weekly news 5th February

What an exciting week we have been having in Reception ! We all really enjoyed our Chinese New Year Music and Movement workshop in which we learnt all about how new Year is celebrated. We passed a Chinese singing bowl around and said our name. We found out that Chinese children get a special red money purse if they go to sleep on time.
We moved around the hall in different ways pretending to clean and get rid of all the dirt and unhappy things that had happened in the old year. We pretended to eat a Chinese feast to celebrate New Year, apparently this can include 10 different courses !
 We danced with big pom poms pretending they were fireworks going off in the sky. We passed around a Chinese dragon puppet and then had turns parading around waving our Chinese fans to help the dragon to fly. We used wooden claves to create the beat of the dragon dance. We learnt how to perform a special Chinese dance and remembered all the different moves really well.
This week we have been completing 10 different challenges and collecting stickers in our special challenge passport when we have finished each one.
It has been brilliant to see how motivated the children have been when making sure they find the challenge that they need to do. When doing these challenges the children have been developing lots of new skills and using techniques to make and assemble a variety of Chinese themed crafts and activities. We have been tasting Chinese food, making a rat finger puppet, painting a New Year card, making a Lucky fish, a Chinese drum, a dragon puppet, a lantern, a money purse, a Chinese fan, and working as a group to make a model of the Great wall of China. Our Chinese New Year role play area is fantastic fun too as we can get dressed up in traditional Chinese clothes !
It has been wonderful to have such a lot of very willing parents who have come along to help us carry out our challenges. Thank you very much.


Ask your child what they have enjoyed most about our Chinese New Year week.