Noodles, chopsticks, woks, Chinese take-out and of course, fortune cookies! An invitation to play....We had lots of fun in our pretend Chinese restaurant.
And another invitation to play... colored rice!
Animals from the Chinese Zodiac calendar expanded our play experiences.
We read about the zodiac animals in The Great Race and found out what animals represents the year each of us was born.
We did yoga poses for each animal to stretch our muscles and work on balance...
Rat-
Ox-
Tiger-
Hare-
Dragon-
Snake-
Horse-
Sheep-
Monkey-
Rooster-
Dog-
and Pig!
We are totally amazing with chopsticks!
First we practiced using them by dipping them in paint and painting with them.
For lunch, we used them for eating our noodles and mandarin oranges.
The Warlord's Puzzle introduced us to Chinese Tangrams which are a great manipulative. After experimenting with them for a bit, we used the same shapes for a tangram collage.
We used our chopstick paintings to make beautiful Chinese fans...
We used them as we sang-
My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea.
All laden with treasures for you and for me.
It brought me a fan, just imagine my bliss,
As I fanned myself gaily like this, like this, like this...
We read Dragon Dance and proceeded to make dragon masks. Dragons are a huge part of the Chinese New Year Celebration. We painted using brushes dipped in tempera paint and then folded our paper to make the product symmetrical.
When they were dry, we cut them into dragon faces and added horns. They are pretty fierce. We could almost hear them roar.
As is part of every Chinese New Year celebration, we each received a red envelope with money- chocolate money, that is!
GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!
(Happy New Year!)
