Acorns have been learning about Chinese New Year. This involved an online storytelling session with Polly Yang from Settle Stories, who told the story of ‘The Great Race’ which explained how the animals of the Chinese zodiac were chosen. The children learned the names of the animals in Mandarin and have since been heard practising the Mandarin names together at playtime.
During the second interactive story, the children learned how Chinese people prepare for their Lunar New Year celebrations. Everyone has different responsibilities involving many traditions like making dumplings, decorating the houses, and the children in the family being given red envelopes with money.
Year 2 did some great writing about this, where they compared the traditions that families have at Christmas time with the traditions around Chinese New Year. Reception particularly enjoyed learning about the animals of the Chinese New Year zodiac and tried to write them in Mandarin. This script is very different to the English letters which provided a real challenge for the children to copy the detailed symbols accurately. Meanwhile Year 1 have enjoyed basing their artwork around the themes of Chinese New Year.
