A visit from the Lion Dancers

We were very excited to have Chinese Lion Dancers visit our school on Friday!!!  The children have been talking about it and it finally happened! (Now they believe me that it wouldn't be a real lion coming to our school!).

We prepared by making our own Lion Dancing masks, inspired by photos of real lion dancers:

Then we used our masks and our play silks to make a Lion Dance parade! 

Since real Lion Dancers have more than one person in each costume, we tried to do the same! The children did great in this activity. I was surprised--but not.  These children can execute group activities in a harmonious manner like no other group I've seen before. 

We prepared some thank you notes and put them in red envelopes so that we could feed them to the Lion! 

And the big moment! The real Lion Dancing!!! 

They were amazing! They played music and did some very acrobatic moves. They explained traditional elements of the Lion and the performance in the context of Chinese New Year.  The whole event exceeded our wildest imagination!

We were so grateful to have this beautiful performance at our school!  

*Stephanie*

2012, Year of the Dragon

I guess we've had dragons on the brain lately, what with the year of the dragon unfolding before us.

We spent the last two school days constructing a dragon fit for a Lunar New Year parade (just my humble opinion, you know).

First, we bunched up a long piece of butcher paper by twisting it up, and then covered that "filling" with another piece of butcher paper that we wrapped around it.

The children painted it green and orange and added glitter (even though we planned to cover it with fabric)...

Then, the children added glue and scraps of bathing suit material that Hisae gave us (we miss you, Hisae!).

This took a lot of children, a lot of cutting, a lot of glue, and a lot of time.

They also had to negotiate who got to put fabric in which space and who is entitled to their "own" space versus which area of the dragon is for collective decoration.

After adding a nose made by Be and Ha, and eyes made by Be, Br and Ha, and the necessary component of fire coming from its mouth, we suspended the dragon to display it's colorful flamboyance in the classroom.  With glitter and glitz and a dominating presence, it truly represents the fearlessness and power that this mythical creature embodies.

Red and Gold

Chinese New Year Playdough

*******************

We put it in the sensory table and let the kids add gold glitter.  The next day, we added dragons and rocks and other little materials.

Red Lanterns

*******************

It was SO nice to let the kids take the lead on their lanterns. They needed very little guidance, and they all turned out more or less unique despite the craftiness of this activity. 

The Dragon Dance

*******************

Guada let the children make dragon-like streamers to dance with to a rhythmic "dragon" song.