• Chinese New Year in Wildomar

It was Chinese New Year at Sycamore Academy and David A. Brown Middle School.

At Sycamore (Also known as SASCA for Sycamore Academy of Science and Cultural Arts), where they have been hosting about 60 foreign exchange students (and 8 teachers) from Beijing for the week prior. They stayed with host families.

The assembled crowd listens as the program begins.

The hour long presentation included many performances, beginning with an example of how a typical Chinese school week would start. 

Their routine includes a choreographed dance.

There were recitals of poems, one student played guitar and and sang, while another played a Chinese flute.

This instrument had a sound that was like a traditional flute, but with a little added flair.

This student gave a jump rope performance. 

These girls were reciting an ancient poem, while wearing traditional robes.

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THINK Together, a popular after school program at some of the local schools, had their own Chinese New Year celebration

The kids from Wildomar Elementary paraded to David A. Brown Middle School to join a larger assembly at that campus.

 Members of WE's THINK Together as they parade towards the middle school. 
Photo courtesy of Selena Andrews

Once there, they had a performance of their own, and then watched as several teams of middle schoolers paraded around "the pit" in full dragon regalia.

Wildomar Elementary students perform with ribbons.

A triumphant expression beams from this delightful performer as she holds her up dragon mask.

Sunny Watkins pauses a moment to smile at the camera.
Photo courtesy of Selena Andrews

This team had a dragon tamer and marched to the beat of drums.

The various "Dragons" demonstrated the students creativity. 

Some dragons had more legs than others. ☺

The Red Dragon was one of the more popular.

Confetti was shot out of a ersatz fire cracker at the end of the performances. 

I called this one, Double Dragon (since there were two of them). There were also two flutists.
In the end, the dragons ended up devouring the dragon-tamers.

The finale had the audience cheer for their favorite dragon team. It took three votes because it was almost too close to call between the Red Dragon and the Double Dragons. The Double Dragons were the ones with the loudest applause before it was all over.

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恭喜发财 (gōng xǐ fā cái) “Wish you wealth and prosperity.”


Wildomar Rap reminds you that if you've already failed in your 2018 New Year's resolutions, it's not too late for a Mulligan with a few 4715 -year of the dog- New Year's resolutions.