This always seem like a busy part of the year for everyone. Being part of the All School Lunar New Year feast and the Kindergarten dragon parade is a lovely tradition in the Nursery each winter and the weather was especially beautiful. In the days leading up to the event, Nurseries and I read several picture books about a young girl and her family in China and how they all enjoyed Lunar New Year each year  with fun and food and celebration. We talked about how the Chinese dragon in the Lunar New Year stories is one that brings good luck and how it wasn’t like the story dragons that guard the gold and breathed fire in other fairy tales. Nurseries reassured each other that the Kindergarten dragon was a costume and that the Kindergartners would be inside making it move. We would see their feet!

For their part of the feast, Nurseries prepared many Jasmine tea bags by cutting off the paper tags and filled the large carafe with 36 cups of water, team lifting it onto our cart. They then rolled it down to the Art/Science room on Friday morning to be in place and ready for the feast.

Later on, the Kindergartner’s dragon appeared in our room right around lunch time to the sound of fire works (bubble wrap being stomped) and dramatic music. Without skipping a beat, the dragon-of-many-feet led us through each classroom to pick up all the YGers and OGers.  All in a long parade, we went outside in grand procession to circle around the play yard. The entire school ended up back inside at the serving tables filled with stir fry, egg rolls, spring rolls, noodles, rice, almond cookies, along with jasmine tea, of course,  and then on down the hall to sit on the floor at our red paper “table.”