Celebrating Chinese New Year!!

It is the time of year celebrate Lunar New Year (formerly known as Chinese new year).  It is the time of year where the Chinese culture celebrates the new year.  Traditionally they give gifts of money in red envelopes, and hold parties with their loved ones.  It is a time of great joy and celebration.  Over the Lunar new year period, we have been learning through artwork.  Red and gold creations, red and gold playdough as well as making our very own Chinese dragon!  To complete our celebration, we held our very own party.  Apart from people, the most important ingredient in any successful party is, of course, FOOD!  Chinese noodles to be exact!

Firstly, we cut up the vegetables.  We used carrots and onions, and added some frozen peas, corn and beans to our hot Wok.  

The next step was crack open some eggs, into a bowl and then whisk them using a fork.  It was quite tricky to keep the eggs in the bowl, but it was good practice, and we learned how much force we need our arm to use when whisking. 

 Next we added some egg noodles and soy sauce.  

All that was left was to mix it until it was all cooked, and we were able to sit down and enjoy!

Celebrating with our Uxbridge Whanau, over our home made noodles, was the perfect way for us to learn about the Lunar New Year.  By learning about cultural celebrations, we are giving our children an understanding of the greater world around them.  Real life experiences produce authentic learning outcomes, which our children will be able to draw on throughout their lives.  As we are now experts at making noodles, maybe we could expand our cooking skills and try some other Chinese delicacies like, fried rice, dumplings or wontons.   I can't wait!    Written by Mel - Feb 2018.