Chinese New Year Animal Race

As part of their work on Chinese New Year Nursery used the BeeBots to complete races.  The tradition of naming each year after an animal comes from a story about animals racing across a river.  In the story the Rat wins because he climbs onto the Ox.  The years are named in the order that the 12 animals get across the river.  We put pictures of the animals onto the BeeBots and made a finishing line with a ribbon.  The children had to estimate how far to cross the line then programme that number into the device.  We said “Ready, steady, GO” to start the race.  The children did good estimating, measuring and counting.