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Embracing Chinese culture
Chinese New Year is the most important event in the Chinese calendar and celebrates the start of a new lunar year. Festivities begin with the new moon on the first day of the new year – which is 5 February in 2019 and ends 15 days later on the next full moon. Chinese New Year is more than just firecrackers, ‘lucky money’ and dancing dragons – it honours heaven, earth and ancestors, and is a celebration of family and thanksgiving.
Here at BestStart Riccarton, we always embrace the opportunity to learn about another culture. We made dragons, lucky envelopes, lanterns, and we also learnt and did a role-play about the story of 12 zodiac animals that represents Chinese New Year. It was a week-long celebration that ended with a shared dinner; we invited our friends and families for a dumpling night! We all made dumplings, cooked them and enjoyed them together.
By learning about Chinese New Year, our tamariki had the opportunity to explore values such as diversity and respect, and develop key competencies such as thinking, relating to others, and participating and contributing.