KYCC’s trilingual preschool, Kids Town, celebrated Lunar New Year with a special celebration on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. For this event, Kids Town staff launched a concerted effort to engage grandparents as part of our expanding intergenerational initiatives. Much to our delight, we had 10 grandparents join in the festivities as volunteers for Lunar New Year arts and crafts and story time. Having more grandparent volunteers involved in our preschool activities is part of our ongoing program and agency-wide goals to strengthen ties and relationships between generations.

Circle Time included stories about Lunar New Year traditions from all over the world, abd students learned how to say “Happy New Year” in Korean. For lunch, students enjoyed a rice cake soup made from scratch by a Kids Town grandmother.

Children dressed in ‘hanboks,’ vibrant traditional Korean dresses worn for special occasions, and received red envelopes which symbolize good luck. Special arts and craft activities included a Year of the Rat coloring sheet and a Lunar New Year fan making activity. Students also enjoyed a special puppet show based on the popular Korean folktale, “The Sun and Moon,” which was performed by two parent volunteers.  

Through the generous support of The Eisner Foundation, KYCC has been able to integrate more intergenerational programming into our youth and preschool programs. Kids Town is KYCC’s full-day, year-round preschool in Koreatown for 72 children, ages 2.5 to 5 years. Since its establishment in 2004, Kids Town has graduated over 1,000 Kindergarten-ready students. For more information about our preschool, please visit www.kidstownla.org.

To learn more about the outstanding intergenerational programming initiatives funded by The Eisner Foundation, please visit: http://eisnerfoundation.org/