Gong hei fat choy
Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. At Footsteps we loved celebrating the Year of the Tiger in the lead up to the Lunar New Year on the 1st of February.
We place huge importance on recognising traditions, festivals and religious celebrations from a wide range of cultures and faiths to extend their knowledge of the world around us. We had a brilliant time across the sites in our Footsteps family as we enjoyed experiencing many elements of traditional celebrations.
We saw Chinese New Year dragons made of handprints, painted Chinese lanterns with red and gold, made rattle drums and fans, enjoyed the sensory messy play with noodles, role played in a Chinese restaurant, practised our fine motor skills by using chopsticks and we also talked about it being the Year of the Tiger. The children loved learning which other animals corresponded with their Birthdays. We dressed up as tigers, made some gorgeous tiger pictures and read the story of the Tiger who came to tea.
We also learnt a few words in Chinese, as well as how to say Happy New Year. We really enjoyed trying new foods during our snack times such as noodles, sweet chilli sauce, spring rolls and prawn crackers. Some of the children made stir-fry and we added healthy peppers and beansprouts.
We hope those families celebrating at home also had a wonderful time!
