Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai or Gong Hey Fat Choy! (I will have to figure out which one is the correct way to say Happy New Year in Chinese!) We had another short week due to the snow so we combined Chinese New Year and Valentine's day and turned it into a holiday extravaganza! We had such a busy, yet super fun week!  To kick off the Chinese New Year celebration, the children learned about the culture and traditions behind the big celebration.  First things first,  we cleaned our school to say good bye to the old and welcome the new.  Since it is the year of the monkey, the children learned how to say monkey in Chinese and practiced writing the character for it, too! 

Speaking of the year of the monkey, do you know how each animal became part of the Chinese Zodiac?  We read the story, "The Great Race" by Dawn Casey which told the story of how each animal took their position on the zodiac calendar.    And this is how the story went: The great Emperor declared that a calendar must be created to help the people keep time.  The Emperor invited every creature in the kingdom to come and participate in a race.  The first year in the calendar was to be named after the winner of the race.  The animals came from far and near to compete in the race including rat, cat, dragon, tiger, monkey, snake, ox, pig, dog, hare, sheep, rooster and horse.  The animals were instructed to swim across the swift river.  To make a long story short, rat was the first to make it across the river and was named the winner and first animal of the zodiac.  As the animals made across the river, they were given their place in the zodiac as well.  To find out how the smallest of the animals, the rat, won the race and why cat never finished the race, you'll have to read the book to find out!  To extend the learning from the book, the children were introduced to a sequencing activity to put all of the animal picture cards in the order they each finished the race.  

To prepare for the fifteenth and final day of the new year celebration (February 22nd), the children created lanterns for the Yuan Xiao festival or the lantern festival.  Each child practiced their cutting skills as they prepared beautiful lanterns for the festival.  Come check them out, they are hanging from our classroom ceiling!

To finish our week, the children helped Mrs. M make rice noodles for snack.  Each child had the opportunity to practice eating with chopsticks and they all had a blast! We also offered oranges for snack as a symbol of wealth and good luck.  To end the week, and to chase away the evil, the teachers lead the children in the Lion Dance and paraded around the classroom. 

What's up next:

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will hold our Valentine's Day Celebration of Friendship.  In addition to all of the Chinese New Year Festivities, the children were busy creating friendship cards for their friends!  These beautiful cards will be exchanged on Tuesday and Wednesday along with a special Valentine's Day snack! To wrap up the month, in honor of the year of the monkey, we will study monkeys as we get ready to say hello to March!

Lastly, don't forget to vote for us on Wicked Local's 2016 Reader's Choice Awards! CLICK HERE TO VOTE Don't forget to vote for at least 10 of your favorite local businesses for your vote to count! All votes do not have to be exclusively for businesses in Burlington so pick all of your faves from surrounding towns!

Important Dates and Reminders:

February 15: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
February 27: Monthly Gathering at Celebration Kingdom - check your Evite for more info!
March 1: March Tuiton Due
April 1: April Tuition Due
April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Some pictures from this week's celebrations:

Creating a special valentine

Chopstick practice!

Constructing with straws

The leader of the Lion Dance!

Have a great three day weekend everyone! See you on Tuesday!

Joanna