We researched information on the computer and learned that red is a very lucky colour and gold means wealth. We decorated lanterns with these colours to bring us good luck. We had great fun making Chinese drums using paper plates, lolly sticks and beaded string. We also looked at Mandarin writing and all had a go at writing some of the symbols on our drum. We watched some amazing video clips of the dragon dance and the lion dance, and this was the spur to us making our own masks and trying to copy the dance. There has been lots of fun in our Chinese restaurant role-play area, taking friends orders and then busily cooking their requests before serving them with delicious meals. We also tried our hand using real chopsticks.
To finish our celebrational and very busy week, we tasted some prawn crackers and cooked some noodles. First, we observed, touched and smelt the noodles before they went in to the boiling water. We made predictions that the noodles would change once they came out of the pan. We then insisted on trying the noodles – they were delicious!
We practised our cutting skills cutting out Chinese gift boxes to carry our fortune cookies home.
Next week, we begin finding out about our solar system.