This week we have enjoyed learning all about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated.

The children have been watching videos of children explaining how their families prepare for Chinese New Year. We have compared this to Christian and Muslim festivals that we celebrate with our families such as Christmas and Eid. One of the things that we have discovered is the same for all of the festivals is that houses are cleaned and then decorated as a way of preparing for the upcoming festival.

Our role play area has had a Chinese makeover with children having the opportunity to learn how to use chopsticks! Despite many children finding using chopsticks tricky, they have all had a go! There is also authentic Chinese crockery to use for the many tasty creations that have been made this week.

The children have heard the story about the twelve animals and how they had a race to determine the order of the years. We have also used this as an opportunity to learn ordinal numbers. We have had lots of races to help us understand the new vocabulary. This year we celebrate the year of the dog. All of the children were very excited to discover whether they were born in the year of the dragon or the snake.

Towards the end of the week the children turned their attention to the traditional Chinese dragon dance. After watching a video they set to work decorating their own dragon heads. Once finished, the children did their own dragon dance in the outdoor classroom.

Click here to see some more photos.