Chinese New Year has arrived and at Rachel Keeling the children, their families and staff have been getting ready. To welcome to Year of the Ram, Step Out Arts came in to celebrate with us. The children's understanding of Chinese traditions was supported through handling artefacts, enjoying music, dancing a traditional ribbon dance and the wonderful (if a little terrifying!) Lion Dance.
Some families also enjoyed a trip into China Town to see the sights, smell the aromas and taste some wonderful Chinese food in a restaurant. There was much talk and excitement on their return about the paper dragon puppets they bought, despite the freezing temperature. We wish all our friends a Happy New Year and wish prosperity and health for all of you. The snow eventually arrived in Bethnal Green (for a few hours anyway) and there was much excitement, exploring footprints, handling the snow and throwing it! It has kick started a wonderful book that Linda is creating with the children: observing our environment month by month and documenting the changes. The interest in our local community has been enhanced through continued visits out: small groups have been shopping for healthy snacks with a set budget. Increasingly children are showing a good understanding of what types of food are good for our bodies, this is further supported with our visits at this time of year form our school dentist. Children's understanding of counting and number recognition has been developed through group games in the garden with large dice, where children have been engaged in problem solving, collaboration and creating variations of their own games. Keen photography has been supported when groups of children went out on a number hunt and they captured digits using the digital camera. We are looking forward to celebrating Chinese New Year this week with Step Out Arts visiting Nursery and some children are venturing into China Town to see the sights, hear the sounds, small the aromas and hopefully taste some delicious food.
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