Activity: Celebrate Chinese New Year

Often times when we celebrate Chinese New Year, we may limit our teaching to dragons, zodiac, fortune cookies or lanterns and never explore Chinese inventions. Chinese have invented great many things and it is lots of fun for school age children to explore and research that. One of the fun things to explore is magnets and making a compass.

To make a compass, take a needle and rub on a magnet. Put a floating object like a cork or the bottom from a Styrofoam cup in a bowl of water. Place the magnetized needle on the floating surface. Once the needle quits moving, it will face north. Discuss earth’s magnetic field and how metal objects can become magnetized. Try the experiment with plastic and wooden objects.