Chinese New Year

We heard  stories and songs about Chinese New Year this week.  We watched several videos too.  One of the kids favorite was the story of the Chinese zodiac.  Here's the link in case they want to watch it again at home: The Chinese New Year

We learned how to say Happy New Year in Chinese (Gung Hay Fat Chee), found China on the globe, learned that the festival is 15 days long and a family holiday where red envelopes with money (lucky money) are given to children by their elders.  In our class, each child got their own red envelope with their name written in Chinese characters.  The kids were fascinated that China uses symbols instead of letters.  Here is the website for the "Chinese Alphabet" that we used to write their names.Chinese Alphabet

Our version of a Dragon Dance.

We pretended to have a traditional family dinner and ate mandarin oranges and long noodles (ramen noodles) for snack.  The kids had fun trying to eat the verrry long noodles!  During Chinese New Year long noodles are served to represent a long life and oranges represent good luck.

Long noodles for long life and mandarin oranges for good luck and happiness.

At art center we used glue and glitter on black paper to represent all of the fireworks that are set off during this celebration!  We talked about how people all over the world like to watch fireworks and spend time with their family!

Grace was our "Maple Leaf" this week.  Her mom and dad came in on Tuesday with Grace's new kitten!  The kitten walked around our room and everyone had a chance to pet her. The kids also liked watching her walk back into her carrying case when she felt a little overwhelmed...and then she would peek her head out and come out again.   Wednesday Grace brought in some delicious homemade chocolate cupcakes...boy were they good.  Thanks Grace for helping make our week so special!

Grace, her mom, dad and  kitten!

Mrs. Chyko worked with us on floor puzzles during activity time.  Here's one we put together!