Lunar New Year Wishing Tree

The past few years we have learned a bit about some of the traditions of Lunar New Year.  One tradition we learned about came specifically from China -- the Chinese Wishing Tree.  

We began by reading the story The Wishing Tree by Rosanne Thong. (my affiliate link will take you to Amazon)  It is about a grandmother and her grandson who make wishes on the Banyon Tree in Hong Kong.  This is a fictional story but has a great author's note with nonfiction information about the Lam Tuen Wishing Trees in Hong Kong.  

We then watched this very short video about the Banyon Trees in Hong Kong from the Associated Press.  It has no narration and is about 1 1/2 minutes long.  Just enough to show them how people attach wishes to long red ribbons with a tangerine on the other end to weigh it down.  

We discussed our own wishes for the world and what we would want for the new year.  I had kids write down their wishes on a piece of paper.  The first year we did this, I cut out a rabbit shape (as it was the year of the rabbit).  The next year, they drew a dragon, for the Year of the Dragon, on the paper.  Some kids wrote wishes for their family.   Others wrote about the world.  Still others wished for a PS5.  It varied a lot ;)

Those wishes were then attached to a red piece of crepe paper streamer and I had them make a little tangerine out of orange cardstock to attach to the other end.  (This was simply 3 pieces of orange circle paper, folded in half, and glued together to make a 3D ball)

Then came the fun part.  I had gathered sticks from around the school.  The kids then went outside and threw their wishes into our makeshift "tree".  They had the best time trying to get the wishes to stay!  The wind became a factor, so we did move it indoors, but they were enthralled with the throwing and landing of the wishes!

Overall, this took about 30 minutes to complete.  They learned a bit about the Lunar New Year and had a memorable time doing it.