Hanford Nursery focuses on traditions this Lunar New Year

The Lunar New Year signals the end of the winter period and is a sign of new growth to come. 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit – the sign of Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture. 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope.

Many of our Kids Planet nurseries have been celebrating Lunar (also called Chinese) New Year, including Hanford nursery in Stoke on Trent.

On Monday 23rd January, the children enjoyed releasing balloons with messages of good luck for the new year, and asked on the tags for anyone who finds the balloon to tag the nursery on Facebook. The children are excited to see if anyone has found one of their balloons!

The babies group explored a Chinese new year treasure basket and the Tots group posted their own red envelopes and coins, which is a symbol of wishing family and friends good luck.

Not only that, the team at Hanford has also been focusing on traditions:

• It is tradition to have a meal/banquet together as family and friends, so the teams and children had a role play banquet and said cheers to the new year.
  
• It is tradition to wear special clothing and watch the dragon dancing, so the children dressed up using different outfits and materials and made dragon masks, and did their own dragon dances using bells and drums.
  
• It is tradition that a big clean takes place they clean and tidy to get rid of the old and bad to make way for the new, so the Kids Planet children have been cleaning up around the nursery.
  

Emma Wilbraham, Hanford Nursery Manager, said:

“We have really enjoyed our celebrations for Chinese New Year. For us, it’s so important for every child in our setting to be reflected through the activities we provide, to ensure every unique child is given a sense of belonging.

Introducing the children to different celebrations and festivals throughout the world ensures they are learning new skills and enhancing their cultural capital.

We hope to see an impact of our celebrations today where we introduced new ideas, concepts, language, and experiences for all the children through their play and vocabulary. By giving the children first hand experiences it gives them opportunity to embed and reflect on their learning.”

Share