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Join UsNews / Halaman York / 2018 / August 2018
We are glad to see all the children are back in good health after our school holiday. We will continue to implement temperature screening of every child and hand washing on arrival at Nania before entering the classroom in addition to our usual hygiene routine.
Recently, haze visited us, causing us to stop outdoor activities including water play for some days. We are also encouraging children to drink more water to keep them in good health.
Mooncake Festival is just around the corner. Coloured lanterns [Tanglung] are strung up in shops and shopping malls. The Mooncake Festival, a mid-autumn Festival is the third major festival of the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month. It is also known as the Mooncake Festival because a special kind of sweet cake [Yueh Ping] prepared in the shape of the moon and filled with sesame seeds, ground lotus seeds and salted yolks from duck eggs is served as a traditional Chung Chiu delicacy.
It is a busy month for us as we prepare for the Mooncake festival. The children are excited as they make their own beautiful lanterns. We separate them into small groups to enable the children to cut and paste by themselves with minimal help from the teachers. When the children make the “guru-guru” string (for the lantern handle used), it was a bit difficult for the small children to do it. We were happy to see that all the big “ge ge” and “jie jie” eagerly helped them and guide them patiently.
We created a Nania Mid-Autumn presentation using the “Chang Er” story with songs, poem and movement suitable for children. For example, the “Hoopati-hoopathi hoop” song is sung to introduce Jade Rabbit who lives in the moon with Change Er and when Hou Yi shoots down the 9 suns, the children will clap hand with a rhythm beat.
We are pleased to hear from one parent, who asked ”Did you teach them the Chang Er story?, my kid told me the story at home”. We answered, we brought it to our ringtime circle. Amazingly they can remember the whole story.
This festival is also a festival for both the kindy and after school care children. Both groups will make a joint presentation but they have no chance to practice together. Nevertheless, both groups are passionate to learn and prepare themselves to be in the same circle together. Hope you will all enjoy their presentation on that day!
The kindy children have been gradually picking the blue flowers and passing them to Aunty Anny to be used as food dye. On the festival day, children will make their own winter moon cake in the morning. They will also make colourful lanterns to decorate the garden. During the Mooncake Festival, we will enjoy their home made moon cakes.
The children are looking forward to the Mooncake festival. They will bring back their self-made ‘snow skin moon cake’ that night.
The festival will be held in the evening at Nania’s garden. Parents and siblings are welcome to join us. On that day, the children will leave for home earlier, that is, at 12.45 pm. They will return to Nania for the Mooncake Festival with their families at 6.15 pm.
Enclosed with this month’s newsletter are the songs that we are practising for the Mooncake festival and the festival programme on that day.
Teacher Kerry & Teacher Chithra