Chinese New Year

Today we welcomed Aunt Jackie and Maia to Daycare for a little visit. My sister Jackie and her daughter came all the way from NY to visit with us and teach us a little about Chinese New Year. Maia was born in China and they were a wealth of information for us. They had songs to sing and an array of such wonderful books to look through!!

We started our day by getting to know Maia during some free play time!! Always fun! Circle Time came next where we did our usual morning activities and then read Dragon Dance By Joan Holub. It was a great introductory book on Chinese New Year geared toward the preschool age. It was fun reading, and learning Gung Hay Fat Choy... which means "Wishing You Good Fortune and a Prosperous New Year" The kids had fun pronouncing the words.

Then we decided it would be a great idea to sweep, dust and mop away the old year and start fresh. So we got out our Cleaning Up supplies and dusted shelves, toys, swept the floors, and fixed the pictures on the wall. We then finished up our morning with the making of a dragon puppet that we will use in a parade later in the week.

I think the kids got an idea of Chinese New Year and they loved playing with Maia!! She is 7 after all and was a lot of fun to play with. She was able to add an element to the play that isn't always there... novelty, different ideas, momentum, conversation, and modeling. They had a wonderful time getting to know one another.

We went to Monster Jam on Saturday, and my camera has been missing since. I know it came home, so it is only a matter of time before it shows up. Hopefully I will get some photos of our day tomorrow and can add some of the special shots we got at Monster Jam... which is not only loud, but a lot of fun as well!!!