新年快乐 (Happy Chinese New Year!!)
Date: 3rd Feb 2020 @ 12:59pm
Since our last blog we have continued with our Winter theme. We were hoping for some snow to back up our art and craft activities but sadly the seasons weren’t to be and we are still waiting for a sprinkling of snow. Despite this, children at Woodlands haven't been disheartened but have instead created their own snowy scenes in the form of snow globes and ‘melting snowman’ biscuits which have gone down a treat, especially with Woodlands and Parkgate children!!!
As well as the usual adult led activities and free play, children at Christ Church have very much enjoyed making pizzas, Woodlands have been working extremely hard to ‘shape’ their ‘quiet’ room to suit their needs and Huntington have been creating their very own obstacle courses. Willaston have also felt energetic with activities including den building and 'just dance' competitions. With the evenings getting lighter, children are looking forward to spending more time exploring their beautiful surroundings and playing football.
This last of January week has been very much centred around Chinese New Year with all settings embracing the celebration. The celebrations have been a perfect opportunity for children to step out of their comfort zones and experience some Chinese food. Parkgate tried foods such as Chinese pear, cake, prawn crackers and fortune cookies whilst Woodlands children were very lucky to have a whole banquet of food for ‘snack’. Some children even braved the sweet chilli sauce and were pleasantly surprised. Many thanks to a couple of our children for helping with the chopsticks (what would we have done without you!) Prawn crackers was a firm favourite with the Children at Woodlands so has now become part of our weekly snack.
Whitby Heath have had a fun-filled evening with Chinese Table Decorations that were second to none – so much so that the children didn’t even notice that they were eating fruit and cheese rather the traditional Chinese food!!
Children at Huntington were extremely lucky to have a special visitor who taught them how to write their names in Chinese and how to use chop sticks (even if it was just to pick up rice crispies). Huntington’s special visitor even brought the children a treat of homemade Chinese sweets which went down extremely well! Like many of the other settings, children at Huntington also enjoyed watching videos of the Chinese celebrations whist tucking into their noodles and spring rolls.
Many children have enjoyed making Chinese inspired crafts throughout the week including cards, lanterns, dragon puppets, hats and masks (with even our Woodlands toddlers getting in on the act).
The most enjoyable activity of the week for every setting was making the junk art Chinese Dragon out of boxes, paint, yogurt pots, crepe paper etc. All staff have commented on how lovely it was to see children collaborate and work so well together.
As we welcome in February, we look forward to a variety of activities celebrating Valentine's Day, Pancake Day and Mardi Gras along the way. We are very excited to be having sports coaches visit some of our settings during breakfast club to help our more active children burn off some of their excess energy before school (much to the relief of the teachers I’m sure). We also look forward to half term holiday club which will be based around the theme Love and Friendship.
