Ciaran introduced our assembly.

We began by playing a musical piece the class had worked on with Mrs Inkster. Jasmin Flower was an 18th Century Chinese folk song.

Fearghas, Ciaran, Declan and AJ presented their research on China as a PowerPoint. They found out about its location, climate, rivers and mountains as well as China’s currency, flag, population and cities. They all spoke out clearly as they presented their eye-catching slides.

Unfortunately Lily Jane was poorly and missed the assembly but she had worked hard with the rest of her group to prepare an attractive and informative PowerPoint about China’s wildlife.

Animals they had found out about included the giant panda, red panda, Siberian tiger, Golden haired tamarin monkey, Chinese cobra, Chinese white dolphin and Yangtze alligator.

They did an excellent presentation, and finished off with a quiz -just to check who had been listening carefully.

Bertie, Archie, Michael, Alex and Jake were interested in finding out about famous Chinese landmarks. Bertie researched information about The Forbidden Palace in Beijing and found an attractive picture which was enlarged to show the audience.

Archie told everyone about the Terracotta Army, who it was made for and why. He also created a wonderful ‘statue’ of a Terracotta Warrior which the group named Lee Chang.

Michael, Alex and Jake put a lot of time and effort into painting their own Great Wall of China. They shared some interesting facts, they had found out about the wall, with the audience. Did you know it is getting shorter every day due to natural erosion and people taking bricks for private use?

Shane, Ronan, Katie and Niamh did a super job at teaching the audience some Mandarin. They demonstrated different ways of greeting each other then went on to teach us parts of the body and head. The audience were then asked to show how much they had remembered by placing arrows on the correct part of the head.

Molly, Emily, Zara, Jessica and Christie finished off  with a wonderful presentation about the Chinese New Year. It was full of interesting information about the traditions and decorations found at this time of year. They had made their own lanterns, firecrackers,  ‘Hong Bao” (lucky red envelopes containing sweets and money) and a chulian (red banner with a poem on it). They even performed a ‘lion dance’.

Molly and Emily introduced our short play about how the twelve years of the Chinese Calendar came to be named after animals.

We finished off our assembly by singing ‘Happy New Year’ in Mandarin.

Everyone in the class had a great time working towards the assembly and sharing what they learned with family, friends and the rest of the school.

Zara commented, “The assembly went really well and I enjoyed doing it.”

Declan really enjoyed playing guitar in Jasmin Flowers.

“I had a great time,” said Michael.

Jessica said, “My parents were very proud of me.”

Fearghas thought it was great fun.

Holly said, “I really enjoyed the assembly today.”

“I was a bit nervous but I really enjoyed it,” commented Emily.

Ruby said, “I loved being the cat in the play.”

Christie commented, “It’s the best assembly I have ever pulled off.”

Emmy really liked being the dragon in the Zodiac play.

Niamh really enjoyed playing the ox.

“It was the best assembly ever,” commented Alex.

Molly said, “I really enjoyed doing the lion poem and a big thanks to the audience.”

Jake said, “It was a good Assembly and I enjoyed doing it very much.”

AJ enjoyed the assembly and Ronan said it was the best ever.

Bertie said he was a bit worried at first and Shane said he really liked doing the assembly.

Ciaran and Katie both said they enjoyed doing the play.

Archie commented, “Amazing assembly!”

Everyone in the class would like to thank John for putting up the beautiful Chinese decorations and their lanterns in the hall.

Also thank you to Mrs Inkster for teaching them to play Jasmine Flowers.