Happy Diwali

Namaste Preschool,

This week we have been celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of light.

Within our personal, social and emotional development, we listened to the story of 'Rama and Sita' and discussed the meaning of Diwali, 'good conquering evil'. We then thought about the different characters within the story and thought about how they were feeling.

To develop our communication and language skills, we have learned some new words, Diwali, Diva lamp, Goddess, Hindu, Rangoli, poppadum, mango, naan bread, coconut, India, tuk tuk, rupees and namaste.

To support our physical development, we created Rangoli patterns outside using chalks, we also had a go at Bollywood dancing and we have used a cricket bat to hit a ball. We made coconut barfi, Indian sweet treats.

We listened to the stories 'Lighting a Lamp' by Jonny Zucker and sang along to the song 'The Wheels on the Tuk, Tuk' as part of our literacy development. We then answered questions about the stories.

Rangoli patterns supported our mathematics development. We learned that children and women put special Rangoli patterns on their doorstep, so that the goddess Lakshmi will bring good luck. We looked at lots of different Rangoli patterns and learned that these patterns are symmetrical. We then created our own Rangoli patterns using shapes, numicon and spots.

To further develop our understanding of the world, at snack time we tasted Indian food, including, poppadoms, mango chutney and naan bread. We have used our class whiteboard to watch Indian dancing, listen to music and we followed Jessica's Diwali journey on CBeebies. We enjoyed looking at a map and a globe to explore where India is, then used the internet to find the Indian flag.

Within our expressive arts and design development, we have created salt dough diva lamps, and have enjoyed exploring colour to create firework pictures. We have also enjoyed dancing to Hindu music.

Thank you for coming dressed in your bright colours today for our Diwali celebrations.

Tara