Chinese New Year Fan

Today is Chinese New Year. 2018 is the Year of the Dog. The Dog is the eleventh animal in the Chinese zodiac. People who are born under the year of the Dog are often loyal, honest, and reliable; they don’t abandon their family, friends or work and are very popular in social circles. They are good at fixing and finding. However, they can be quite anxious at times even though they don’t show it. Men born under the Year of the Dog sign are energetic, genuine, and straightforward, but they are also quite stubborn and opinionated. Women born under this sign are protective, cautious, and independent, but they can be slow to trust.

To celebrate the day, we are making a Chinese fan that you can use as a fun craft to do with the kids or that you can make for decorations to celebrate the holiday.

The fan that we are making is a take on the fans that you probably made in art class at school. They are super easy and fun to make.

You will need some construction paper. Cardstock is too thick so you won’t want to use that. We have chosen red, but you can go with any colour. Good luck and popular colours for Chinese New Year are gold and red, so we are using red construction paper. 

We folded the paper in half, then unfolded it, then repeatedly folded the edges into the middle to make sure that all of the folds were even, until they were the desired width.

Then after you’ve folded it, you unfold it and then refold in a zigzag pattern.

After it’s all been folded, we decided where we wanted cut outs to be and then we cut in those spots. You don’t have to cut any pieces out, but we thought it was a nice added touch.

After you’ve done the cut outs, you can decorate. We are making it a subtle Year of the Dog fan so we drew paw prints near the top of the fan and then we did gold borders around the cut out spaces. If you want to bring the Year of the Dog even more into your fan you can print, stamp, or draw pictures onto the paper that you fold into your fan.

Lastly, we coloured two small labels gold and we taped them around the bottom of the fan to hold it together. You can also use Scotch Tape to hold it together or a twist tie.

Now you have Chinese New Year, Year of the Dog fan!