Eduwings Kindergarten does not only stand for multilingual education, but also for a multicultural approach. To get genuinely immersed into a language, taking part and being involved in cultural activities are very helpful, even essential. As children explore different cultures, they casually learn about related vocabulary in the respective languages as an added benefit.
Learning about the culture and traditions of our family, our country of origin/home country, the country we live in or related to the language we are trying to learn, also plays a major role in the development of personal identity.
At Eduwings, we embrace traditions and cultural aspects of China, the USA, GB and Germany, and also of any other country of origin of our students!
Introducing our students to Chinese culture and traditions, as well as both American and German culture and traditions, therefore is an integral part of the Eduwings curriculum. We strongly believe that learning about culture and traditions will help the children grow roots that are so important for their development and for them growing up into healthy, confident and happy people with a sense of belonging, who are open-minded, open to other cultures, and love learning.
Almost every month of our school calendar features at least one cultural event, which is not only celebrated on a specific date with a special activity or party, but also discussed in class and explored through various related activities in both our theme activities and afternoon activities. According to Eduwings tradition, all students, whether they are studying German or not, learn about and participate in festivals and traditions from Germany too, which broadens their horizon and, hopefully, awakens curiosity about foreign cultures in them and teaches them to appreciate them.
What cultural event is up next? – Eduwings is celebrating CNY!
Here at Eduwings Kindergarten, every year we extensively prepare for Chinese Spring Festival for several weeks, learning about related stories, preparing traditional food and crafts, and singing seasonal songs, and so much more.
The children do not only get in touch with all these cultural aspects in the classroom, but also in every other part of their life in kindergarten: The whole school building is decorated for the upcoming event – also with the children’s diligent and enthusiastic participation, our kitchen team offers related food like “labazhou”, a kind of porridge made from various types of grains and cereals, on Laba Festival Day, and, for example, Turkey for Thanksgiving. Seasonal music resounds in our classrooms, lobby and hallways, and sometimes, we even relate our monthly field trip to it or have an additional special activity, such as Chinese New Year Cultural Exhibition. Of course we also celebrate the cultural event, in this case Chinese New Year, in school with many exciting activities that will let the children create fond memories of the festival and give them the opportunity to review what they learned in the weeks leading up to it.
Have we made you curious about our Chinese New Year activities? Let’s take a look at what some of our kindergarten groups are busy doing this year or did in recent years in preparation for CNY:
One of our kindergarten groups celebrated Laba Festival by preparing laba suan, pickled garlic, which is commonly eaten with dumplings for instance.
One of our groups also prepared labazhou, a kind of porridge made from various different grains, which is traditionally eaten on Laba Festival Day.
Another group did a very fascinating fireworks demonstration and related art craft.
A group learned about the 12 Chinese zodiac animals and their story and used this occasion to review numbers 1 – 12.
Chinese painting is a fascinating form of art! Some of our groups discovered the art of Chinese painting and got to try their hands at this fascinating painting technique.
Chinese Traditional Culture Exhibition has been very popular with our students and families in recent years.
A group decorated paper lanterns with lovely flower patterns cut from paper.
Yet another group learned how to make traditional paper cuts, and improved their fine-motor skills by cutting out patterns.
Wrapping Chinese dumplings is culinary art! – A group practised their fine motor skills and culinary knowledge by preparing dumplings.
Several groups learned about the meaning of character Fu, how to write or trace it and crafted beautiful lucky signs and red envelopes.
Tanghulu, Chinese candied fruit on sticks, is a delicious treat all children enjoy! Learning how to make it was so much fun!
A group learned about how to express good wishes for Chinese New Year with 4-character sentences in Chinese.
Chinese fans are beautiful indeed! Even more so when creatively decorated by our students!
Some groups crafted lovely paper lanterns and practiced their cutting skills.
This group got to watch and participate in traditional Chinese tea ceremony.
These pretty red fish were crafted by one of our groups. The children not only practised cutting, pasting and folding, but also learned about the symbolic meaning fish bears for Chinese New Year, abundance and riches, due to the similar sound to the Chinese word for fish.
We’re all so excited about our upcoming CNY party on January 17th and are much looking forward to all the fun we’ll have on this special day! Many wonderful activities await your children at this year’s CNY party!
Do you want to learn more about the Eduwings curriculum and what makes it so special? Stay tuned to our blog for our monthly articles!
Seasonal greetings,
The Eduwings Team
