It’s the year of the tiger (cue Rocky III soundtrack) and time for kiddos to get in on the fun of making Chinese New Year crafts! My daughter and I just finished a batch of some really fun projects that are completely easy and simple for preschoolers to make. Here are just a few of them.

Year of the Tiger Finger Puppet: This easy craft can be done in minutes, yet it yields plenty of play time. Cut out a small strip of orange construction paper that’s big enough to circle your child’s hand. (Measure it with the paper first and mark it with a pen if necessary.) Lay the paper flat and let your child help you decorate the cat with stripes and a face; use googly eyes if you have them. Cut out two tiny triangles and tape them on for ears, then tape the whole tiger around his or her finger for an instant puppet!

Chinese New Year Fireworks: I had read about drawing fireworks on black or dark blue construction paper and then sprinkling glitter onto the page to make fireworks, but that can get very messy—not to mention, we didn’t have any loose glitter! What we do have, however, are those tiny glitter glue pens that are perfect for little hands. My daughter really enjoyed drawing fireworks with so many colors.

Lucky Chinese Oranges: We found this idea at the Julie K in Taiwan blog. They were so easy to make: you just wad up some newspaper, cover it with orange construction paper and tape it all shut, then tape on some leaves made out of green paper. Voila! We didn’t have any pipe cleaners but found that our oranges looked pretty enough without the stems.

Good Fortune Banner: We found this project over at the Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish blog. It was easy enough to paint the good luck symbols on red construction paper (you can also Google other symbols to use if you wish). We used some scrapbook paper that had glitter on the background for an extra sparkly touch.

That was enough for my four-year-old (plus, we had red lanterns left over from last year’s decorations we used), but if you would like some more great ideas, the Crafty Crow blog has some wonderful how-to listings on making good fortune cupcakes, lucky fish, tiger lanterns, and more. Caboose has an awesome Chinese firecracker project, too.