We enjoyed listening to the Chinese Zodiac Story which told the story of an Emperor who challenged 12 animals to race across a river so they can each have a year named after them. We found out that the winner was a cheeky rat and that 2024 is the year of the dragon! We enjoyed retelling the story to each other using the stick puppets.

To decorate the classroom, we made paper lanterns using red and yellow card and sequins. We found out that on Chinese New Year’s eve, to ward off the monster, people hang red and gold decorations. Mrs Zhu came in to talk about the celebration, her experiences and time in China, how her family celebrate the festival and showed us real pictures of Pandas she saw in China!

We watched a video of traditional dragon and lion dances that are performed during Chinese New Year. It was amazing to see how the people hold up the big puppet using the sticks and work together as a team to make it dance. We enjoyed recreating this dance using our own giant dragon puppet.

After reading Dragons in the city, we made wishes for the New Year, popped them in a red envelope and hung them on the wishing tree. Hopefully our wishes will come true!

To see some of our amazing pictures click HERE!