News / Nunn Road / 2019 / February 2019

I was glad to meet all of you who attended our Chinese New Year Festival. It was like the reunion of a big family and our love for the children binds us together. I hope all of you enjoyed the festival too.

To enrich the experience and festive mood of Chinese New Year, we also organise Kuih Kapit Baking every year. This year more families from the English Class participated. Two of our graduates even came back to meet their friends on that day.

We were busy making preparations days before the Chinese New Year Festival. The 6-year-olds helped to clean the stools. The children practised folding Ribbon Kuih by using origami papers. On the day we made Ribbon Kuih, the big children helped to cut the folding line. Then all of us folded the Ribbon Kuih on that morning. Later, Auntie Janet helped us to fry the Ribbon Kuih. I hope you liked the Ribbon Kuih that was served during the festival’s snack time. The big children also made the Chinese New Year ornaments that were hung in the garden.

The Chinese New Year Festival is the first festival for newcomers. Hence, they are too shy to perform in front of the parents. Meanwhile, most of the older children are confident and very willing to participate.

After the Chinese New Year break, we celebrated Bean Throwing Day. The children wore masks and went out to the garden with a box of soybeans. Together with the Japanese Class, we scattered the soybeans as a symbolic desire to get rid of sickness and sadness while welcoming goodness and happiness for the coming year. After that, the children collected the scattered soybeans and planted them in the vegetable patch. The beans that they planted have sprouted. The children water them during outside playtime. Come and observe these plants and share our joy when you are at our garden.

Last week, 4 students from Penang Japanese School visited us. We had picnic with the big “koko” and “jiejie” in the garden. Afterwards, they made a playhouse from recycle paper boxes and assembled a train from hoola hoops to play with the children. Needless to say, the children were happy to play with them.

The 6-year-old “koko” and “jiejie” in the class are excited about their new roles. Not only did they help us prepare for the Chinese New Year celebration, they also take on special tasks in our daily rhythm like preparing water and tea for morning snacks, be our “postman” to bring in the letter box, guiding the younger children during ring time, making sandwiches for lunch and serving their friends during lunch. In this way, we are fostering their living skills and enhancing their self-confidence. I was so moved when a mother showed me photos of her daughter who took the initiative to put all the shoes in order when she visited a relative’s home during Chinese New Year. We hope that when the big children graduate from Nania, they are capable, helpful, willing to learn, observant, confident and most importantly, happy and healthy.

There will be 10 children graduating from the Japanese Class in March. I wish them all the best for their future endeavours. Please take note that the English Class will be closed on that day.

                                                                                                           Teacher Thian

Big Children Activities