Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the rooster and we had such a fun week celebrating and preparing for the holiday! Signs of the new year were all around the classroom this week.
We kicked off the week with discussions on Chinese New Year traditions and symbolisms. The new year signifies the welcoming of the new while chasing away the bad. The children learned that the color red and eating/displaying oranges are signs of good luck and fortune. We ate lots of oranges this week! The children also practiced their scissor skills while making lanterns to decorate our classroom. The lanterns are proudly hanging around the room!
Every year we celebrate Chinese New Year and while every year is just a little bit different, we always cook up a yummy pot of noodles for the children to eat with chopsticks! The teachers were so impressed with the children's chopstick skills! The children were also introduced to the art of Chinese writing and had many opportunities to practice writing the character for rooster.
We wrapped up the week with a lesson on dragon and lion dances. The children learned that while both dances are preformed to chase away all of the bad luck, the dragon is held up with poles and many people move the dragon around to chase the ball (the "pearl of wisdom") while the lion dance is performed by two people wearing a costume that dance around to scare away the bad luck. Both dances are accompanied by the loud sounds of drums, gongs and cymbals. The children created hand drums to play along with our homemade "chair drums," tambourines and cymbals. This is the only time of the year I ask the children to be as loud as they can be to scare all of the bad luck out of the classroom!
The children all went home with a tangerine and a fortune cookie for good luck.
What's Up Next?
This is always a busy time of year... on to Groundhog Day! February 2nd is Groundhog Day and the children will learn all about shadows and vote for an early spring or 6 more weeks of winter.
Vote for Us!
It's that time again to vote for your favorite local businesses (including your favorite preschool!). We were voted Burlington's favorite preschool for 2016 and we would love to be your favorite again this year! Click here to vote! Don't forget, for your votes to count, you must nominate at least 10 businesses before hitting the submit button. You can nominate us under "Local Services" and scroll down to "Daycare/Preschool." Voting ends on February 15th so don't delay. And remember to share this with your friends, family and neighbors! Thank you for supporting our small, local preschool!
It's that time again to vote for your favorite local businesses (including your favorite preschool!). We were voted Burlington's favorite preschool for 2016 and we would love to be your favorite again this year! Click here to vote! Don't forget, for your votes to count, you must nominate at least 10 businesses before hitting the submit button. You can nominate us under "Local Services" and scroll down to "Daycare/Preschool." Voting ends on February 15th so don't delay. And remember to share this with your friends, family and neighbors! Thank you for supporting our small, local preschool!
Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
February 1: February Tuition is due
February 12: Cookie decorating at Whole Foods, please RSVP via Evite!
February 20: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuition is due
February 12: Cookie decorating at Whole Foods, please RSVP via Evite!
February 20: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuition is due
Pictures from the week:
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| Lion Dance! See ya later bad luck! |
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| Making lucky red play dough of course! |
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| Writing in Chinese! This took lots of practice! |
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| Making lanterns! |
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| Such a fun holiday to study! |
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| Chopstick practice with dumplings, rice balls and noodles! |
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| More chopstick practice! It's always a good day when we practice our fine motor skills! |
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| Yummy noodles!! |
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| More writing practice! I hope everyone has a wonderful Chinese New Year! Joanna |
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