CHINESE NEW YEAR PROGRAM

On January 17th, 2004, a small but intrepid group braved the cold weather to gather in the Bucyrus Public Library's Community Room for an afternoon of learning about Chinese New Year, which officially began January 22.

Children's Librarian Barbara Scott presented a short Powerpoint presentation on the history of Chinese New Year for those present.

After that, participants could choose to make any or all of seven crafts available:

1. Let's Make a Dragon Mask--Participants colored and cut out a dragon face and taped it to a paint stick to form a mask.

2. Let's Make a Chinese Flag--a small replica of the Chinese flag was provided for participants to color along with a short history of the flag.

3. Year of the Monkey Coloring Page--Downloaded picture of monkey with banner was colored and turned in to Mrs. Scott to be displayed with pictures of the day's event.

4. Chinese New Year Fireworks--Glue was spread on black construction paper in fireworks shapes. Glitter was sprinkled onto the glue to color the firework.

5. Dancing Dragon Toy--Dragon head and tail were colored and then attached to accordion-folded paper and barbeque skewers taped to the back to move the toy.

6. Chinese Lanterns--Participants folded and cut construction paper to make lantern body and added strip for handle.

7. Let's Make a Tangram Puzzle--Tangram square shape (with smaller pieces inside) was given to be cut apart. A sheet of tangram patterns was also available for participants to take to form figures, as well as a small sheet that told the legend of the tangram.

After the crafts were finished, participants were invited to the refreshment table. Pretzels, chow mein noodles, gummi/marshmallow sharks, fruit snacks, brownies, and punch were served.

One participant was the lucky winner of a set of small Chinese character stamps.

Each participant received a goodie bag with two sheets of Chinese panda stickers, two small notepads shaped as Chinese coats, a set of chopsticks, and a red good luck envelope with a play $1.00 bill inside.