Chinese New Year 2019

We aim to incorporate other cultural celebrations within the setting wherever we can in an age appropriate way. 

This year we have covered many areas of learning to celebrate Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the pig so the children engaged in a pig counting activity. They rolled the dice and counted out the correct number of pigs, placing them on a tray. This also promoted turn taking.  

For literacy and fine motor skills the children looked at the various animals that have represented each Chinese new year including rabbit and dragon. They identified the letter sounds from the picture cards and set about creating the animals using the small coloured shapes. 

Using chopsticks and coloured sand the children attempted to recreate Chinese letters as well as numbers. Some simply used the chopsticks to make swirling patterns in the sand. 

The children also got to express themselves in various ways through listening to Chinese music. They used musical instruments and danced with the dragon whilst waving coloured scarves to the music.  The children have definitely enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year 2017

Due to the diversity of modern society it is important that children learn about cultural diversity from a young age. I aim to incorporate special celebrations of other cultures and this week we have been celebrating Chinese New Year. With a wide age range opresent this year I chose a variety of ways to ensure that children of all ages were able to participate in the Chinese New Year festivities. 

All children had a lovely time engaging in sensory play with noodles and chopsticks along with some colours, glitter and several other tools to develop imagination and fine motor skills. This play was extended for older children with some banners to enhance letter recognition and some glass pebbles in gold and red to promote counting and sorting. 

The older children particularly enjoyed dressing up in some Chinese clothes as well as watching a powerpoint presentation about Chinese New Year kindly provided by another childminder. We also read our Chinese New Year book showing pictures of the celebrations involving children. 

The favourite activity involved food where the children tried some egg fried rice, some noodles and some lovely vegetable spring rolls. We talked about what vegetables were used and the differences between the textures of the food.