We had a lovely song and story time this week to celebrate Chinese New Year!  Learning about the Chinese Zodiac, and Chinese New Year Traditions through song. (click here for song video)

We had out own ‘Dotting of the Eye’ ceremony so that our Lion could ‘see’ for our dance.

Ended up with a Lion Dance and lots of noise to scare all the bad things away for the year.

祝贺大家新年快乐！ Have a happy Chinese New Year!

Kids have been busy making our new Dancing Lion 舞狮 (wǔ shī) for all the kids to participate in a Lion Dance at our Song and Story Time this week!

It does not have eyes yet…its eyes are closed at the moment!  On Wednesday at our special Chinese New Year story time, we will have a special ceremony called 开光 (kāi guāng) which means ‘opening light’.  We will use a calligraphy brush to dot eyes on our lion, sometimes called ‘Dotting the eye’, which means our lion will then be able to ‘see’ and be ready for us to make a noise and have a dance together, to scare away any bad things for the New Year!

Here is a pik of a 开光 (kāi guāng) ceremony.

Kids can easily make their own dancing lion head, just grab a cardboard box, paint it (red and gold are good Chinese colours, but there are dancing lions of all colours!!).  Make a cut similar to the one in our piks, so that the mouth drops down, making an authentic looking Dancing Lion mouth, and also makes a hole for children holding the head to see out of!  Then search for some piks of Dancing Lions, and decorate with anything shiny, sparkly, feathery or furry! Don’t forget to dot his eyes before he dances!!!! Use a piece of material for other children to get under behind the lion head….usually only 2 people for head and tail…but of course we will have a long parade of children under our really long Lion!!!!

Here is a song I wrote that children can sing to while dancing with their Lion, don’t forget to bang drums and bash cymbals to make a noise too!  Wooden spoons and pans work really well!!!  Sing the song to the tune of ‘London Bridge’. (For details of some of the other things we will do this story time visit our Chinese New Year Story Time page

看看舞狮跳舞跳 跳舞跳 跳舞跳
看看舞狮跳舞跳
新年快乐

kàn kan wǔ shī tiào wǔ tiào tiào wǔ tiào tiào wǔ tiào
kàn kan wǔ shī tiào wǔ tiào
xīn nián kuài lè

Look at the Dancing Lion dancing and jumping, dancing and jumping, dancing and jumping
Look at the Dancing Lion dancing and jumping,
Happy New Year!

Then replace the bold with 尾巴摇 (wěi ba yáo) ‘shaking tail’, and 转个圈 (zhuǎn gè quān) ‘turn around’.

Happy Dancing!  Get ready to dance and make some noise on Wednesday 🙂

Special Chinese New Year Song and Story Time!

We will read this book and learn all about the Jade Emperor’s way to develop a system of time, one such legend of the Chinese zodiac:

We will learn this New Year song from Groovi Pauli

Here are the lyrics :

穿新衣服                      (chuān xīn yī fu) wear new clothes
吃年夜饭                      (chī nián yè fàn) eat the new year’s feast
拿个红包                      (ná ge hóng bāo) get a red envelope
说恭喜恭喜                  (shuō gōng xǐ gōng xǐ) say “congratulations”
恭喜恭喜恭喜你           (gōng xǐ gōng xǐ gōng xǐ nǐ) “congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you”
恭喜恭喜恭喜你           (gōng xǐ gōng xǐ gōng xǐ nǐ) “congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you”

舞龙舞狮                      (wǔ lóng wǔ shī) Dragon dance, lion dance
去拜年                          (qù bài nián) Give new year’s wishes
听到鞭炮                     (tīng dào biān pào) hear firecrackers
说恭喜恭喜                 (shuō gōng xǐ gōng xǐ) say “congratulations”
恭喜恭喜恭喜你          (gōng xǐ gōng xǐ gōng xǐ nǐ) “congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you”
恭喜恭喜恭喜你          (gōng xǐ gōng xǐ gōng xǐ nǐ) “congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you”

Don’t forget our new year song from last week too, click on link to watch it again. If you want to learn about how Chinese New Year is responsible for the world’s biggest human migration every year click on this old blog post ‘a time to connect’.

Little kids and mums also learned why the Chinese character 福 (fú) is hung everywhere in China, and why you often see it hung upside down.  Below Lucas is holding it the right way, Aurora is holding it upside down. Can the older students find out why before they come to class??? See if you can and let me know on Wednesday!!!!

A story all in English this week, but a lovely story to open up conversations with your little ones about the experiences of many children in China.  Often one or both parents of children in rural China must travel to the big cities for work.  Because this is usually a very long journey, parents will only get to see their kids once a year, when the whole migrant working community of China returns home for Chinese New Year celebrations! It is common for children to be raised by grand parents while their parents work away.

Here is the link to the Chinese New Year song we have been learning:

新年好呀   新年好呀  祝贺大家新年好    我们唱歌   我们跳舞    祝贺大家新年好

xīn nián hǎo ya    xīn nián hǎo ya       zhù hè dà jiā xīn nián hǎo      wǒ men chàng gē      wǒ men tiào wǔ     zhù hè dà jiā xīn nián hǎo

Happy New Year, Happy New Year   Wish everybody a happy new year    lets sing   lets dance     Wish everybody a happy new year

See you Wednesday!