Living in a small town doesn’t provide much opportunity for cultural diversity. With that in mind, I have organized a fun way to learn and play through a cultural play date: Celebrating Chinese New Year with story time and crafts!
Chinese New Year is celebrated on Sunday, February 10th, and it is also known as the Spring Festival. It is China’s biggest traditional holiday of the year and is celebrated in other countries and territories with significant Chinese populations. This is a big event in China, houses are cleaned out for the new year, and they decorate their houses with red paper decorations stating wishes of prosperity, good luck, happiness, good fortune, wealth, and longevity for the coming year. Red represents power happiness, and vitality (and scares away monsters). Gold represents wealth and good fortune. The dragon is another popular symbol for Chinese New Year. It is a symbol of strength, goodness, good luck, and supernatural forces.
Looking for ways to bring diversity into our home, I read a blog post from Becky at Kid World Citizen suggesting contacting the international offices of a local university to host an exchange student. So I figured, I can contact our local university to have someone come to our cultural play date! I was beyond excited when I was put in contact with a young lady from China through the university’s international program.Miss Huang, is a graduate student at our local university and was just as excited as I was to share her culture with us. She had lots of ideas and suggestions. We had story time, and crafts for our cultural play date.
Prior to beginning story time, Ms. Huang talked about China and asked for a volunteer to show her where the continent of Asia was on the earth’s globe. (I was so proud when little one stood up to show her). She then showed them where she lived.
For story time she read Happy Chinese New Year, Kai Lan! to the kids, and shared how she celebrates the Chinese New Year. In the book, Kai-Lan and her friends are getting ready for the celebration of the new year. Kai Lan and her friends are assigned numbers to carry the dragon for the parade, but one of her friends was not happy with his assigned number. Kai Lan tells him of the importance of having that number, and teamwork. Then off they go to the parade to celebrate!
The numbers in the book are in both English and in Chinese in the book. Miss Huang would say the numbers in Chinese and had the children repeat the numbers. In the book, Kai Lan talks about the importance of the color red. So Miss Huang translates the word red into Chinese. She had the children repeat it, and after a while, she’d ask: “How do you say red in ….?” She had not finished asking her question when my son quickly responded, “Rojo!” (Haha that’s the Spanish word for red!). Again, I was proud of my son (though he didn’t respond in Chinese he did have the Spanish word wired to his brain. 🙂 OK, now back to Kai Lan’s book on celebrating Chinese New Year.
This is a great book for preschoolers to learn about the Chinese New Year. The best part of this book is that it has an English/Chinese pronunciation reference at the back.
Before craft time, Miss Huang showed the children a PowerPoint presentation on Chinese dragons and played a traditional Chinese New Year song. She showed them lots of pictures of different dragons, and the importance of them warding off monsters.
I made copies of the dragon face from the book “Celebrate the Winter Holidays!: Sensational Activities & Background Information That Help Kids Learn about and Appreciate Five Important Holidays” that I purchased and glued in on card stock paper, making sure I left a piece of paper at the top so it can be folded in the back, and I taped jumbo popsicle sticks. Then I had crayons, and streamers to decorate the dragon’s face.
Miss Huang also prepared to have a craft session on Chinese knotting with the adults. One of the mommies present in the play date took advantage of this session, and made a beautiful dragonfly Chinese knot.
This was indeed a great cultural play date! The children had the opportunity to learn about China and their New Year’s celebration. I have to say it was a learning experience for both adults and children. Did I forget to mention, I also had Chinese fortune cookies for them to snack on during the play date?
Miss Huang made this play date even more fun, as she interacted, played, and colored with the children. She has a wealth of information on her culture, and was more than willing to share it with us! Thank you, Miss Huang!
Do you celebrate Chinese New Year’s? This was our first time, and it was awesome! Please let me know your thoughts, comment, share, like, or pin!
中國新年快樂! (Happy Chinese New Year!)
Wow, what an amazing playdate! You put a lot of work into it, and it really paid off! Looks like Miss Huang was a real gem.
I'm so glad to have found your blog! I'm a bicultural mom too & I'm trying to raise my 2 yr old bilingual. You are invited to join my new weekly link-up "Say it Two Ways Thursdays"! I would love for you to link up activities like this that teach your child about other languages and cultures. Link up at toddlefast.blogspot.com/2013/01/link-up-say-it-two-ways-thursdays.
Thank you Leanna! This was planned, and researched… and I'm excited about the outcome! Miss Huang is truly special! I was telling hubby that she should come over more often cause she has a special talent with kids. 🙂 She can keep little one busy for a few hours LOLOL
Hi! I'm glad you found me! 🙂 I would love to link up…going to check your blog right now. 🙂
You are so smart – I would have never thought to contact a university and it seems like Miss Huang had as much fun as the kids. I love that little one shouted out "rojo" looks like all your hard work is paying off.
That looks like quite a fun play date! It's also cool you are being intentional (and inventive) about introducing your kiddos to different cultures.
Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
I'm telling you Miss Huang is wonderful! I just wish I could keep her! LOL Yes, when my son shouted "rojo" was the highlight of my day. 🙂
Hi there! Thank you so much for stopping by! It definitely was a fun play date, and a learning experience for all of us (including myself).
What an amazing idea!! I love it! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
You're welcome, and thank you for stopping by!
What a fantastic play date! I love the idea of contacting the local university and reaching out to the international students. It is a great cultural experience for both the play date children and visiting student. I really enjoy this post.:)
Thank you Amanda! I was really excited about this play date, and a lot of planning went into it. LOL I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I really like how you invited a university student into your home for your cultural playdate. What a fantastic idea for many home daycare providers who can't travel with all their children for a fieldtrip, bring the fieldtrip to your home! Thanks for sharing this great idea.
thanks for sharing...
Thank you for stopping by!
Hi! Thank you so much for stopping by! Yes, bringing her into our home was such a learning experience for all of us. I like your idea of bringing the field trip home, sounds awesome. 🙂
Frances!!! You're brilliant!! What a wonderful idea to contact the university to find an exchange student. Judging from the photos I think both sides really enjoyed the day. What a rich experience. Love, love, love it!
Thanks for linking your post into the Kid Lit Blog Hop! 😀
Thank you Renee! You are so right! Both sides really enjoyed it, and my son is still talking about his dragon and Chinese New Year!
Wow how extraordinary! Miss Huang sounds amazing. I'm sure the kids must have enjoyed the playdate and it certainly was a clever way to bring the culture and ceremony alive :0) Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Thank you for stopping by! Yes, Miss Huang is a amazing! She's smart, funny, and has a way with children! I'm so glad she was referred to me by the university. 🙂
Wonderful idea! Looks like the children had a wonderful time 🙂 Thank you so much for joining the Kid Lit Blog Hop! I'm following you on Twitter and Facebook and added you to my G+ circles. I hope you join us again in March!
Hi there! Thank you so much for your comment. Looking forward to the next Kid Lit Blog Hop. 🙂
Any way you could post the power point she used?
Hello Jessica! Thank you for stopping by. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the power point presentation that she used. It's hers, and we just saw some slideshows of it.
Oh my goodness Frances I wish I had read this last January!! Contacting a university student is brilliant!! What a great playdate, I wish I had been there 🙂 (not least of which to learn to make that dragonfly knot!) Thanks so much for linking up!
I love how you celebrated Chinese New Year with your son even though you are not Chinese! Thanks for teaching kids about other cultures! You are making the world a better place! Hugs!