Chinese New Year Craft - Handprint Tiger Painting

2010 is the Year of the Tiger and begins with Chinese New Year on February 14, 2010. Make a handprint tiger painting as a school, party or home activity to let kids learn about Chinese traditions and get them interested in the Chinese New Year.

Tell your students or children about the Chinese lunar calendar and how each year is named after an animal. The animals repeat in an order. Show children the order of the animals and talk about what year each child was born. Tell them the animal for the year in which they were born.

Start with a variety of finger paints, especially orange and black. Lay out newspaper or craft covers over the work area to protect from craft paint spills. Pour a small amount of orange and black craft finger paint into separate paper plates.

Lay out sheets of heavy craft paper or cardstock. Take your child's hands and place each on firmly, palm-down on the orange paint. If necessary use a paint brush to evenly coat each hand with orange paint.

Show your child how to hold their fingers so the thumb sticks straight out. The first and second fingers should be together and the ring and pinky ringers should be pressed together. This way you have two groups of fingers and the thumb sticking out.

Help your child press one handprint, upside down (with the heel pointing up and the fingers pointing down) in the center of the cardstock. Then press the second hand to the right of the first handprint. The thumb on the right hand prints should point right; it will be your Chinese tiger's tail for this craft.

The finger groups should all be pointing down like four legs for your tiger. Next, make another handprint with just the palm; don't paint the fingers. Press the painted palm on the paper to make the tiger's head.

Provide more craft paints and use individual fingers to add details to your Chinese tiger painting. Add black tiger stripes, eyes, mouth, ears and a background of grass, sky or sun.

Let the Chinese tiger paintings dry and display the craft on your fridge, bulletin board or as a decoration for a Chinese New Year party. You could also make this craft into a Chinese New Year card to send to friends and family celebrating Chinese New Year.