Qing Ming: Lesson Plan

Suitable for Grade 7+

Predict: Look at these photos, which are from an important Chinese festival.

What might the festival be about? What might happen at this festival?

Qingming Festival, which is known as Tomb Sweeping ​Festival is an important festival in Chinese culture that ​acknowledges Chinese ancestors who are no longer ​here.

Popular activities during this festival include:

• Sweeping and decorating ancestral graves
  
• Making food offerings
  
• Burning paper money
  
• Having picnics and kite flying
  
• Eat Qingtuan - green dumplings made from ​glutinous rice and mugwort of barley grass
  

Watch What Happens on QingMing Festival and ​read Qingming Festival: 2024 to learn more about ​the QingMing Festival and how it is celebrated.

Discuss other festivals about the departed. A mainstream example of this is Halloween.

Watch this video about Halloween: Halloween History

Now ask students to watch videos about other festivals around the world that are similar:

• What is Day of the Dead? and Dia De Los Muertos - South American and Hispanic festival
  
• Muyang Gadeng Festival and look at some photos of the same festival - Ari Muyang in Malaysia
  

Choose 1 festival you've learnt about that is similar to Qing Ming ​Festival.

1. Complete a 5Ws task to identify the key information for both this ​festival and Qing Ming Jie e.g. Who celebrates it, Why is it ​celebrated, Where do people go, How is it celebrated, etc?
   
2. Use this information to brainstorm similarities and differences ​between the festivals, thinking about different aspects of each ​festival.
   
3. Create a T table, Venn Diagram, infographic or poster to ​compare the two festivals. You can use Canva, Google Slides, ​Mindomo, or any platform you wish, including ​handwriting/drawing.
   
4. Share your work to educate others about Qing Ming Festival!
   

Chinese Painting, Along/Up The River During the Qingming Festival, is one of China’s most famous ​paintings and is a massive 606 cm long!

Look at the images in Google Arts and Culture and Khan Academy. Describe what you see. Discuss what ​river life might have been like then and compare to now in China. Think about what roles rivers have played ​in human’s histories for settlement, trade, resourcing.

Activity:

Ask students to work individually, pairs or groups to complete a Project Zero: See, Think, Wonder Routine.

Ask students to choose a person or group within the image and complete Project Zero, Step In, Step Out, ​Step Back Routine.

Activity:

Identify the different types of ​activities people do on this festival, ​foods eaten, etc.

Fold an A4 or A3 piece of paper into ​six or eight rectangular sections. Cut ​the rectangles out and draw two sets ​of images that represent this festival.

Then play ‘memory’ with the cards with ​a friend.

Qing Ming literally means ‘clear’ and ‘bright’ which describes ​the weather in China at this time.

Spring blossoms are out around the time of Qing Ming ​Festival and are beautiful to look at. Celebrating blossoms in ​Springtime is a favourite activity in Japan in Springtime too.

Activity:

Look at the different images of Spring blossoms or Cherry ​blossoms in Google Arts and Culture here.

Activity:

Create your own blossom painting using cotton buds.

Global Focus Extension Activity:

Plants and flowers around the world differ ​greatly during Spring due to different habitats ​and eco-systems.

Discuss which plants and flowers you see ​around your community during Springtime.

Share!

• Share your students’ fantastic work with your school community to show them the great intercultural ​learning taking place in your classroom!

• Create a Learning Wall for all the learning your class makes about this festival and their new cultural ​knowledge!

• Prepare a short piece to share at assembly or even to other classrooms to educate others about this ​festival.
  

Post!

• Tag @MegGlobalEd on school posts so we can celebrate your students’ wonderful work. Find Meg on ​Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Instagram.