LATEST STORIES
Celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year
Today our wonderful kaiako (teacher) Shuya made 饺子 (dumplings) and hóngbāo (lucky red envelopes) with our tamariki (children) for the Chinese Lunar New Year.
What a wonderful experience that allowed our tamariki to learn about both their own, and others cultures by getting hands on.
Shuya taught us that the envelopes we made symbolise good luck and prosperity for the coming year and that they are given to Chinese tamariki with money in them!
The tamariki absolutely loved making their 饺子 (dumplings). They put chicken, spring onion, sesame oil and soy sauce in them. Shuya even bought in little dumpling makers, so ngā tamariki were able to independently make their own dumplings, which gave them a real sense of pride and achievement, and encouraged them all to give them a taste at kai time. Most of them loved them and kept coming back for more!
While we all tasted the dumplings, we talked about how they tasted, how they felt when we bit down on them, and what they tasted like with the special sauce on them.
On our current journey to our Healthy Heart Gold Award, kaiako are learning that describing the taste, texture and appearance of food during kai time is a great way to support tamariki to develop positive associations with food, and learn about different foods, without the pressure of being pushed to try things they aren't too keen on!