2. 2015 Year of the Sheep Celebrating Chinese New Year in Year 3

3. Mrs Teo joined Year 3 to share the Chinese Year of the Sheep. Last year we learnt about how the years were named after different animals. 2015 is the Year of the Sheep. Can you find your year? What animal are you?

4. Families will gather together to share in the joy of the New Year. This meal is a VERY important. Everything on that table will be spectacular, succulent, plentiful and beautifully decorated. Besides a gathering with loved ones, the New Year's meal has come to symbolise the hope for a prosperous and abundant new year

5. We decided this year to make special New Year cakes decorated with Chinese symbols. Cupcakes are an important part of the New Year Celebrations. Take a look at this one made in school. It was delicious!!!

6. Great care was taken with the decoration.

7. Decorating the top! Year of the Sheep!!

8. There you have it. Chinese cupcakes ready to eat!!! Delicious……

9. Children receive red and gold envelopes with money and maybe sweets inside. The red colour symbolises good luck and wealth. They often have a picture of a fish them as the Chinese word for fish sounds the same as the word ‘plentiful’. It is a good time to be friendly to others and forget old arguments. People greet each other by saying 'Kung Hei Fat Choy!', which means Happy New Year!

10. Chinese writing characters go back more than 3,000 years. The symbols began as pictures. Pictures were drawn to resemble the items they represented.. sun mountain

11. In ancient China, students had to memorize many pictures or characters each week and used brushes and ink to paint the "words". We only have to learn the 26 letters in the alphabet to be able to read and write. Imagine trying to memorize hundreds even thousands of pictures in order to be able to read and write...

12. Chinese character writing is done in columns, from top to bottom and from right to left. So you start writing in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

13. We had a go at making Chinese seals. We used clay to make ours. The Chinese chop or seal is used in Taiwan and China to sign documents, artwork, and other paperwork. The Chinese chop is most commonly made from stone, but can also be made in plastic, ivory, or metal.

14. It was very fiddly and quite tricky to get the initials of our names engraved into the clay. We needed the clay seal to harden before we took it home.

15. Year 3 would like to say “THANK YOU!!” to Mrs Teo for giving up her time to share her culture with us. We wish Mrs Teo, her family and all our Chinese families a Very Happy Year!!!