Junior Girls Celebrate Chinese New Year
Junior Girls Celebrate Chinese New Year
February 19, 2018 at 10:45 AM
Kung Hei Fat Choi!
We wish you a prosperous New Year and good health!
Unlike our western New Year which always happens on a fixed date, the Chinese New Year varies each year based on the lunar calendar which follows a 12 year cycle. The 2018 Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dog, begun on 16 February – and our junior girls celebrated in style!
The Chinese animal zodiac or shengxiao (which means 'born resembling') is arranged in a repeating cycle of 12 years. Each year is represented by an animal and the Chinese believe that people share the same qualities as the animal of their year of birth. As five year olds, the majority of our Year 1 girls were born in the Year of the Dragon, with three born in the Year of the Snake. Their teachers, Mrs Yvonne Gallagher and Mrs Sally Anne Jones, weren’t so ready to reveal their ages but with mention of a goat, it is possible to work it out!
Over the last few days, the Chinese girls in the class, took on the role of ‘experts’ to lead the class Chinese New Year enquiry. With their fellow five year olds, they brainstormed many ideas around what they could share with their class about China, the spring festival and Chinese New Year in particular.
We were extremely grateful to a number of our Chinese parents who so willingly spent a morning in the classroom to share their expertise, helping to guide the girls though a variety of activities and answer their questions. From fan folding to lantern decorating, mask making and crafting a traditional Chinese red gift envelope, the girls were busy! The highlight of the morning, however, was making dumplings. The girls really enjoyed learning to roll the shapes and add the filling before squeezing the little parcels shut ready for cooking.
The morning concluded with talented student, Monica Qian playing the violin before the girls joined together to sing a New Year Song in Mandarin. Then it was time to sample the dumplings – delicious!
Our sincere thanks to the parents who so willingly gave their time this morning to work with our girls, they really enjoyed their celebration and the chance to share what they has learnt.
