A teacher’s guide for The Nian Monster is now available, created by the wonderful Anna Chan Rekate. Anna has been a teacher for 20 years, working in schools in NYC, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. She has been to many of the places featured in The Nian Monster! Look inside for discussion questions, cultural and geographical activities, a Q&A with me, and a special recipe!
I am an art teacher in a K-2 building. I am doing research about the Chinese New Year to share information with my students and to create meaningful art lessons that are not just cultural appropriation. I read the Nian Monster with my students yesterday and they were truly engaged with the story and I had a couple of students that were able to see connections to their own family traditions.It was also great to see the students excitement when they were able to see themselves in literature! Thank you for this wonderful story and engaging illustrations.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Janice! I’m so happy to hear that your students were able to see connections to their own family traditions! 🙂