Chinese New Year Workshop, 2nd February

Years 1 to 4 welcomed Marcus Reoch from Dragons in Europe who gave an inspirational and engaging presentation to the children.  There was interaction and involvement from the beginning as he taught the audience how to say some of the main sounds in the Chinese language: to count to ten, the names of colours and some important words – teacher, hello, thank you, good bye and Happy New Year. 

Marcus explained that 8 is a lucky number because it sounds similar to the word for ‘money’ and that 4 is considered unlucky as it sounds like the word for ‘death’.  Red and yellow are the colours used for celebrations such as New Year as they are also thought to bring good fortune.  Marcus told us about some of the customs associated with the Chinese New Year and provided each child with a Chinese lantern, a red money envelope, a fortune cookie and a pair of chopsticks.

Calligraphy was next on the agenda with everyone tracing over the characters for ‘happiness’ and ‘good luck’.  We then looked at a chart to find out what animal we are by finding the year of our birth.  2015 is going to be the year of the sheep.  At the end of the session, not only had everyone learned a great deal, we were all eager to find out more.