Chinese Calligraphy and Zodiac Animals

We had a special visitor this morning, and a special treat. Christie, Kai's mom, came in to read a fable about the Chinese zodiac called Cat and Rat by Ed Young. In this version, the Emperor has a race to determine the names of each of the twelve years in the cycle. The rat, being the slyest, comes in first - and the poor cat gets left out entirely.

After reading, the children learned how to write their birthdays using numbers for month, day, and year. Once they did this, they researched to see what animal they were. We had dogs, roosters, and one little monkey! After getting int their animal groups, children read the characteristics they supposedly share with each other. We agreed that we had all of the positive characteristics, but not so much about the negative ones. Stubborn? Us?

Then Christie gave us a very special treat. It seems Kai's grandfather enjoys calligraphy, and spends time each day honing his art. Each child got a sheet with their name written in this beautiful way. I happen to have a brush and ink that is used in calligraphy so I will have this out during a future free time.