January 29th marked the beginning of the Lunar New Year, an East Asian celebration of wisdom, renewal, and transformation. Honoring the start of the Lunar New Year was a lovely way to bring our Nursery Kehillah together to celebrate our classroom community and support the students who observe this holiday at home. Many children came to school wearing red, a color that symbolizes good luck. They were so happy to share the red they wore, and some even brought in books and artwork representing the Lunar New Year from home to share with their peers.

One element of the Lunar New Year that proved exciting and important to our life skills work was making red paper chains using both construction paper and red envelopes, also known as hongbao, which are traditionally used in celebrations by being filled with money. After providing the strips of paper, the children were shown how to glue and link them together to make the paper chains. They absolutely loved the process; the children often excitedly compared the lengths of their chains, with some deciding to combine their chains to create one “even longer one!!” Making paper chains requires fine motor skills and motor planning, and it introduces early math concepts such as patterning, counting, and measurement using non-standard units.

In celebration of the Year of the Snake (2025), the children have also been creating snake-like forms out of clay. Clay is an invitation that we offer daily in the Nursery suite for its calming and sensory benefits. When children manipulate clay, they engage in both fine and gross motor skills. Actions like pinching, poking, and rolling small pieces of clay into snake-like figures help develop movements that are essential for later tasks like holding a pencil. When the children knead, push, and pound the clay, they engage their arms, shoulders, and core muscles. In addition, the children have been shaping clay into dumplings—first rolling a ball, then pressing it into a dumpling mold. One child even brought the Lazy Susan piece from the play kitchen over to the clay table. He proceeded to place his dumplings on the Lazy Susan, making a connection to a restaurant his family frequents, where food is served in the same way.

Nursery also invited first grader and Nursery sibling Spencer to read aloud to our class Two New Years by Richard Ho. This beautiful story highlights the common threads that weave together both the Lunar New Year and Rosh Hashanah, showing how shared values and familiar themes can bridge two different cultures. Our Nursery Kehillah this year is strengthened by many cultures, spoken languages, and traditions. The children love making connections with one another and welcome diversity with open hearts (and many questions!). Moments like these are wonderful opportunities to come together and model that our differences make each of us unique—and make the world beautiful.