Chinese Dragon Boat Festival for Kids

端午节 (Duānwǔ Jié / Dragon Boat Festival) is a traditional Chinese holiday that commemorates the life and death of the famous scholar (屈原 / Qūyuán).  This year, 端午节 will occur on Friday, June 7, 2019.

As a second-generation Chinese American mom, I grew up in a small town in the United States.  I vaguely remember hearing about 端午节 from my parents during my childhood.  Now, I am re-learning Chinese holidays with my children, 5-year-old 老大 (lǎodà / oldest child) and 2-year-old 老二 (lǎo èr / second child).

More Dragon Boat Festival learning resources

• YouTube videos about Dragon Boat Festival
• Best Children’s Books about Dragon Boat Festival
• Felt Chinese Play Food (Dim Sum and Zong Zi)

Disclaimer: We received a Dragon Boat Festival Theme Pack in exchange for an honest review.  As usual, all opinions are my own or my family.

Review of Dragon Boat Festival Printables

Fortune Cookie Mom was created by Po Tim King, a bilingual homeschooling mom. Her website offers numerous Chinese printables that her children use.

Last year, Po invited me to review her Chinese printables, and I was excited to choose the Dragon Boat theme pack!  The information in this post is based on our experience from last year; we have not discussed the holiday yet this year.

Chinese printables – language options

Each printable theme pack is available in 6 language combinations:

1. Traditional Chinese
2. Simplified Chinese
3. Traditional Chinese with Pinyin
4. Simplified Chinese with Pinyin
5. English & Traditional Chinese
6. English & Simplified Chinese

老大 reads simplified Chinese fluently without Hanyu Pinyin, so we chose the simplified Chinese-only version.

However, my Chinese reading skills are improving at a snail’s pace, and I am addicted to Pinyin!  Since I don’t want to rely on Pinyin when reading with my daughter, I take notes on a separate sheet of paper in Pinyin as needed.

Benefits of Fortune Cookie Mom’s Chinese Theme Packs

These educational printables include:

• Several language options
• Organized table of contents
• 40+ pages of various activities!
• Suggested age range for each activity
• Beautiful, detailed, colorful illustrations
• Large, easy-to-read font
• Convenient for the busy and/or non-fluent parent
• Theme packs at different price points
• Many printables are free, such as Chinese vocab and mini story books!!
• Mini books have audio in:
  • Mandarin Chinese
  • Cantonese
  • English
• Although the printable pack is geared mostly for preschoolers and kindergartners, many families use these for children ranging from age 3 to age 8!

Chinese learning activities

For reference, this is a list of activities in the Dragon Boat Festival Printables from the Table of Contents:

• Matching Game
• Penmanship practice sheets
• Dragon Boat Festival or Not
• Word Puzzles
• Vocab Clip Cards
• Chinese Number Clip Cards
• Puzzles
• Color Matching
• Size Sorting
• Size sequencing
• Shapes Tracing
• Roll & Count
• Writing Numbers
• Which One is Different?
• Patterns
• Humans vs Objects
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Coloring pages

How we used the Dragon Boat Festival printables

Chinese puzzles for children

Initially, I was worried that 老大 would find the activities too easy.  At the time of this review, she was doing 200-piece puzzles and 1st-grade math/Chinese.  However, she showed interest in the activities as I was preparing them!  She did the 2-piece and 6-piece puzzles several times on her own.

Explore this: Favorite jigsaw puzzles for kids of all ages

Chinese Montessori-inspired 3-part cards for Dragon Boat Festival

Since my daughter loves puzzles, Montessori-style 3-part cards are always a big hit.  One card is the “control.” You use it for reference when putting together the matching card.  For words that were new to me, I wrote Pinyin on the back before laminating the cards.

Color matching activity – Learn color names in Chinese

Even though 老二 was only 20 months old when we used the printables last year, he could participate in some activities, including color-matching drums.  I don’t expect him to recognize the color names in Chinese.  However, he can match the font color with the corresponding drums.

Related: Hands-on Color Matching Activities in Chinese!

Dragon Boat Festival-themed size sequencing activity

Last year, I presented two different-sized 粽子 pictures and taught my son how to compare big and small.  However, the printable comes with nine 粽子 cards by size that my daughter enjoyed sequencing.  My daughter got jealous when she saw me teaching my son and repeated this activity several times, even though it was too easy for her.

Chinese math worksheets

We couldn’t use the math worksheets since addition is too easy for my daughter and too hard for my son.  But I took a photo to show you how they look.  In addition to math symbols, Chinese characters are included for Chinese reading practice.

Try this: How to Teach Kids Basic Math for Free

Dragon Boat Festival Chinese coloring pages for children

Lastly, here are some of the coloring sheets!  Aren’t the details of the illustrations beautiful?!  My daughter used them with her Lyra colored pencils and Crayola crayons.

My daughter’s favorite part of the Dragon Boat Theme Pack is the 粽子 coloring page!  Fortunately, I could print multiple pages for her with my home printer.

She did not like 屈原 and refused to look at him. This could be the result of the “boys have cooties” phase that she’s in haha!  No worries; I’ll save that page for my son to color someday!

Related: Chinese Play Food: Realistic, Non-Plastic Toys!

Downsides

The picture for 夏天 (xiàtiān / summer day) consisted of kids eating watermelon, which I thought was somewhat confusing.  I wish an image of the beach or sunshine were used instead, though I guess summer can be represented in various ways.  My 20-month-old thought the watermelon picture was about eating, but the other images seemed obvious.

Below is a shape-tracing activity, but it can also be used for cutting practice with scissors.  Since the images of the dragon boat are different than the actual shapes, I would have preferred the shapes to be plain.  Solid shapes would make the learning objective clearer for toddlers or preschoolers.

Tips for using the Dragon Boat Festival printables:

• Look over the packet with your child before printing it out so you can see which catches their eye.  For example, 老大 tends to have a favorite activity and then want to repeat it before moving on to other activities!  She went through a phase where she wanted to color the picture of 粽子 (zòngzi / sticky rice) over and over!  This is why I prefer printables over workbooks.
• Consider a laminator and laminating pouches so that activities can be repeated, especially if you have more than one child or student.
• If you don’t have a laminator, sheet protectors could be helpful for storage and repeat use!
• Organize and set up the Chinese printables into different trays to foster independence.  We set up activity trays so my children could choose their desired activity.

Take home points

If you are a busy and/or non-fluent parent who doesn’t have time to prepare Chinese learning activities, I recommend Fortune Cookie Mom’s Dragon Boat Festival Theme Pack.

The various language options are greatly appreciated; options allow for learning to be more accessible to all types of learners! You can learn more about her Chinese learning resources on her website.

Learn more about Chinese festivals!