Chinese New Year Animal Card Games

This Chinese New Year is the year of the sheep. If you don’t have time to do anything special to celebrate, you can still add these quick, easy and fun Chinese animal card games as independent centers for early finishers.

My students always wanted to know what animal was featured the year that they were born, so I’ve provided that information in a spinner game, so that they can figure it out for themselves.

I designed 11 sets of cards to play Memory Match or “I Have; Who Has?”
games. Children can match animals to animals, animals to their
symbols, or animal cards to traceable word cards.

You can also use them for sequencing, sorting and patterning activities, or use as manipulatives to play math games.

The packet includes background information
about Chinese New Year, a list of what the animal traits are, along with the years that they were the special animal + a spinner game.

For discussion, or as a writing prompt, children can share if they feel their animal’s traits are similar or different than their personalities.