Nursery: What happened in 'The Great Race?'

This week in Nursery, we have read the story of ‘The Great Race’ by Emily Hiles. This book tells the story of the Jade Emperor who hears twelve animals having an argument because they want the New Year to be named after an animal but they each want it to be them. The Emperor decides that the animals should have a race across the river and they will name the New Year after the winner. The rat is the winner but the Emperor decides to give each animal a year in the order that they completed the race. We have been using small world toys and masks to retell the story.

We have also been talking about different things that people do to celebrate Lunar New Year. The children have worked together to create a dragon and have enjoyed practising dragon dances. We have also created fortune cookies, which gave the children a great opportunity to practise their mark making. The children each drew a symbol to represent a message to their families and this was placed inside their fortune cookie. They used their counting skills to count out the correct number of tablespoons of flour, dairy free spread and sugar. They were also able to talk about the properties of a circle as they shaped the biscuit mixture onto baking trays. We also talked about how the mixture changed when it was cooked and it could then be folded to hide their secret message.

We have also been counting out the correct number of coins into different red envelopes, matching numeral to quantity and developing our finger muscles when using chopsticks. Next week we are going to be tasting vegetable spring rolls as many of the children did not know what they are.

This week in Nursery, we have read the story of ‘The Great Race’ by Emily Hiles. This book tells the story of the Jade Emperor who hears twelve animals having an argument because they want the New Year to be named after an animal but they each want it to be them. The Emperor decides that the animals should have a race across the river and they will name the New Year after the winner. The rat is the winner but the Emperor decides to give each animal a year in the order that they completed the race. We have been using small world toys and masks to retell the story.

We have also been talking about different things that people do to celebrate Lunar New Year. The children have worked together to create a dragon and have enjoyed practising dragon dances. We have also created fortune cookies, which gave the children a great opportunity to practise their mark making. The children each drew a symbol to represent a message to their families and this was placed inside their fortune cookie. They used their counting skills to count out the correct number of tablespoons of flour, dairy free spread and sugar. They were also able to talk about the properties of a circle as they shaped the biscuit mixture onto baking trays. We also talked about how the mixture changed when it was cooked and it could then be folded to hide their secret message.

We have also been counting out the correct number of coins into different red envelopes, matching numeral to quantity and developing our finger muscles when using chopsticks. Next week we are going to be tasting vegetable spring rolls as many of the children did not know what they are.