Paint Branch Students Mark Lunar New Year with Mandarin Songs, Chinese Dances

Children sang in Mandarin and performed traditional Chinese dances during a Lunar New Year celebration in Paint Branch Elementary School’s gymnasium on Feb. 12. The program combined Mandarin-language songs, traditional dances, and student presentations explaining cultural customs tied to the holiday.

The event opened with children sitting in rows before the kindergarteners and first- and second-graders were called up to sing or dance. Next, the third- through fifth-graders performed for approximately three dozen teachers and parents, who busied themselves snapping photos of the children.

District 2 College Park City Councilmembers Kelly Jordan, whose child attends the school, and Holly Simmons also attended the gymnasium program and watched students perform alongside family members and staff.

Parents said the event underscored cultural learning as well as language instruction. “Kids are also learning about the culture, not only about the language,” Anabel Carino-Aguado Ian, mother of a fourth-grader, said after the performances that featured grade-level presentations and demonstrations of holiday customs.

A photo captioned “Paint Branch Elementary School students celebrate the Lunar New Year in the school's gymnasium” credits JALEN WADE for images of students onstage and family members photographing the program from the bleachers.

The Feb. 12 celebration brought kindergarten through fifth-grade students together in a sequence of staged performances designed to showcase classroom study and community participation. School organizers presented the program so that younger grades performed first, followed by older elementary students, creating a single assembly that combined music, dance, and short cultural explanations for attendees.