Chinese New Year is one of the festivals most commonly celebrated in early years settings. This year it starts on 9 February with the Year of the Cockerel.
You could make this the start of a longer-term project on China, celebrating its other festivals and introducing the children to various aspects of Chinese life. A good starting point would be to contact your nearest Chinese community centre for ideas. You can find this out through the China in Britain Forum, 1st Floor, Boardman House, 64 Broadway, London E15 1NG (tel: 0208 432 0681, e-mail info@cibf. co.uk). Another source of information is www.chinapage.com which has material on the New Year festival, including some wonderful images you can download.
Again on the internet, www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear has easy-to-follow ideas on making dragons, lion toys, puppets, paper 'fireworks' and lanterns. More activities for primary school children can be found on www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/chineseny.
Ideas are also attractively presented in the Child's Eye video on festivals and its accompanying notebook (Child's Eye Media, £19.96).
One traditional story often told at New Year is that of Yeh-Shen, the Chinese version of Cinderella. Getting the children to compare this with the version they already know can help them understand how stories are made and see similarities and differences between Chinese and British culture. A text telling the story is available on www.unc.edu/ rwilkers/resource-china.
Peter Baldock is chair of the management committee of the Cultural Mentoring Service
