Reception and Nursery celebrate Chinese New Year
St Aubyns' Early Years pupils welcome Year of the Dragon Tuesday 24 January 2012The Year of the Dragon was welcomed in style by Reception and Nursery on 23rd January 2012.
First of all we met for an educational DVD which followed a Chinese boy celebrating the festival at home and at school. The Foundation Stage gathered in the Sports Hall and worked in small groups at various activities. These included making Chinese lanterns to decorate the classrooms and dancing to Chinese music with ribbons and scarves. Children tasted a variety of Chinese food, including lychees, which many children had not tried before. Each child had their own fortune cookie and they are waiting to see if their predicted fortune comes true! As you can imagine, the prawn crackers and noodles went down a treat, and some of the children showed great promise with their chopsticks!
We had a lovely Chinese lady, Leanne, visit to show us how to write Chinese characters. The children were given opportunities to write their own names and were able to see how different Chinese writing is to their own. The celebrations continued in the afternoon in individual classrooms, including dressing up in Chinese costumes and making dragon puppets.
The children reflected on their experiences and by their responses they had clearly enjoyed the whole event. It was a great opportunity to develop children’s understanding of different cultures and beliefs which they may not have celebrated in their own homes.
Kate Fleming, Head of Pre-Prep