinese New Year

How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve this year? Where were you? Who were you with? What did you do?

Read the text below and answer the following questions with your partner:

a. When is the next Chinese New Year?

b. Why do people clean their homes?

c. How do you say ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese?

d. What are children given?

e. How long do the celebrations last?

The Chinese New Year begins on the first day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar, but people start
preparing for the celebrations several days earlier. Families clean their houses, hoping to get rid of bad fortune
and welcome some good. On New Year’s Eve there is usually a large meal with the whole family, who then play
cards or other games. Every light is supposed to be kept on the whole night, and at midnight the sky is lit up by
fireworks and firecrackers. The next morning children are given ‘lucky money’ wrapped in red paper, and families
greet each other saying, ‘Kung hei fat choy,’ which means ‘a happy and prosperous New Year’. The New Year
celebrations continue for 15 to 20 days, ending with the Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the New Year.
Each year is dedicated to one of 12 animals, and it is believed that people inherit the characteristics of the animal
in whose year they were born.

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 Chinese New Year Worksheet

Exercise 2: The Chinese Astrological Wheel

Look at the picture of the Chinese Astrological Wheel. There is an astrological character linked to each
of the 12 animals used to symbolize each year. How many of the animals can you name? And what is the
name of the symbol at the centre of the wheel?

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 Chinese New Year Worksheet

Exercise 3: The legend of the 12 animals

Read the first part of a legend about the 12 animals in the Chinese calendar.

One day the Jade Emperor, the ruler of heaven, asked to see the 12 most interesting animals on Earth. The
emperor’s envoy met a rat and told him to find the other 11 animals. These were the cat, monkey, rooster, tiger,
dragon, snake, ram, rabbit, dog, horse and ox. The rat found all the animals and told them to meet the Emperor the
next morning. The cat was worried that he would oversleep and asked the rat to wake him.

Can you put the rest of the story in order?

a. And so the pig became the 12th animal.

b. When the poor cat woke up he ran up to heaven but was told he was too late.

c. The cat was so angry that he chased the first rat he saw.

d. That is why, to this day, cats always chase rats.

e. The next day, when the Emperor saw that there were only 11 animals, he was very angry.

f. The rat thought the Emperor would prefer the cat, so he let him sleep.

g. He sent a servant to bring back the first animal he saw, which turned out to be a pig.

Exercise 4: What animal?

dog ox tiger rooster

rabbit monkey pig rat
horse snake dragon sheep

Match the animals from the Chinese Zodiac below to the list of character adjectives.
1. _______________: charming, determined, intelligent, good with money. Motto: ‘I rule.’

2. _______________: trustworthy, hard-working, stubborn. Motto: ‘I persevere.’

3. _______________: brave, competitive, optimistic. Motto: ‘I win.’

4. _______________: lucky, shy, generous, a good friend. Motto: ‘I retreat.’

5. _______________: strong, energetic, a born leader. Motto: ‘I reign.’

6. _______________: wise, attractive, polite, confident. Motto: ‘I feel.’

7. _______________: sociable, intelligent, impatient, passionate. Motto: ‘I control.’

8. _______________: artistic, sympathetic, sensitive, a worrier. Motto: ‘I depend.’

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 Chinese New Year Worksheet

9. _______________: curious, successful, independent, sociable. Motto: ‘I entertain.’

10. _______________: friendly, hard-working, self-centred, popular. Motto: ‘I know better.’

11. _______________: loyal, fair, selfish, alert. Motto: ‘I worry.’

12. _______________: noble, affectionate, friendly, easily angered. Motto: ‘I preserve.’

With your partner, put the character adjectives from the previous exercise into the correct column in
the table below:

Positive Negative Could be either

Look back at the animals on the Astrological Wheel. Look for the year in which you were born and find your
animal. Do the adjectives correctly describe your character? Are there any that you disagree with? Are there
any that you would add?

Do you have a motto or are there any famous mottos in your country?

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