In 2012 on the Western calendar, the start of the Chinese New Year fell on January 23rd, ushering in the Year of the Dragon. To celebrate this for the first time at Wells – Bang Na, we wanted to encourage students to learn more about the holiday traditions through participation in various celebrations of diverse cultures. It was a good opportunity for the students to learn about Chinese culture and expand their experiences while having fun with their peers.
Our young learners kicked off the day by creating crafts associated with the holiday and practice of Chinese dances. Our little dragon parade, featuring the authentic-appearing, hand-made dragon created by Mr. Merlin, our art teacher, was the highlight of the day. The kid also had great fun showing off their talents through the fan dance by K2 & K3 and the lantern dance by K1. Students were also taught a few words of Mandarin Chinese:
“We learned how to say ‘hi,’ which is ‘nihao’.”
“We also learned how to greet happy new year in Chinese! ‘Gong shi fa choi’.”
The energetic lion dance performed by our Wells – On Nut students ended the program very elegantly.
Following the performances, the young students were captivated by the games celebrating the event. Our nursery students had a blast assembling the Great Wall of China using colorful paper bricks. The K1 students tried very hard in the orange-peeling competition. Our K2 & K3 kids had a challenging task as they had to speedily fill bottles with the beans. We ended the celebration with a game for the parents and their children–“Tour the Famous Chinese Cities– and the parents were quite supportive, having a lot of fun running to the cities with their little ones.
With the students heading home happily with a few tokens such as oranges, red balloons and Ang Pao, it turned out to be a very memorable first Chinese New Year for our Bang Na campus.
