As the Lunar New Year approaches, there’s an air of excitement and anticipation, with vibrant colours, rich traditions, and, of course, the magnificent Chinese dragon taking center stage. To mark a cultural significant festival, the infant class was celebrating Lunar New Year with exciting activities such as creating a vibrant dragon with our tiny hands and making some lanterns from tissue paper.
By using non-toxic coloured paints such as orange, red and yellow, an infant educator helped press the children’s hands to the construction paper. As we can tell, with different sizes of their friend’s hands, it added a personal touch to the Lunar festivities. Each craft from this activity is designed to spark curiosity and creativity in children. Our little friends were getting their hands messy with paint and also meticulously crafting intricate details. Moreover, the activities are more than just a way to pass time; they’re a celebration of cultural heritage, a tribute to the legendary Chinese dragon, and a fantastic opportunity for family bonding. The dragon, with its sinuous form and bold colors, serves as a magnificent muse for our little artists. To extend the learning experiences, one of the infant educators (from Vietnam) brought up several meaningful stories about the majestic creature. The dragon creature is not just a symbol of strength, wisdom and good luck; this symbol is also used to be a way to scare away evil entities and a way to call out good luck to people. It is considered lucky if one is touched by a (dragon dance) dragon.
To fill more joy in the holiday spirit, we decided to craft the Chinese lanterns with vibrant red, pink and yellow tissue paper, then turning them into a beautiful sun catcher. When infant educators brought out the colour filled box, the little ones were quickly gathering and showed us how incredibly excited they were. Our favorite part of this activity was that they not only fostered their sense of touch while they felt the texture of the tissue, but also triggered eye-hand coordination and basic language, for example, “Tap”, and “Press”. Furthermore, these activities provided an opportunity to nurture colour recognition.
At the end, through special learning opportunities, the focus of these experiences was to help children cultivate an appreciation for cultural and linguistic diversity. Through collaborative activities and discussions, children and educators can build positive relationships with one another while learning to appreciate our world’s global diversity with an open mind. The program was able to appreciate the culture while also providing an inclusive environment.
