Outside the Box – Nicole Kelly
Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快乐
Every year, students and families look forward to celebrating the Lunar New Year! It is a long-standing tradition at RSI where students dress up, families come together, and everyone celebrates traditional East Asian customs.
Chinese New Year is one of the most anticipated holidays for RSI students. Every year in Chinese Language classes, students similarly celebrate this holiday as kids would in China with a variety of activities like Chinese calligraphy, eating dumplings, making paper lanterns, and receiving red envelopes. Students make Chinese lanterns as symbols of wealth and prosperity, and they use these lanterns to mark this joyous and harmonious celebration. They also celebrated with feasts of dumplings (traditional dish), goldfish (to attract abundance), and tangerines (symbolize prosperity).
PTO hosted a family festival on Friday that was full of fun activities! The event included lion dancers, a magician, craft stations, cultural snacks & surprises. The kids enjoyed watching the magician pull tricks out of his magic hat, as well as the lion dancers who performed to celebrate the Lunar New Year as a sign to bring good luck and fortune.
A highlight of the event was a fundraiser for the school’s new playground where students got to pie teachers and admin in the face! It was a fun time gathering with families and friends as a way to bring in the new year in togetherness.
In classes, teachers reviewed the traditions of the Lunar New Year by sharing the folklore of the zodiac animals and what they represent. This is a special year for RSI as we welcomed the Year of the Tiger. Students learned that the tiger represents bravery, courage and is also a sign of hope. As uplifting as the tiger is, he is also our mascot! We look forward to the excitement and good fortune this year will bring!
