Safety New

Mahjong Match: Making power smart moves

Explore Lunar New Year and electrical safety facts through a Mahjong-inspired game. A hands-on STEAM activity to learn about the cultural significance of Lunar New Year, its relation to the lunar phases, and electrical safety.

Grade

4-7

Duration

30 mins

Type

Game

Overview

This Lunar New Year mahjong-inspired matching game is an educational activity designed to teach students about Lunar New Year traditions, cultural symbolism, and electrical safety through an engaging, hands-on experience.

Instructions

What you'll need

Mahjong handout package
- One package per 3-4 students
- Includes cutout Mahjong tiles, Mahjong game mats, and instructions
Scissors
Optional: Dice for each group

Opening discussion

Begin by asking students what they know about Lunar New Year; ask if any students celebrate with their family and how.
Begin discussion by sharing with students how many communities are celebrated in B.C. Give examples of Diwali/Deepavali, Ramadan, National Indigenous Peoples Day, Hanukkah, and Christmas.
Introduce Lunar New Year and its celebrations and how it follows the phases of the moon and reference to the Chinese Zodiac, specifically the Wood Snake for 2025. Refer to Teaching Notes tab for more information.
Discuss the importance of the snake to the Chinese Zodiac in relation to the story of the Zodiac animals, and how snakes also play an important role in many Indigenous stories. Refer to Teaching Notes for more information.
- Teachers can explore this link with the students, which includes a photo gallery of the Musqueam Post, carved by Musqueam artist Brent Sparrow Jr. being created and a time-lapse video of the installation of the Musqueam Post. This Musqueam Post depicts the origin story of the Musqueam Peoples.
- Teachers can also share this 13-minute video narrated by Charlene Williams from the Squamish Nation, sharing an origin story about Sinulhky, a massive two-headed serpent/snake.

5. After engaging with the previous content, ask students to share cultural stories they have involving snakes or other animals.

Mahjong activity

For the activity, you’ll be playing a heavily modified version of Mahjong with 30 tiles. There are 10 different symbols; 6 related to electrical safety and 4 culturally relevant to Lunar New Year. The 7 electrical safety symbols help teach students about good habits around electricity and how to reduce our energy consumption. The 4 cultural symbols are a mandarin orange, a snake, a gold nugget, and a firecracker.

Each power smart symbol represents electricity, where it comes from, responsible use, or safety. Discuss each of these with your students.

Plugged-in symbol matched with Unplugging Your Electronic symbol: Plugged in electronics use electricity even if they’re off. To save energy, unplug your electronics from the outlet when you’re done using them.
Water Waves symbol matched with Hydro Dam symbol: BC Hydro uses hydro dams to generate electricity by harnessing the power of falling water, providing electricity to all of British Columbia.
Exposed Wire symbol matched with Electric Shock symbol: We should always be aware of electrical safety. Watch out for exposed wires, never pull out a plug by its cord, and obey electrical safety signs.

Each cultural symbol holds significance in both Chinese culture and Lunar New Year celebrations across cultures.

Mandarin Orange: Mandarin oranges are often found during a Lunar New Year celebration and are considered to be lucky. They are considered to be lucky due to its golden colour and due to its pronunciation which can be translated to good luck in Mandarin and gold in Cantonese.
Snake: The snake is not only the 6th animal in the 12-year Chinese zodiac but also represents many positive qualities. The snake represents growth, adaptability, and transformation.
Gold Nugget: The colour gold is considered lucky and represents luck, wealth, prosperity, and good fortune.
Firecracker: Firecrackers were invented in China in the Tang Dynasty, and is a countrywide tradition to set off firecrackers during Chinese New Year. The firecrackers are wrapped in red, which is considered a lucky colour.

Pre-game set-up

Form groups of 3-4 students.
Ask the group to carefully cut out the Mahjong tiles (30 tiles in total per group).
Go over each cultural and electrical tile and their meanings with the class. For the electrical safety tiles, emphasize the correct behaviour for students to practice regarding electronics.
Ask students which electrical tile matches with its corresponding tile based on the safety practices you previously discussed, where electricity comes from (hydroelectric power), and good energy use habits (unplugging unused electronics).

Materials set-up

Make sure each student has their own game mat (from the handout package).
Shuffle the tiles thoroughly face-down.
Separate the tiles into three decks of 10 tiles.
Ask each player to pick up one tile from any deck and place them face up in the center. This is the discard pile.

Objective

Each player has their own Mahjong game mat. The goal is to complete the 4 patterns on the template by collecting specific sets of tiles. For the cultural symbols, each player needs to match the tile to the same symbol on their template. For the electrical symbols, players will match each symbol to the one that represents the correct electrical safety behaviour corresponding tile. The 4 patterns are as follows:

1 tile: A single matching symbol.
1 pair of tiles: Two identical matching cultural symbols.
1 pair of tiles: Another two energy matching symbols.
1 trio of tiles: Three identical tiles, with a choice of two symbols (for example, between "snakes" and "oranges"). The trio must consist entirely of one symbol (e.g., all "snakes" or all "oranges"), but not a mix of the two.

Gameplay Set-Up

Each turn a player can do one of two actions.
- Action 1: A player can pick up a tile from the discard pile to match their pattern sequence on their Mahjong template. OR
- Action 2: A player can pick up a new tile from any deck to match their pattern sequence on their Mahjong template. The player decides if they want to keep the tile. If the player decides not to keep the tile, it is discarded face up into the discard pile.
Players take turns in a clockwise direction.
- Optional: Students can roll dice to decide who goes first, based on who rolls the highest number.
The next player decides to take Action 1 or Action 2. Gameplay continues until one player completes all 4 blocks on their Mahjong template page. The player who completes all 4 blocks yells “Mahjong!” and wins the game.

Optional true and false quiz

If you want to make the game more interesting, you can use the True or False questions as an opportunity for them to get an extra turn.

Have the students fold the bottom of their Mahjong template page to hide the answers to the True/False questions.
Randomly throughout the game, pause the game, and ask one of the True/False questions to the classroom.
Whoever answers the question first and correctly gets an extra turn!

Modify or extend this activity

Ask the class to create additional tiles using symbols related to cultural and electrical safety and create a more complex Mahjong game template with more sequences to match.
In this activity, students are playing a heavily simplified version of Mahjong. If the teacher can find a real Mahjong set, the students can learn the true game of Mahjong with all 144 tiles! Start with the activity then introduce them to the authentic game.
Ask students to create a story of the Chinese Zodiac animals but from the perspective of an animal of their choice. Ask them to emphasize how the animal feels, as well as to include literary devices such as similes and metaphors.

Curriculum Fit

Learning Objectives

Students will develop an understanding of the cultural significance of Lunar New Year, exploring traditions, customs, and celebrations. This fosters appreciation for diversity and cultural heritage.
Students will gain an understanding of the connection between the lunar calendar and the various phases of the moon.
Students will learn about connections between Indigenous and Asian stories about the snake.

Curriculum

Learning about the significance of Lunar New Year in different cultures and how our connection to land, sea, and sky connects the personal and social throughout different communities in British Columbia.

Core Competencies: Personal and Social, Thinking

Understanding relationships and cultural contexts.
Building relationships.
Valuing Diversity
Creating and Innovating

English Language Arts:

Big Ideas:

Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.
Exploring and sharing multiple perspectives extends our thinking.

Curricular Competencies:

Identify how stories in First Peoples cultures connect people to land.
Synthesize ideas from a variety of sources to build understanding.
Demonstrate awareness of the oral tradition in First Peoples cultures and the purposes of First Peoples texts.
Recognize and appreciate the role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in expressing First Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view

Science:

Big Ideas:

Plants and animals have observable features
Observable patterns and cycles occur in the local sky and landscape.
Wind, water, and ice change the shape of the land.

Grade 4 - Grade 7 Competencies:

Demonstrate curiosity and a sense of wonder about the world
Recognize First Peoples stories (including oral and written narratives), songs, and art, as ways to share knowledge
Make predictions based on prior knowledge
Identify First Peoples perspectives and knowledge as sources of information

Mathematics:

Big Ideas:

Regular changes in patterns can be identified and represented using tools and tables.

Curricular Competencies:

Develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry, and problem solving
Visualize to explore mathematical concepts

Assessments

Assess students’ cultural understanding of Lunar New Year and the connections between Indigenous and Asian stories.
Assess students’ understanding of the significance of Lunar New Year through discussions and questions.

Teaching Notes

What is the Lunar New Year?

Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated by various East Asian cultures. Its origins date back thousands of years and are steeped in legends. One such legend involves the mythical beast Nian (traditional Chinese: 年獸; simplified Chinese: 年兽, pinyin: nián shòu), which would attack villages at the start of the new year. To ward off Nian, people began using loud noises like firecrackers, bright lights, and the color red — traditions that continue in modern celebrations. An animated video of this story is available from The Little Genius Workshop on YouTube: Nian | A Lunar New Year Story.

The festival is based on the lunar calendar, with the date varying each year. It marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, symbolizing renewal and the start of a new agricultural cycle. Traditional customs include family reunions, feasts, dragon and lion dances, fireworks, and the giving of red envelopes (hongbao) containing money for good luck.

Refer to this Lunar New Year for Kids from Scholastic on YouTube (2:19).

How do different cultures celebrate Lunar New Year?

Chinese Lunar New Year: Celebrated with family reunions, feasts, dragon and lion dances, fireworks, and red envelope (hongbao) exchanges for good luck.

Korean Seollal: Emphasizes ancestral rituals, with families paying respects to ancestors through ceremonies, traditional foods, and games. People may wear Hanbok, traditional clothing worn for special celebrations.

Vietnamese Tết: Celebrated over three days, featuring family gatherings, special foods, and the custom of giving and receiving li xi (red envelopes) for good luck.

Malaysian and Singaporean Celebrations: Festive activities include family feasts, cultural performances, dragon dances, and flower markets.

Japanese Celebration: Japanese communities with Chinese cultural influence may observe Lunar New Year with customs like lion dances and festive meals.

Thai New Year (Songkran): Celebrated in mid-April, Songkran involves water fights, cleaning rituals, and paying respects to elders, symbolizing purification and renewal.

Filipino-Chinese Celebration: Blends Filipino and Chinese traditions, including dragon dances, family feasts, and red decorations.

When does the Lunar New Year take place?

Lunar New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. The exact date varies each year, typically occurring between January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar. In 2024, for example, Lunar New Year was celebrated on February 10. In 2025, Lunar New Year is celebrated on January 29 and marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake in the Chinese Zodiac.

For an animated video about the zodiac animals, watch Fortune Tales | The Legend of the Zodiac Animals (2:34) from PandaExpressTV on YouTube.

What do families do for Lunar New Year Celebrations?

Cleaning and Decorating
Family Reunion Feast
Wearing Red
Offering to Ancestors
Firecrackers and Lion Dances

What is the connection between Indigenous and Chinese communities in British Columbia?

The relationship between First Nations people and Chinese immigrants in British Columbia has a long history, dating back to before B.C. joined Confederation.

Chinese and Indigenous populations played significant roles in the history of British Columbia. Early Chinese immigrants and First Nations people developed relationships in the province from 1858 to 1947, forming connections that are often overlooked in history.

Lunar New Year and the Chinese Zodiac. The year of the Wood Snake:

The Chinese Zodiac is a traditional classification system tied to the lunar calendar, which cycles every 12 years. A different animal is assigned to each year and changes every year.

People born in a specific year are believed to share traits with the associated animal; for example, 2025 is the Year of the Snake. Each animal in the Chinese Zodiac is linked to one of five these elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

2025 is the year of the Wood Snake. The snake in the Chinese Zodiac represents luck, authority, pursuit of love and happiness, longevity and fortune, while also representing craftiness, mysteriousness, and indifference.

Learn more from the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art.

How do snakes relate to Indigenous communities?

Snakes play an important part for many Indigenous nations. For the Musqueam, there exist a massive two-headed serpent named sʔi:ɬqəy̓ (s-EE-l-kay) that everything would die in its path, however in its path, it left its droppings from which a new plant the məθkʷəy̓ bloomed. This place was then named xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUS-kwee-um), place of the məθkʷəy̓ (MUTH-k-wey). Musqueam artist, Brent Sparrow Jr., depicts this story in a cedar post on UBC’s Point Grey campus on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. For the Squamish, a two-headed serpent tormented the Squamish with its shrieks. Xwechtáal, a young warrior, was asked to kill the serpent. Xwechtáal (swtch-eh-tall or zeh-wetc-eh-tall) pursued the serpent for 4 years, and finally killed it, ending its terror on the Squamish people.

Lunar New Year and Mahjong

Mahjong is one of many games played during lunar celebrations. Mahjong is a strategic tile game that originated in China during the 1850s. Played with 144 tiles with four players, each tile carries cultural significance, reflecting elements of nature, seasons, and the zodiac. For many, Mahjong is more than just a game—it's a tradition, often played to mark the transition from the past year to the new one. It brings people together, fostering connection and celebration while offering a rich blend of skill, luck, and cultural meaning.

Electrical safety good habits

The Mahjong activity features symbols related to electrical safety. Refer to our activities What should you know? Electrical safety and Electrical Safety Review and to learn more about electrical safety hazards. This activity can be combined with this activity to enrich the class learning about safety.

Answers to True and False questions

Symbol: Hydrodam
Statement: Hydro power produces a lot of greenhouse gas and air pollutants. Answer: False. The process of creating hydroelectricity doesn’t produce greenhouse gas or air pollutants. Instead, hydroelectricity harnesses the energy of flowing water to generate electricity, without depleting its supply. Because water is not consumed in the process, it is considered a renewable energy source. However, other environmental considerations need to be made, such as effects on the surrounding area and wildlife.

Symbol: Waves
Statement: About 60% of electricity in Canada comes from hydroelectricity.
Answer: True. In addition to British Columbia, Ontario and other regions also use hydroelectricity. As of 2020, Canada was the third largest hydroelectricity producer globally.

Symbol: Unplugged Plug
Statement: Keeping electronics plugged in when not in use is a power smart choice.
Answer: False. Electronics still use electricity when they’re plugged in and turned off. Certain appliances which aren't regularly used can be unplugged between uses.

Symbol: Plug in Outlet
Statement: You can plug in as many items as you want into an outlet.
Answer: False. Overloading outlets may lead to short circuits, fires, and overheating.

Symbol: Electrocuted Person
Statement: Touching exposed and damaged wires is safe.
Answer: False. Touching exposed and damaged wires is unsafe because it can cause injury and electrocution. If you are unsure about a wire, a professional should handle the wire.

Symbol: Gold Nugget
Statement: The colour gold is considered unlucky.
Answer: False. The colour of gold is considered lucky in many cultures, representing wealth, prosperity, and good fortune during lunar celebrations.

Symbol: Firecracker
Statement: Firecrackers were invented in China during the Tang Dynasty.
Answer: True. Firecrackers were invented in China during the Tang Dynasty and is a countrywide tradition to set off firecrackers during Chinese New Year. The firecrackers are wrapped in red, which is considered a lucky colour.

Symbol: Snake
Statement: The snake is one of the 12-year Chinese zodiac animals.
Answer: True. The snake is not only the 6th animal in the 12-year Chinese zodiac but also represents many positive qualities. The snake represents growth, adaptability, and transformation.

Symbol: Mandarin Orange
Statement: Mandarin oranges are considered to be lucky due to its golden colour and its pronunciation.
Answer: True. Mandarin oranges are often found during a Lunar New Year celebrations and are considered to be lucky due to their golden colour, and the pronunciation which is translated to good luck in Mandarin and gold in Cantonese.