Korean New Year!!!

Today at school we celebrated the Lunar New Year with the kindergarten class. That meant I was able to dress up in my hanbok again. The kids all looked so adorable as always with their cute little hanboks on as well.

The kids first bowed to Sione and Sarah (the are the owners of the hagwon), then the kids bowed to the foreign teachers, and lastly they bowed to the Korean teachers. After they bowed, we would give them each a little treat. After the bowing was finished, we had a session of photo taking of all the kids. Then we made some sweet potato dumplings. This was basically the kids rolling mashed sweet potatoes into a ball and then rolling it into a cookie crumble. 

After snack time, the kids then played some traditional Korean games. The games were similar to the ones we played during Chuseok. We also played hopscotch too. They play a slightly different version then the one I am used to in the states, but it was still fun. They also played this game called Yunnori, which is a traditional board game played with four sticks. Instead of playing with the sticks, the children were representing the sticks. It was quite funny to watch. 

For lunch we had this soup called Tteokguk. The Korean New Year is also a birthday celebration for Koreans and so when you are finished eating the soup you are a year older. The Korean's have a different aging system then the rest of the world, where you don't turn a year older on your birthday, but on the New Year. 

This was my group for the day!