Chinese New Year

Many of the students in room 109 will celebrate the Chinese New Year on January 31st this year.  We have started an inquiry into what this celebration means and how different parts of China celebrate this day.

To begin our inquiry we brainstormed things the children know about this day and the traditions associated with it. Many of the students talked about the special lanterns hung everywhere. We did a little research to find that these lanterns have several mythical stories behind there meaning.

Lanterns, Fans, and a Dragon.

Another popular icon of the Chinese New Year is the Dragon Dance. Upon further examining the Chinese have 2 dances - one for the dragon where several people help to make the dragon dance using poles to move the dragon to the music, and the second is the Lion Dance where 2 people are the lion (inside the head) and they create a very artistic and acrobatic dance. We decided to create our own version of the dragon and lion to put on our January tree. The students take pride in showing this to their parents and grandparents at the end of the day during pick up time.

The Lion's head is complete. Love all the textures. 

Many of the students associate the red fans with Chinese New Year. After some research the teachers realized that the fans aren't really associated with New Year's, however the children love making them so we included them as part of our decorations.

We have talked about the different kinds of foods found at the Chinese New Year table. This will surely lead to dumpling making next week.

As many celebrations vary throughout the different parts of China, over the next week we will try to find out the exact locations our students come from. Stay tuned for more discoveries.