Nursery News: Week 4 – Celebrating Chinese New Year! 🎊🐉

Date: 29th Jan 2025 @ 2:21pm

This week in Nursery, we have extended our learning to celebrate Chinese New Year! We introduced the children to this exciting cultural celebration and helped them understand that different people celebrate different things. The children were full of curiosity and enthusiasm as they explored the traditions of this special festival!

Maths Learning – Exploring Size

As 2025 is the Year of the Snake, we used this theme to develop our mathematical awareness. The children compared the sizes of different snakes and used brilliant mathematical language such as longer and shorter to describe them. This activity helped to build their vocabulary while supporting their understanding of measurement and comparison.

Physical Development – Dragon Dancing!

In our PE session, the children watched a video of a traditional Dragon Dance performed by school children in Hong Kong. Inspired by what they saw, they then created their very own interpretive dragon dance! It was wonderful to see them moving rhythmically, working together, and using their bodies to mimic the flowing movements of a dragon.

Fine Motor Fun – Chopsticks Challenge

To support fine motor development, we used themed Funky Finger mats where the children practiced using 'chopsticks' (tweezers) to carefully place pom-poms in the correct spots. This activity strengthened their finger muscles while also incorporating counting skills—great for both coordination and number recognition!

Understanding the World – Exploring Traditions

The children watched a video showing a family celebrating Chinese New Year, which sparked an exciting discussion about different traditions. They were fascinated by the decorations, special foods, and fireworks! We then compared these traditions to celebrations that are familiar to us, helping the children to appreciate diversity and cultural differences in a meaningful way.

Looking Ahead

It has been a fantastic week full of learning, discovery, and fun as we celebrated Chinese New Year together! We are so proud of how engaged and thoughtful the children have been. Next week, we will continue our “What do I want to be when I grow up?” theme, exploring even more exciting professions. 🎇✨