Playing With Words 365

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Freebie Friday! Chinese Zodiac Clothespin Activity

January 19, 2012 by Katie Filed Under: Fine Motor Activities, Freebie Friday, Language Enrichment Activities for Parents, Therapy Ideas and Activities 16 Comments

This week, we have been reading three books focusing on Chinese New Year and Chinese Culture. Why? Because Monday is CHINESE NEW YEAR! And, in case you didn’t know, my husband is {half} Chinese, and I really would like our children to grow up knowing about their different heritages. (In case you were wondering, I am mostly Irish- my mom is 100% and my Husband also has some Irish heritage).

So we have been reading the follow books this week:


All three books are cute and simple books about Chinese New Year and Chinese Culture. Dim Sum For Everyone by Grace Lin has a bunch of different popular dim sum foods named in the back…what is your favorite dim sum? Mine are Sesame Rice Balls! 😉

Sierra from H is for Homeschooling and I were chatting about what activities we wanted to do for Chinese New Year, since we both have ties to the Chinese Culture(She has two ADORABLE little boys, go look!!), and we both thought of clothespins wheels, so I just HAD to make them (Images thanks to Office Images).

When I was talking to Sierra, she had mentioned how animal ID/matching would be more appropraite for her son, as he is a little younger than my E, than letter matching/ID, so I decided to make these wheels to serve two purposes: Letter ID/matching and animal matching/ID. This way, it can be used with a bigger variety of children/students. So in addition to the wheels, I’m providing pictures of each animal that can be cut out and glued onto a clothespin for animal matching/ID!

How to use these clothespin wheels:

  • Print out the pages on card stock, cut out, and laminate for durability
  • For letter matching activity: You will need 12 clothespins. On each clothespin, write the first letter of each animal of the Chinese Zodiac. Have your child match the letter on the clothespin to the first letter of the animals name on the wheel (which you will fine is in a bigger font size) by attaching the clothespin onto the appropriate letter.
  • For animal matching activity: You will need 12 clothespins. Print out and cut out the pictures of the animals (see below) and glue them onto the clothespins. Have your child watch animal-to-animal by attaching the clothespin to the corresponding animal on the wheel.
  • Looking for another great Chinese Zodiac/Chinese New Year activity? Check out the two sets of memory/go fish/describing cards I made HERE.

Get your own copy of the Chinese Zodiac Clothespin Wheels HERE for FREE (Images thanks to Office Images) ! PLEASE let me know if you use them, and if you blog about using them, link back and let me know!

Now, I hope you all have a RELAXING weekend! My week was just too crazy…I am looking forward to some down time 🙂

Cheers!

Please click HERE to see all the places I may have linked this post up

About Katie

Katie is a licensed, credentialed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom to four (8, 6, 3 and 6 months). Her passion for educating, inspiring and empowering parents of children with all abilities led her to start her blog playing with words 365 where she shares information about speech & language development & intervention strategies, parenting, photography and a little about her family life too. Katie has been working in the field of speech pathology for 12 years and is certified in The Hanen Centre’s It Takes Two to Talk ® and Target Word ® programs and holds a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In addition to blogging and being a mommy, Katie works part time in her small private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Comments

  1. Carla @ Preschool Powol Packets says

    January 21, 2012 at 6:42 am

    Katie, This is AWESOME! I wish I’d seen it yesterday, but I’m totally going to share it on FB and Pinterest! I love the animal *and* letter matching options…I’m pretty sure my kids will throw in animal sounds and a story or two too! So cool!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 21, 2012 at 10:37 am

      Thanks Carla!! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Deb@ Living Montessori Now says

    January 22, 2012 at 4:39 am

    Great printable, Katie! I love that it helps eye-hand coordination, too … thanks for so generously sharing! Your printable was the free printable of the day at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page, and I pinned both your Chinese New Year printables to my Kids’ Chinese New Year Activities Pinterest board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/kids-chinese-new-year-activities/.

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 22, 2012 at 9:33 am

      Thanks Deb for sharing my activity!:D

      Reply
  3. Lori says

    January 22, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    I love this idea! The chinese zodiac is so interesting and you can also have the kids figure out what animal they are by the year they are born. Fun! Thanks for linking to Thinky Linky Thursday!
    Lori @ Cachey Mama’s Classroom

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 22, 2012 at 3:29 pm

      Thanks Lori! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Carrie @ Crafty Moms Share says

    January 22, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    What a great idea!! Thank you so much for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 23, 2012 at 10:21 am

      Thanks Carrie! Love linking up with you all every week!

      Reply
  5. Beth says

    January 23, 2012 at 6:45 am

    Very fun idea! And I can’t wait to check out your all-new-to-me book recommendations!!
    Beth =-)

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 23, 2012 at 10:20 am

      Thanks Beth! 😀

      Reply
  6. Ami says

    January 23, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    Would love for you to link-up with Printable Power! 🙂
    http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/?p=715675

    Reply
  7. Aimee says

    January 25, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    What a fun idea and an awesome free printable! Thank you for sharing your ideas with us on The Sunday Showcase

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 26, 2012 at 8:54 am

      Thanks for hosting Aimee!

      Reply
  8. ShannonS says

    February 9, 2013 at 1:32 pm

    Thank you! I have a beautiful daughter from China so I will be using this at home and at school! =)

    Reply
  9. Sharron says

    March 10, 2013 at 4:14 am

    I really love the idea! However, instead of using your idea (I’m sorry, no kids yet :p) I’d love to use the animal images for my own webpage, as I’m giving an explanation on Chinese zodiacs and was looking for cute images. (Sorry, webpage is in Dutch)

    Sharron

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Chinese Lunar New Year Activities for Kids - Meet Penny: Homeschool Mom Blog for balancing family, time, and budget says:
    January 24, 2014 at 5:58 am

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