Chinese New Year

One of the district kindergarten curriculum items is  Celebrating Differences and Similarities through a Multi-Cultural Study. The focus question is:

In what ways are children's lives in other parts of the world different from the lives of the children in Vermont?

So, I decided to embark on a study of Chinese New Year with my class. I have always enjoyed studying this holiday with children because of the similarities and fun differences to our own New Year celebrations. There are also wonderful art projects and play based explorations that tie in beautifully with this study.

Yesterday we read The Pet Dragon and I taught the kids how to draw a simple dragon.

We talked about aspects from Chinese culture that were included in the book- that the color red is important, the the buildings look different, there is a Great Wall, and that dragons are important. Today, we retold the story and the children drew their idea of a pet dragon and wrote what they would do with a pet dragon.

Stay tuned for more of our learning about Chinese New Year and the Chinese culture. We will be hosting a school wide assembly to teach others about Chinese New Year. I'll let you know the date and time as soon as it has been decided (most likely the 19th or 20th).