Chinese New year

Yesterday we studied about China and the Chinese New Year, I prepared lots of activities and we worked through them during the course of the day. I tried to keep it mixed up but he was also free to pick anything else if he wanted a break. My original plan was to do a couple of things each day that went out the window when I got the dreaded lurgy (which hubby has now, he left the house at 7.30am yesterday and was back by 8am!)

We started off with by preparing the tea eggs, I had boiled them and cooled them then Ebi-kun cracked the shells. We let them simmer for another 30 minutes and the just sit until lunch time. In parts of China the tea eggs represent nuggets of gold.

We started off by talking about China, we found it on the map and he drew around the outline then labled the map. We compiled all the pages he made (will make) into a book.

Then we made flags, the first was out of felt so we could put it on the flag pole and the second out of construction paper and stuck it onto a sheet to add to the book.

Then we had a snack break, I really wanted to have a Chinese snack but failed, he wanted raisins and dried veg and since they dry grapes in Turpan on the silk route it is kinda relevant (OK, at a stretch!) We talked about the silk route, he really likes We're Riding On A Caravan and I have just finished reading Extremes Along The Silk Route by Nick Middleton - I highly recommend it, so we had a good chat about it all over snack.

After snack we made some Chinese lanterns, these are easy to make and great for cutting skills. I prepped the paper by adding the gold tape to the edges, this was a good marker for him since I told him to cut up to the tape.

He did 2 and I did 6, we chose to make 8 since that is a Chinese lucky number. 

We then read The Great Race, it is a lovely book, great illustrations another Fab Barefoot book, he has a set of bean bags that represent all the animals in the Chinese zodiac so we lined them up as the winners came in (we have lost the rabbit so she was represented by her cousin!). 

Still on the zodiac theme we used these cards for matching and then to play memory, I like that these are more stylised not the usual cutsie cards you get, they also have the kanji for the different animals. I got them from here but I can't find the exact page again!

Then he decided to have a break from China and wanted to do some pin pushing, I had left this on the shelf from Christmas and he suddenly had the urge to have a go at in again.

Just before lunch I introduced him to the 7 pick up game. This is easy to make, cut 1" squares of felt, sew two pieces together on 3 sides, add a little rice then sew up the last side. You need to make 7, they are small so it doesn't take long. To play the game you need to drop all 7 on the floor, they need to be quite close together. Pick on bag up and toss it in the air, whilst it is in the air use the other hand to grab as many of the other bags as possible then catch the tossed bag. Easy? Not as much as it sounds ;o)

Then we had lunch, I had planned a fancy pants menu for the day but Daddy-ebi arrived home (30 minutes after he had left) with the dreaded lurgy and wasn't up to eating so we ended up with a much more simplified menu for the day.

Egg fried rice, spring rolls, bean sprout and cabbage salad, pork and tea eggs.

For dinner we had chicken stir fry and wrapped it in lettuce leaves, mess but fun!

We didn't finish all the activities so we will do some more next week, R will be back for his lessons next week so we might do some of the games and things with him.