Article courtesy of Indooroopilly State High School
On Monday the 10th of February the Indooroopilly State High School Department of Languages and Global Citizenship hosted a Lantern Festival to celebrate the end of two weeks of festivities for the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. Students had the opportunity to engage with authentic cultural activities, with learning moving out of the classroom and into our languages hub for the day. Students from across the school had the opportunity to experience Chinese language and culture, providing opportunities for students who do not study Chinese to share in the festivities.
Students were thrilled by a traditional Chinese Lion Dance that moved through the crowds, weaving and leaping around. Our Chinese teachers and teaching assistants led cultural activities and crafts such as Chinese fan and tea-pot painting, traditional paper cutting, chopsticks challenges, table tennis, a Chinese tea ceremony and even a special screening of the film Kung-Fu Panda! Students formed a huge queue behind the dumpling table, and had to successfully pronounce words in Chinese to win a dumpling. Lots of students increased their vocabulary this way!
It was also a pleasure to invite special guests from the Confucius Institute at UQ to come and visit our cultural celebration. It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the vibrant culture of China and to welcome the entire school community to participate. A wonderful start to the term, and we are looking forward to a range of cultural celebrations throughout the rest of the year through excursions which highlight the diversity of Chinese language and culture. Special thanks must go to our wonderful Chinese teachers and teaching assistants for all of their work preparing for the celebration, decorating our Q Block languages hub, and leading the cultural activities.
