Chinese New Year

Today we celebrated Chinese New Year by wearing it 'red' to school. The children were challenged by Mr Holmes to answer the following question 'What animals are part of the Chinese zodiac?'.
The children started by exploring the room and found posters of different animals. They then listened carefully to the Chinese New Year story which told the children how the animals had raced to determine which animals would have a year named after them.  Children then discussed what they thought a zodiac was and learnt that they are 'signs' and that each child has a birth sign for the month in which they are born. We spoke about the birth signs we use in England and then discussed how each Chinese New Year is a year of an animals. We learnt that this year is the year of the Tiger and we are going to explore which Chinese Zodiac children were born in.
Children then explored a range of activities, from creating lanterns to writing wish's (a tradition we learnt about) to tasting Chinese food! We had lots of fun!