Happy Lunar New Year everyone! May your year be filled with prosperity and joy!
As part of our Lunar New Year celebrations taking place in the toddler room, the children participated in helping to decorate their classroom. The beginning of the festivities starts on February 17th and continues on for 15 days. This year, 2026 celebrates the year of the Horse as per the Lunar zodiac, explained Sun the educator. She continued sharing that the horse symbolizes energy, strength, and adventure. The year of the Horse is about trying new things, being bold and having confidence in yourself and being uniquely you as only you can be! This holiday is widely celebrated in many Asian countries, including Korea, China and Vietnam. Families that celebrate the Lunar New Year gather together, to honour their ancestors, enjoy traditional meals and give gifts, such as money to wish one another good luck and prosperity for the year ahead. Sun also explained that the Lunar Zodiac consists of 12 animals, and that each one has their own year dedicated especially to them. These 12 animals included, the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. “I like the Pig!” said Isla happily as Sun showed the Tod Squad pictures of the animals. “Horses gallop!” said Teddy as he pretended to be a horse and started to make a neighing sound. “That’s a silly monkey!” said Annika as she seemed to enjoy the monkey picture the most. These sharing of the animal pictures soon brought about an impromptu game of Sleeping horses, monkeys and pigs as well. “Neigh, neigh” sang the toddlers as they pretended to be horses galloping around the classroom. Afterwards they were pretending to be rabbits, hopping up and down, following behind one another.
Once the imaginative play had concluded the toddlers were encouraged to come and sit at the tables for a fun activity. The educators then introduced various creative materials, such as glue, paints, paintbrushes and paper plates and asked if they would like to help decorate the classroom for this special festival, by turning their creations into horses. The toddlers seemed very excited about this invitation and came over to find a spot at the table. Since this year marks the year of the Fire Horse, we explored with warm colours like red, yellow and brown. Each child had the opportunity to pick from these colours, using their paintbrushes as tools and transforming their paper plates into their own unique horse. “My horse is flying” said Isla excitedly as she held it up for her friends at the table to see. “My horse is brown!” said Sierra “I like brown and red too!” she added. “Fly horsey” sang Teddy as he moved his paper plate back and forth. These activities that Sun shared with us, highlighting her traditional Lunar New Year celebration brought about a sense of community, engagement and pride. We came together in celebration, sharing ideas, dancing, creating, listening and spreading joy and laughter to all around.
