I bought a small Maneki Neko this past week and brought it to school. (I found mine at Daiso).
I am having my my students do their homework on the history of the Maneki Neko. They have to do a sketch of their Fortune Cat and then label the symbols that they learn from the article.
This is one of the articles that they will be looking at.
http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/maneki-neko-fortune-cat-5-interesting-facts
It will work for all age groups. You might want to only share the first legend to younger students.