Our topic for this half term is We began this week talking about celebrations that are familiar to us before being introduced to the Hindu and Sikh Festival of Light otherwise called ‘Diwali’. The class watched and listened to the story of Rama and Sita on Cbeebies http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/lets-celebrate-diwaliperformance. The children have been using masks to re-enact the story in small groups which have been great fun to watch. They also made their own lollypop stick puppets and asked to set up a puppet theatre in the classroom. We watched a video of a little girl called Jessica prepare for her own Diwali celebrations at home and noticed some similarities to a recent event in Britain- fireworks. The fireworks feature prominently during the Diwali celebrations as well. In phonics this week we have continued to learn our second set of sounds: ck, e, u & r and learned to form these letters the right way using cursive handwriting. When writing at home, please remind your child that each letter is starts on the line. Remember to encourage your child to repeat the language of each letter formation with you. In Maths this week we have been learning about the brightly coloured ‘rangoli’ patterns that Hindu’s and Sikh’s use to decorate their homes during Diwali. During the video of Jessica’s preparations for Diwali, she used lots of colourful sand to create some symmetrical rangoli patterns. These mainly form the shape of a round, square or floral shaped designs. We had a look for patterns in our classroom and began to create some repeating patterns ourselves. What patterns can you find at home? You could bring a photo in to show us. Remember to practise describing the pattern you found or made. You could use a string of beads to make a simple repeating colour pattern http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html Our topic for this half term is ‘Around the World’. WB 7/11/16 I hope your child has enjoyed all of the wonderful experiences that have taken place at school this week. Part of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum requires children to know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions. At home, remember to look for and talk about ways in which our own cultures and beliefs are similar to others. Share and discuss as many different celebrations as you can. Forest Friday Woodland Visits Please remember to return the woodland permission slips to school. These visits will take place on Friday mornings- more details to follow. We will not be able to start our woodland visits next week due to Children in Need ‘Spotacular’ and a pantomime workshop. We now hope our first visit will be on Friday 25th November. Continuing with the Indian theme, the children had a look at a ‘diya’ lamp before creating their own using clay. They used their hands and tools to shape and mould their own lamp. Traditionally, they are placed around the home, in courtyards and gardens to light the way for Rama and Sita’s home-coming. We also tasted some Indian food- samosa’s, naan bread, popadom’s and mango chutney. Which food did they like the most?! We used these foods to help us write a diwali party food shopping list. The girls particularly enjoyed dressing up in sari’s and joining in with some traditional Indian dancing. We found out about a traditional Indian instrument (a sitar) and listened to it being played. Next week we will be visiting Western Africa to learn about the Asanti Tale ‘The Leopards Drum’. If you have any African artefacts or objects at home, please bring them in to share with the class.