Chinese New Year in the EYFS

This week in the EYFS we have been learning about and celebrating the Lunar New Year! 

Here is a snippet of how we have managed to extend children's learning in all areas of our curriculum with just one topic:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development - This week children have been confident to try new activities including our food tasting on Friday, role playing the story of The Great Race and making crafts that they'd never seen before. They had to work cooperatively, sharing the exciting new resources and taking it in turns to wear the beautiful traditional Chinese clothes in our role play area.

Listening, Attention and Understanding - Every day this week in our topic lessons we have been learning about the Lunar New Year, who celebrates this, all the many ways it is celebrated, how the first Lunar New Year came to be and more. The children had to listen attentively and were fantastic at asking questions to clarify their understanding and explore their curiosity. In our carousel of activities the children were challenged to think of something they would wish for, we had many wonderful small-group discussions over the course of the week where the children had the opportunities to express their ideas and feelings.

Physical Development - In our outside area we had some intriguing sensory play opportunities as well as a Chinese letter and number writing station and the challenge to make a playdough snake to really test the children's fine motor skills.

Literacy - This week the children have been exposed to lots of new beautiful children's books about Chinese New Year, including our book of the week 'Lunar New Year Around the World' by Amanda Li and Angel Chang. We told the story of 'The Great Race' and had a discussion about this, even testing the children's comprehension skills by asking them to recall the order in which the race was finished. In Writing the children wrote down their wishes using their phonics knowledge and we popped these into beautiful red envelopes to stick in their journals.

CNY - Literacy

Maths - As well as our daily Maths lessons and carousel of activities which have been centred around comparing numbers, we also had a Chinese number and golden coin matching activity, to further develop the children's counting correspondence as well as enrich the learning about Chinese New Year, their written language and how money is often given as a gift for this celebration.

CNY - Maths

Expressive Arts and Design - This week the children have had ample opportunities to explore a variety of materials and techniques, experimenting with new design, form and functions. We have made Chinese lanterns, wax and watercolour book marks and a beautiful, collaborative 'Year of the Snake' art instillation for our classroom. The children have also had ample opportunities to invent and role play narratives with their peers.

CNY - EA&D

 

And Finally, Understanding the World - This week's topic has enriched this part of our curriculum, the children have learnt where China is in the world, tried some food from this country and spoken about how their celebrations differ to ours to name a few. 

CNY - Food Tasting

I hope this has given you an insight of how our topics work in the EYFS and how learning through play, with carefully planned enhancements and activities, is so important for our youngest learners!

Happy Chinese New Year 2025!