We love celebrating the lunar new year with fun Chinese New Year Crafts, like this fun and easy Chinese Drum.
This Chinese drum craft is all kinds of fun and great for celebrating the Chinese New Year with kids.
Celebrating the good luck of Chinese New Year with traditional foods and some fun activities including a dragon puppet to mimic the dragon dances and red paper lanterns.
A fun Chinese New Year fact is that the Chinese Drum is good luck as it creates loud noises scaring away the evil spirits that legend has it comes to visit on Chinese New Year's Eve.
Chinese New Year Crafts are so fun to spend time together as a family.
Chinese New Year Crafts
A few years ago, we celebrated the Chinese New Year with these super fun Chinese New Year Dragon Puppets and boy was they a hit.
We took them to our class where all the kids in the class were able to make them. The following year we celebrated by sharing our fun Felt Fortune Cookies. We were able to personalize our notes and it made for a fun Lunar celebration.
Chinese New Years Crafts are some of our favorites. Some other Chinese New Year Crafts that you will love include: DIY Fortune Cookies, Giant Paper Lantern DIY, and Printable Chinese New Year Activities for Kids
We highlighted these Chinese New Year Printables along with some other fun kid's crafts in our January Crafts for Kids along with our 101+ Easy Craft Ideas for kids.
Be sure to check out the 101 more printables for kids like this HAPPY one.
This year, my littles helped me decide that we want to make our own Chinese drum.
Check out these other Chinese New Year Crafts!
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Chinese Rattle Drum
We encourage our kids to not only learn and love our own cultures and beliefs but to celebrate those of our neighbors and friends.
Creating a fun craft that the kids can decorate and put their own stamp on is so great for them.
Supplies
There are a few supplies for this project. I am always looking for super cheap deals so I definitely recommend looking at your local Dollar Tree or 99 cent store when buying in bulk.
Here are supplies listed for you here to make it easier on you.
- Small Round Paper Mache Box
- Happy Chinese New Year Printable
- Ribbon
- Beads
- Dowel
- X-acto Knife
How To Make Chinese New Year Drum
We had so much fun creating the Chinese Lettering for the word HAPPY. In order to create this craft, here are your steps.
- First print out the printables
- Second color in the HAPPY signs
Next, cut out each circle on the outside of the black circle.
Using glue (I love how easy spray glue is) glue the circles to each side of the box.
Using either the end of the scissors or an X-acto knife, cut a small "x" on one of the three sides of the box. If you're looking at it as a compass, you would make an "x" at South, East, and West.
On the "south" cut, you will be gently pushing the ½-inch dowel into the box.
Thread your ribbon through the sides of the box (East and West). I like to wrap the ribbon around the dowel a few times to make sure your ribbon isn't falling out one side or the other.
Tie a few beads to each side of the drum. Depending on the size of the beads, you may need to double-wrap the beads and then tie the end.
The key is to make sure the beads hit the middle of the box to make the drum sound (approximately 2 inches)
There you have it! The HAPPIEST Chinese New Year's Drum there ever was!
Be sure to check out our January Coloring Pages and February Coloring Pages!
Additional Questions
Here are a few questions that you may have now that you have started this project:
This is another name for the Chinese drum we are showing you above. This is a fun craft that the kids can use during your Chinese New Year celebration
In China, the drum represents spirit and power. They are now widely used during celebrations and ceremonies.
It is my understanding that the spin drum originally was created as a noise maker in Peru. The Chinese also have a two sided drum called the Tanggu, and so the spin drum might have evolved off of that as well.
Download Your Free Chinese Happy Printable
Other Chinese New Year Crafts
- Dragon Coloring Pages For Kids
- Toilet Paper Roll Dragon
- Chinese New Year Bingo
Chinese Drum
Materials
Tools
- X-acto Knife
Instructions
First print out the printables
Second color in the HAPPY signs- Next, cut out each circle on the outside of the black circle.
- Using glue (I love how easy spray glue is) glue the circles to each side of the box.
- Using either the end of the scissors, or an x-acto knife, cut a small “x” on one three sides of the box. If you’re looking at it like a compass, you would make an “x” at South, East, and West.
- On the “south” cut, you will be gently pushing the ½ inch dowel into the box. Thread your ribbon through the sides of the box (East and West). I like to wrap the ribbon around the dowel a few times to make sure your ribbon isn’t falling out one side or the other. Tie a few beads to each side of the drum. Depending on the size of the beads, you may need to double wrap the beads and then tie the end. The key is to make sure the beads hit the middle of the box to make the drum sound (approximately 2 inches)
There you have it! The HAPPIEST Chinese New Years Drum there ever was!
On the “south” cut, you will be gently pushing the ½ inch dowel into the box. Thread your ribbon through the sides of the box (East and West). I like to wrap the ribbon around the dowel a few times to make sure your ribbon isn’t falling out one side or the other. Tie a few beads to each side of the drum. Depending on the size of the beads, you may need to double wrap the beads and then tie the end. The key is to make sure the beads hit the middle of the box to make the drum sound (approximately 2 inches)
There you have it! The HAPPIEST Chinese New Years Drum there ever was!CONNECT WITH MADE WITH HAPPY!
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Chinese Drum
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