Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Waeeny's Chinese New Year experience :)

Hey! Its me, Waeeny Dessources, a fairly new Hester Street Collaborative intern. Recently, Yanely, Xing and I have been working on the Chinese New Year party activities and projects for the children. At first, we all sat down and brainstormed about which activities we would create that would interest a younger audience. Certain youth activities that we came up with included making masks, name tags, finger puppets, stamps, and lucky red envelopes; which were created to resemble the Chinese Zodiacs, especially the Golden Boar. The masks along with the nametags, envelopes, and fortunes were created using an Illustrator Program. For the masks, I drew half of the animal’s head on a sheet of paper using Adobe Illustrator, and created indicator lines so that the person making it would know to fold it in half and cut along the lines. Second were the stamps. After Yanely and I took a walk to Pearl Paint in search of linoleum and cutting tools, we returned to the office and copied the animal templates onto the linoleum. Soon after the pieces were carved out, wood was glued onto the back surface and therefore; creating a stamp. We created several of each animal so that the supply would be sufficient. It was quite an allusive experience due to the fact that so many children participated in the event and it caused me to realize that all the hard work paid off. As the festivities commenced, waiters and waitresses served exquisite Chinese cuisine as everyone took park in the tasting of the delicious dumplings. Planning the party and watching it become reality was undoubtedly a momentous experience for me. Not only did I learn about Chinese New Year while creating the activities, but I also had a load of fun taking part in the event. :)

No comments: