The children have been learning about Chinese New Year this week. We looked at a map to find out where China is, and talked about where our country is. We also watched a Chinese family prepare for Chinese New Year - did you know it is customary to clean the house from top to bottom to get rid of any bad luck from the previous year and welcome good luck. The children enjoyed watching New Year parades, and looking at the dragons dance. There are lots of videos on you tube if you search for dragon dance. The children made dancing dragon puppets!
After watching a celebration the children decided they would like to make some Chinese lanterns, so I got some yellow and red (Chinese lucky colour!) paper and glitter and the children got busy making some lovely lanterns.
We looked at Chinese writing, because they use symbols instead of letters. Some children wanted to try painting some Chinese symbols.
We finished off our Chinese week with a party, where the children were able to try different Chinese foods. We had spring rolls, prawn crackers, fried rice and noodles. We also had sweet chilli sauce but not everyone was keen to try it! We had found out that Chinese people do not use a knife and fork to eat so some children were excited to use chopsticks to eat their food. It was tricky but some could do it!
