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Year 5 embrace Chinese culture

The magical world of Chinese lion dancing, Chinese instruments and traditional Chinese bracelet making came to ����AV recently and our Year 5 girls loved every moment.

The Chinese incursion was organised by our wonderful Junior School teacher, Ms Chaosi Chen, who wanted our Year 5 students to take a hands-on approach to learning more about Chinese culture, beliefs and traditions.

The girls enjoyed learning how to play various different instruments, learning new dance moves and proudly wore their very own Chinese bracelets.

Bethany said, “Ancient China came to us on Wednesday! We went to the Independent Theatre and four men taught us how to lion dance.

We learned a dance and a rhythm and we clapped the rhythm with cymbals! These men are amazing at lion dancing. Apparently they went on the 2012 America’s Got Talent! They had brought along a couple of lion heads for us to dance in. We chose a partner and one of us was working the tail and the other was working the head. Another activity was playing a Chinese instrument. There was a Chinese clarinet, a Chinese flute, a Chinese guitar and a Chinese violin.

We were taught how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the guitar.

Did you know that the Chinese violin only has two strings? Crazy, right!

Now, we weren’t very experienced on these instruments but with a little help by our instructors we sounded a little better. This day was CRAZY FUN! We would all like to do this again!”

Ruby said, “The first activities that 5M did was make good luck bracelets out of red string because in China red symbolises good luck. There are many ways to make a good luck bracelet but the way that we did it was by using a traditional Chinese flat knot.

The bracelet making was very successful and everyone had a lot of fun. Most of us wore the bracelets for the rest of the day.

The next activity was learning about Chinese instruments. There was the Chinese flute and many more different instruments.

After lunch, we walked over to the Independent Theatre to do some traditional Chinese lion dancing. We learnt how to play cymbals in time with the drums and even got to try on a real lion dance costume and learn a routine that the performers teaching us made up especially for us. In conclusion, everyone had an amazing time learning new skills and we all learnt more about Chinese culture. It was an amazing experience and everyone enjoyed it.”

Charlotte said, “The incursion was very fun and I loved the bracelet making. The teamwork and cooperation when being in a lion costume was really great and it was jaw dropping when Ms Lu performed to us.”

Nicole and Shan Shan said, “From Period 3 to 5, we had a Chinese incursion about Duan Wu Jie, the Dragon Boat Festival. All the things we have experienced are traditional.

We played Chinese musical instruments, sang a song about Duan Wu Jie, made Chinese bracelets, and went to the Independent Theatre to try lion/dragon dancing and watch people perform the dances.

The activities were all so interesting and overall, it was lots of fun! Thank you to the people who came to ����AV to host the incursion!”