Children’s Adventure Center Celebrates The Chinese New Year

By Susan Coney

Youngsters who attend the Children’s Adventure Center spent last week celebrating the Chinese New Year and learning about China’s culture with a multitude of activities to keep even the most active child busy.

Of all of the traditional Chinese festivals, the celebration of the new year is the most colorful, elaborate, and important. The Chinese New Year is celebrated on the first day of the first moon of the lunar calendar, falling between January 21 and February 19. It is a time to turn over a new leaf and welcome the opportunity for a fresh start.

From Monday, January 23, through Friday, January 27, children were busy participating in several hands-on activities to help them gain a better understanding of the Chinese culture. Teachers at the school introduced Chinese words and characters, children were shown pictures of how children in China live, and they listened to several informational, age-appropriate books.

Youngsters also made Chinese rice hats, gigantic fortune cookies, and collectively made an enormous dragon head to be used in a dancing activity. In addition to learning a dragon dance, the children learned fan dancing as they listened to traditional Chinese music.

The young students learned that 2006 is the Year of the Dog. One day during the week the children brought in favorite stuffed animal dogs to join the celebration. The youngsters also made an attempt to eat their lunches with chopsticks, which proved to be extremely challenging. They enjoyed eating oranges, which represent a sweet New Year.

The school’s bookkeeper, Jing Hue, who is originally from China, visited with the children and read a story to them in Chinese. She also wrote on red tag board each child’s name in English and in the traditional Chinese characters, an activity that was very popular with the youngsters.

The classrooms at the children’s center displayed brightly colored red lanterns, strings of fake firecrackers, as well as long, flowing dragons suspended from the ceiling. The children learned that red is the color of good luck.

As part of the celebration the children learned that Chinese families clean out their kitchens, sweep their floors, get their hair cut, and scrub their bodies to wash away all the bad and start a fresh year.

One of the many traditions the children learned about proved to be the most popular. It is a Chinese tradition that all children in China receive a shiny red envelope filled with money on New Year’s Day. Though the money placed in the envelopes was only play money, the children were thrilled to receive it.