Small World Play: Ancient China

Gong Hi Fa Cai!  It’s the Chinese New Year tomorrow and Mavi and I are currently learning about the Ancient China  (using STOW Vol 1 as read along book). With these, we set up another small world play which is inspired by the history of China.  Here’s what Mavi and I assembled.   Last month, we assembled an Australian Outback-inspired small play and it was a total hit!  This month, the boys are enjoying their free play with our new small world tray!

First, Mavi and Vito painted the newspaper with green and brown. This will be the base of our Great Wall! Painting is one of those activities that kids love to do together!

We placed the newspaper (once the paint dried) at the bottom of our wooden tray then stuff it with small world figures and materials from our Safari Toob collections, LEGO and Playmobil.

What’s in the tray?

You will first  notice our country profile card with the dragon.  I made this card for Mavi to read whenever he plays, and I added a dragon, as this is one of China’s famous icon and symbol.   The dragon is part of the Playmobil Advent Calendar which I got Mavi last year.                      

Qin Shi Huang and Chinese Buddha. Qin Shi is the first emperor of China and the country was named after him (the figure is part of Playmobil Advent Calendar) and the Chinese Buddha is from Hong Kong. 

                                                 

Other objects we added were

 the dragons from Safari Toobs

 the Giant Buddha from Safari Toob Landmarks

a DIY flag of China

the Great Wall of China made of LEGO (Mavi made this)

the rest of the items from Playmobil Dragon Advent Calendar.

Here’s Mavi loving the dragon. We were discussing the role and meaning of the dragon in China’s culture and tradition.

Vito loves our tray too! The tray is good for one to two weeks.  It is placed on top of the shelf for the boys to easily access and play with the figures as long as they want to. 

What a successful collaboration from Mavi, Vito and I! They enjoyed playing the materials that we have in the tray, most especially our dragon!  History, geography and imaginative play all rolled into one!

If you are interested, we did several China-related activities before.  You can click this (part 1) and this (for part 2).

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Chinese Lantern Project for Kids

We had a lot of fun today making our Chinese lantern in celebrating Chinese New Year.  Mavi and I did this years ago, and I think he would love to do this again, and of course for Vito to experience.

The lanterns that we made were no brainer. They’re so easy to do.  I showed Mavi how to do it and he worked on the rest.   As you can see in the photos, as Mavi cuts his lantern, Vito is also busy doing his scribbling.

 

We added some decors on it as well, like star stickers, glitters and some designs.

I inserted the tea candles inside the lanterns and this is how they turned out.  It was a good color activity for Vito as well!

The boys were fascinated, especially Vito!   Mavi thinks its magical

Happy Chinese New Year to those who are celebrating! It’s the year of the monkey, it’s my year!  More Chinese-themed activites here and here.

NOTE:  THIS ACTIVITY SHOULD BE SUPERVISED DUE TO FIRE HAZARD.

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