Chinese New Year of the Tiger Learning Activities for Kids

As you already know, Feb 01, 2022, is the Spring Festival, the biggest festival, and celebration for Chinese people around the world. It is the Chinese New Year of the Tiger(虎年).

Chinese New Year and Zodiac Signs

Talking about Chinese New Year, we need to know about Chinese zodiac signs – 12 animals represent 12 years. Remember, because the Chinese year follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar (农历), the starting date of the Chinese New Year falls in January or February each year.

Tiger Years

As mentioned earlier, according to the Chinese calendar, each year represents a zodiac animal that repeats in a 12-year cycle. Use the chart below to see if there are some Tiger persons you might know of.

The year 2022 will be the year of Water Tiger. Well, each Chinese year has a zodiac animal sign and each zodiac sign is associated with one of the 5 elements: wood (木), fire (火),  earth (土),  metal/gold(金), water(水). Below you can find the meaning of each element is associated to:

• wood (木): creativity, imagination
• fire (火): passion, adventure
• earth (土): patience, stability
• metal/gold(金): willpower, solidity
• water(水): responsiveness, persuasion

Now let’s have a look at the personalities of the people who are born in the year of the tiger (so-called “Tiger person”).

How to Write Tiger in Chinese

The worksheet above shows how the tiger is called in Chinese:

tiger 老虎

Chinese New Year Decorations

Before the arrival of the Chinese New Year, people will clean their houses and put on some decorations. Some common decorations include

Chinese New Year Couplets

Character 福 (fu)

Chinese New Year Greetings

During the Chinese New Year celebration, people will say greet each other with 吉祥话(lucky phrases). 

Here are some easy ones kids can practice tracing, coloring as well as saying them.

All the activity worksheets are in our Chinese Year of the Tiger Learning Pack for Kids. Make sure to grab them and use them with your kids to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese year of the tiger.

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Related Resources

• Chinese Year of the Tiger Learning Pack for Kids
• Celebrating New Year – a Chinese Chant to Learn about Chinese New Year
• Supplies for Chinese New Year and Culture Celebration
• Chinese Year of the Pig – Learn about Pigs in Chinese
• Year of the Rat Chinese Learning Activity Workbook
• Year of the Pig Chinese Learning Activity Workbook
• Legend of Nian
• Chinese Zodiac Animals – Great Race Story and More

• Lucky Phrases for Chinese New Year – Chinese Spring Festival Greetings