Hello Red Room Families,

This week in the Red Room, we are joyfully celebrating both Lunar New Year and Black History Month. We learned that Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is a vibrant 15-day celebration that begins on February 17, 2026, and follows the cycles of the moon. The holiday features the 12 zodiac animals, bright red envelopes filled with lucky money, and delicious traditional foods like dumplings and fish, which symbolize wealth and prosperity. Before the new year begins, families carefully clean their homes to sweep away bad luck and welcome good fortune. Festivities often include colorful dragon and lion dances, performed to bring happiness, strength, and good luck for the year ahead. The celebration concludes with the beautiful Lantern Festival, when glowing lanterns light up the night sky, marking the end of this joyful tradition.

ART- The children made their own lucky red envelopes by painting white construction paper bright red. After the paint dried, we folded the paper to look just like real envelopes.

During group time, we read a book called Lunar New Year by Blastoff! Beginners and The Night Before Lunar New Year by Lingfeng Ho and Natasha Wing. Then we handed out the wonderful red envelopes the children made. We also gave them gold coins and small bags that the teachers picked out, so they could fill their envelopes with special gold coins. 

 Black History month 

Garrett Morgan was a smart and creative inventor who wanted to help keep people safe. One of his great ideas was improving the traffic light, also called a light signal. Before his invention, traffic lights did not have a special “stop” time for cars to pause. Garrett Morgan added a warning signal so cars could slow down and stop safely. Because of his invention, streets became safer for everyone. He worked hard and showed that one good idea can help many people!

ART- 🎨 ART FUN IN THE RED ROOM! 🚦

For art this week, the children created their very own traffic lights using four different colors of construction paper. They used black for the background and cut out bright red, yellow, and green circles for the signals.

They learned that red means stop, yellow means slow down, and green means go!

The teachers asked each child what the different colors stood for, and our smart Red Room children knew exactly what to say! Almost everyone could explain each color, with just a few friends needing a little help remembering that yellow means slow down.

Way to go, Red Room!