As a culminating activity to an informational text writing unit, Winthrop Avenue fourth grade students in Christina Colletti’s class studied Chinese culture and made bright red Chinese lanterns to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The students read “Celebrate Chinese New Year with the Fong Family” by F. Isabel Campoy and Jillian Lin’s “Chinese New Year Wishes” where they learned and discussed how the Chinese celebrate using firecrackers, eating delicious food and wearing red. 

By following directions on the SmartBoard, the students learned to make Chinese lanterns of construction paper, gold ribbon and tassels. Ms. Colletti explained that the activity, although fun, actually parallels the concept of chronological sequencing learned in their informational writing unit, in that the students follow a sequence of directions to complete a task. After the students constructed their lanterns, they were instructed to write about their own family’s tradition on Google Classroom.