Those are WONDERFUL! How very fun and it is great that there are pics of the artists along with. 
I bet you had a great time. 

Awesome, Garie!   They're wonderful!    
I absolutely love looking at the pictures of your kids and what they create!   
Your kids ALWAYS make me smile!   :)   Thanks! 

My Photo Site 

Oh Garie, your kids are just wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing! 
Happy Lunar New Year, Garie! 
btw, what does the year of the dog mean for the coming year? 
-Melanie 

The Year 2006 (Red Dog) is the 4703rd Chinese year. The Chinese believe that the first king of China 
was the Yellow King (he was not the first emperor of China). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C., 
therefore China will enter the 4703rd year on February 4th, 2006. Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle 
of 60 Stem-Branch counting systems and the  Red Dog is the 23rd Stem-Branch in the cycle. 
Since 4700 = (60 *78) + 23, therefore this Red  Dog Year is the 4703rd Chinese Year. 
Some web sites say the year 2006 is the 4704th Chinese year. If you cannot find the explanation, 
here is a possible answer for you. The Yellow King's inauguration was held in the spring of 2697 B.C. 
But the calendar of Yellow King used the winter solstice day as the first day of the year. So the first 
winter solstice was on around December 23rd, 2698 B.C. Today's January 1st means nothing to Yellow King. 
If we count that extra eight days in 2698 B.C. for a year, then year 2006 is the 4704th Chinese year. 

The dog (gou) is famous in China, as elsewhere in the world, for its love and loyalty toward its friends and its 
ferocity toward the enemies of its friends. It has few enemies of its own, and people say that since everyone 
loves a dog, those born in this year will always be loved by their spouses. Another folk belief is that 
dog people born in the night hours are doomed to stiffer and struggle, like watchdogs who must remain alert 
while the family members snore in their beds, while those born in the daytime will be more comfortable in life. 

Those born in the Year of the Dog are intelligent, faithful, sociable, and strong. They have excellent instincts 
and perceptions, and work hard to carry out their responsibilities at work and in their personal lives. They are 
usually wellmannered and graceful in appearance, and these advantages often bring them advancement, 
which they repay with their trustworthiness and skill. Once successful, they rarely lose out. 

Some of the famous dog people: Alexander Calder, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Frost, 
Judy Garland, Victor Hugo, Vladimir Lenin, Henry Moore, Zhou Enlai. 

what wonderful pics. the children and their creations are all so cute. they have a lot of talent. 
Thanks for sharing them with us.   I have to ask, what do the oranges represent? 

Thanks and many happy returns. This year kids are very happy to create their PC dog and because of so 
many of them interested in creating the dog. I am very happy to set up the page and share with all of you. 
I am happy to answer your question, during chinese new year the oranges are passed out freely to one another, 
or we greet each other with oranges." Ji " sounded in chinese, is luck, prosperity and good fortune etc., that is 
the representation of oranges and tangerines. 

Thank you Garie for the New Years Wish!  And for showing off  your very talented students!  
Their work is wonderful, but not as adorable as the kids are themselves - you're a very lucky 
teacher to have such a great group to work with! 
Happy New Year to you and them as well! 

 
44234.16 in reply to 44234.11  
Wow! That's amazing, Garie! It blows my mind that a countries culture and heritage can go back so far. 
Our silly country thinks it's such hot stuff, and we've only been official of a bit over 200 years! *g* 
And I never realized there were more than one way to calculate the Chinese New Year. Cool! 
Thanks for educating me, Garie!! :D 

Thank you for that information Garie!  I love to learn stuff like that - I know that I was born in the year of the 
Rooster,  and that this past year was also a rooster year - was it supposed to have been a good year for 
me, or does that have anything to do with it?  It sounds like this new year is supposed to be a very good one
 though - what does "red fairy" mean when added to the name of the year? 
If these are too many questions, please feel free to tell me so - I should probably look this all up on the internet, 
but I like hearing it from someone first hand who's involved in the culture, you know? 

EARTHLY BRANCH CHARACTER: You is a picture of a clay vase. or amphora in which wine is 
fermented; the character originally denoted spirits made from newly ripened millet. It is therefore 
associated with feasts and celebrations, happiness, and gratitude for success and prosperity. 
The essence of those born in the Year of the Rooster is application, the ability to maintain a clear 
separation between activities and goals. Just as farmers put up bottles of new wine with their
 imaginations dwelling on future festivities, so rooster people work with great determination and skill 
but little love for the work itself, thinking mainly of the rewards to come. While the work is in progress, 
they may be both irritable and irritating, overly sensitive to criticism but harshly critical of others. 
They are at their most likable when the time has come to relax and celebrate their accomplishments. 
Dog year is good for most people, regarding "red fairy" is actually " red firey", this year is a Red 
Fiery Dog. 
In China time zone, the first day of the Red Dog Year is February 4th, 2006, because February  
4th, 2006 is the first day of Tiger month  and the Tiger month is the first month of a year in Chinese 
Fortune-Telling Calendar system. 

Thank you for that info Garie - and sorry about the miss-reading of firey as fairy - I seem to be doing 
a lot of miss reading today, should probably start wearing my reading glasses at the computer :) 

In reading the other post I take it those are your children.Jow adorable.Great work they did. 
I'm getting into this not only for myself but my grandchildren too.They are;16(she may not be 
particularly interested,12,9,7,5. 

Yes, initially it was complicated but gradually, I became more experience. First teach them well in their basic 
shaping of clay. With a class of 12 kids doing different things with clay, you will need to command individual kid 
with the basic shapes. They will demand for your attention all the time as they can't wait to finish their clay work. 
Teach them to be patience, as you go around to teach individually by turn. Telling them that patience will 
be rewarded with better clay works. 

As for the mentor, we too must also have the patience for all the kids. 

Hi Garie, 
Thankyou so much for your good wishes and for posting such an uplifting page of happy faces and 
wonderful work.  Funny, since I'm a 'dog' I was very much interested in what this year had in store for us 
and I'd only just posted a message on our australian group about it...for anyone wanting a peek into the 
new year...here it is... 

Melly, 
Thank you for your posting, 
This year fire dog is metal, stems are name by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements they are 
Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. 
Dog contains Earth, Metal and Fire according to Chinese astrology. Basically, 2006 Male Fire 
Dog year is favorable to people whose lucky element is Fire. This is because that Dog 
contains Fire, which will help the Male Fire on the stem to burn for a longer time. That means 
Fire Dog is kind of dry and hot, which good for people who need Fire to balance their cold birth 
chart. But everybody has a different birth chart. We still have to see the stem relationships and 
branch relationships between Fire Dog and the birth chart to determine the luck in 2006.... 
...The major elements in the  Male Fire Red Dog 2006 are Fire and Earth. Inside the Dog Earth 
contains Female Metal and Female Fire. So we can say Dog is a dry Earth. Male Fire is like the Sun. 
It must be hot when Sun is over the dry ground. Therefore, 2006 is favorable to the people 
whose birth chars are too cold or too much water and need Earth or Fire to balance.
 In short, if your lucky element is Fire or Earth, then your luck will much better than the 
past two years....