Celebrating Chinese New Year

After a week of learning about the Chinese New Year, students had the opportunity to engage into different fun activities in the shared classroom.

To begin with, we had a 5 minute Tai Chi guided video. This is an ancient Chinese type of exercise program with its roots coming from martial arts, meditation and deep breathing. It emphasizes in mind body connection using slow, gentle movements.

We had the class divided into 4 groups so each group could have a 15 minute activity per each center.

Center No.1. Festive lanterns. Students had different stickers and materials to choose from to decorate their Chinese lanterns by creating different patterns and designs.

Center No.2  Handmade paper fans. Students created a traditional fan on a white cardboard by drawing dragons, Chinese numbers and symbols by using colored markers.

Center No.3 Chopstick training. The teacher gave a short training on how to use this eating tool by modeling. This center had several types of food such as cheese, strawberries, popcorn and grapes that were easy to grab with the chopsticks.

Center No.4 Chinese artifacts and movement. This center was divided in 3 different moments.

1st step: Students had a chance to observe, smell, touch and wonder about all the artifacts displayed on the table such as sculptures, books, bar of soap, bells, decorated fans, lanterns, tea set, chopsticks, maps, authentic native costumes and coins.

2nd step: Students had time to read and look at some interesting books about China’s culture, ancient China and places to visit.

3rd step: Chinese Ribbon Dance. Students danced freely to a traditional Chinese music by using red and golden laces. Chinese ribbon dancing is a traditional art form that originated in ancient China. This type of dance is usually performed in order to celebrate the New Year.

Claudia Moreno Kinder shared classroom teacher