Kukunaokalā Helps Us Understand The Origin of Chinese New Year

By Ava ’20

This Friday, Kukunaokala and Zhang Laoshi helped us better understand Chinese new year. First,  they helped us understand the difference between the pronunciation of teacher and rat. Which sound very much alike, lao shi for teacher and lao shu for rat. Next, they made a skit revolving around the Chinese new year monster named Nian Shou. Kukunaokala made a cute monster with fabric and a transparent blanket. They explained that the Nian Shou would come into the town and scare the people so they couldn’t celebrate the Chinese new year. To scare away the Nian Shou the people would launch firecrackers and wear bright colors. Next, we sang a song that helped us learn our numbers and talked about where friends were. Lastly, a student from Kukunaokala interviewed someone from Sodexo named Mrs. Taguchi. She is the supplier for our school lunch, she said that she had lived in China. She made a very special school lunch to celebrate Chinese foods, such as orange chicken, dumplings, spring rolls, and fortune cookies. It was a truly and joyful assembly filled with the spirit of the new year!