GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!

Dear Parents,
We had a great time celebrating the Chinese New Year.  We started the unit by listening to stories about how New Years is celebrated in China.  We also learned about their customs and traditions. Some of the stories we read were:  The Dancing Dragon, by Marcia Vaughan, and My First Chinese New Year, by Karen Katz.

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2018 is the year of Dog which is celebrated starting from February 16, 2018.  Dogs rank 11th position in the Chinese Zodiac.  People born in the year of the dog possess the best traits of human nature.  They are honest, friendly, faithful, loyal, smart, straight forward and have a strong sense of responsibility. 

Chinese New Year is a time when families get together to celebrate. In the days coming up to the New Year, every family buys presents, decorations, food, new clothes, and have their hair cut.  Houses are cleaned from top to bottom.  The aim is to sweep out any bad luck from the old year and clear the way for good luck.  People greet each other by saying " Gung Hay Fat Choy"!,  which means Happy New Year.

We prepared for the New Year's celebration by making red glittery fans and drums.  The children painted plates and decorated them with Chinese New Year themed stickers, gold glitter, and bells.  We added a dowel to each one of them to use as the handle.  The drum was made to re-create a traditional instrument called a Bolang Gu or a pellet drum.  The instrument is used in Chinese ritual music and is a child's toy as well.

Since this is the year of the dog the children made origami dogs and
dog puppets.

We celebrated Anthony's 4th birthday with delicious cupcakes and jellybeans courtesy of Eleanor's family. 

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY ANTHONY!

We also celebrated Yuting's Birthday.

Happy Birthday Yuting!

In Mandarin, Ms. Peishuan read PoPos Lucky Chinese New Year and Bringing in the New Year.  She explained several of the many traditions of the Chinese people.  She concluded her lesson by having the children play the Bolang Gu drums, a large drum, and two dragon masks for the children to dance with.  

On Thursday, Robin from Animal Craze visited our school. She brought several farm animals such as:  a Nigerian Goat named Blizzard, Ruby the potbelly pig, a pair of ducks named Bill and Steve, and Butterscotch the bunny.  The children had so much fun feeding the animals and petting them too.  We aren't sure who had more fun, the children or the teachers.  

On Friday, we had a fabulous school wide celebration.  Yuting, Peishuan, Ping (Claire's mom), Annie (Eleanor's mom), and Bingyi (Ryan's mom) organized a fun and educational day for us. 

We started our celebration Peishuan read a story about the Chinese New Year and sang a traditional song called "Goshi Goshi Xin Nian Hao and taught the children how to say "Congratulations" and "Happy New Year" in Mandarin (gon chi).

Each child was given an envelope with his/her name written in English and Chinese.  We then sat down together and ate delicious dumplings, various Chinese rice crackers, oranges, and a fruit salad. 

To conclude our celebration, the children marched down the hall with their dragon masks on while playing  Bolang Gu drums.  

Happy New Year! 

Love,
Ms. Bonne and Ms Denise