Chinese New Year in Reception
Date: 9th Feb 2018 @ 11:33am
For the past two weeks we have been learning all about Chinese New Year. We found out that in Chinese tradition every year is named after an animal and that 2018 is the year of the dog. We watched an animated story about the race that decided the order the animals would go in. The rat won the race - we all thought that he was a bit cheeky though because he hitched a ride on the ox and then jumped over the winning line ahead of him!
We listened to stories about Chinese New Year traditions such as : decorating your house in lucky colours (red & gold); giving children money wallets; putting up lanterns; wearing new clothes; and eating special food. We were amazed at Chinese writing and tried to copy some. We especially liked hearing about dragon dances through the streets. Our teachers read us a rhyming poem about a dragon dance and we also learned about some villagers having dragon parades and loud music to scare away the Nian monster! Some of us drew some great pictures of the monster and the dragon.
Our teachers showed us a dancing dragon and we all wanted to make one. It was really hard work - we had to colour in a head and tail and then cut them out. Next we had to make a concertina body, finally adding lolly stick handles. Everyone was really impressed by how well we can cut out now and also by how persistent we are!
- Some of the other things we have done include:
- Eating fortune cookies (we had to be careful not to eat the lucky message inside)
- Dragon dancing using ribbons - we loved dancing around - swirling, twisting, turning and waving our arms
- Playing percussion instruments to create parade music - we took it in turns to be in the band. It sounded really good, although it was a bit loud!
- Eating noodles using chopsticks - this was tricky!
- Making paper lanterns by decorating a piece of paper, folding it in half and then cutting strips in it before opening it out and gluing the top and bottom together.
It has been really interesting learning about Chinese New Year - what a busy time we have had!
Mrs S Booth