Newton's 2021 Charity Drive & Welcoming the New Year|Newton

The warmth of the winter sun illuminated the red lanterns at Newton kindergarten and ignited the auspicious blessings of Spring Festival and made the atmosphere full of love and appreciation at this year's Charity Drive and Spring Festival event. Even though we were unable to invite parents inside of campus due to Covid-19 regulations, parents were eager to lend a helping hand and passed the value of love and caring to those in need while welcoming the new "Year of the Ox".

Showing love and care / Charity Drive

At Newton we always integrate the value of kindness and social responsibility into our curriculum and before the Charity Drive began students had learned through lessons and activities that donations were being raised for the poor families in remote areas of Tibet and the Suzhou animal shelter, SAPA, which rescue and care for homeless dogs and cats. Children were eager to show their love and care and through guidance we learned about ways to help those less fortunate and in need.

At Bayside campus children and teachers collected leaves, petals and fruits to go with the campus philosophy of nature and made scarves, towels, bags and scented candles for the Charity auction. Others made skillfully crafted arts and crafts with symbols of good luck and wishes. They were all warmly welcomed by parents and students and were sold out already on the first of the online charity auction. We were deeply impressed by parents' power of love.

At Newton, Hui Xin campusteachers and studentsmade spring couplets, New Year Pictures and handicrafts together. The many beautiful seasonal ornaments decorated the campus reminded us that the New Year is almost here. The teacher’s art auction demonstrated incredible skills as they had made traditionalChinese scroll paintings and decorations. Parents showed tremendous support and could see the art displayed both at the entrance and online. Each day the bidding went higher and higher leading up to the final day of the auction! All of the amazing donations allowed us to make a grand donation to SAPA, the Suzhou animal shelter, in their effort to love and care for animals in need.

Together with the campus auction, Bayside campus sold online groceries and raised money up to the amount of 35,507 RMB. All of the donations was passed through the "Snow Lotus Student Association", "Suzhou Animal Shelter" and "Suzhou Yijiayi Public Welfare Service Center" who send all of the love of the Newton staff, parents and children to the children in Gannan and Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan, as well as the homeless animals. Further, this year Hui Xin Campus raised a grand total of 19,153 RMB. All of the money donations and physical donations were delivered directly to the Suzhou Animal Protection Shelter. Many thanks to our amazing and caring parents, teachers and children.

Public Welfare and charity happens all the time when love and caring is practiced. Through charity sales and fundraising, teachers and parents taught students the ways of showing and sharing love with others. Newton kindergarten nurtures student who spread the values of truth, kindness and love to every corner of the world and with every caring action, no matter small or big, we increase the love in the world.

A safe and happy New Year celebration / the year of the ox

Following the Charity Drive, New Year "Spring Festival" activities were carried out at each campus. As the most importantfestival in China wemarveled and shared the joy together with everyone and experienced the fun of wearing traditional costumes and asking for good blessings in the new year of the Ox. From arrivals in the morning children wore the colorful, red, golden and traditional Chinese clothes with beautiful hats to campus. Under the guidance of teachers, we hung good blessings and best wishes around the campus, pasted window ornaments, hung red lanterns and did face painting as well as oiled paper umbrellas. All of the artworks were made by our students and used to decorate the school. New Year is getting closer and closer!

With the loud sound of the drum lions dance! K1 and K2 students from Bayside campus dressed in clothes with dragon patterns and hold a flying dragon in the air as they walked to the beat of a drum. They showed the dragon dance, run, jump and tumblevividly. They also played a popular traditional pot-throwing game to the delight of everyone. Children from Hui Xin campus used authentic lion masks to dance to the beat of the drum and together with red scarves andChinese knots they performed a cheerful New Year dance. These fun activities were introduced to students as a way to wish good luck to all of our families and friends.

This year, Hui Xin teachers performed a Mulan puppet show on the theater stage. Puppets danced happily to the beat of the music as achoreographed story took place. All the children applauded as they were deeply attracted to the drama and watching teachers hands skillfully move the puppets.

For Chinese, it’s time to make dumplings when families reunites at the end of the year. In the Newton family, children from K1 and K2 classes made dumpling together by rolling and folding. We worked together and took turns to knead and roll the dough, while filling the wrapper with stuffing. Children would compare and appreciate each others finished dumplings and say “How pretty my dumpling is!”. After cooking and steaming the colorful dumplings appeared. We were proud of our work together and shared our joy with friends at meal time and felt the warmth of New Year coming.

The New Year music is on, the hour is at hand and we wish all the Newton staff a year full of dreams come true, educational growth, together we will meet the challenges to come with participation and growth. We wish all of our students a new year full of amazement and development, to keep growing, learning more and to embrace yourself with both love and joy!

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