Lovely Lily

On Friday 8 February, Key Stage 1 children arrived at Junior School in a splash of colour, sporting traditional Chinese outfits or wearing red, a lucky Chinese colour. Mums had obviously been up since the break of day as hair was scraped back into dainty buns or carefully plaited and several Empresses graced us with their presence!

Our thanks go to Mrs Harper, a parent who used to live and work in China, who introduced the day by telling the children all about her time there. One of the most memorable snippets of information was that the shower was situated above the loo in her boarding house, which was met with an expression of disbelief and disgust by the girls! She also read them a story explaining the celebrations, taught them a New Year song and how to count to ten in Chinese. The girls tried Chinese Pears, a delicious mixture of apples and pears, and looked at Mrs Harper's photographs.

juggling

Some of the craft activities throughout the day included making a dancing dragon, a traditional Chinese fan, a lantern and creating Happy New Year banners to adorn the classroom doors. In addition, each group wrote a dragon poem and tasted noodles. For the more active there was a fun session in the hall including pin the tail on the dragon, a race to put marbles into flower pots using chop sticks and a juggling lesson.

chopstick practice!

All in all, the girls had a fantastic time and the day deepened their understanding of a fascinating and very colourful ceremony. Many thanks to all the parent volunteers who helped make it such a success.
G Smith

making dancing dragons