Diwali

This week we have been finding out about the Hindu festival of Diwali.

We started with the story of Rama and Sita. The top and bottom of it all is that Sita is banished from her home place and is taken to an island where she is is captured by the 10 headed demon king Ravana. Rama tries hard to find his love and with the help of Hanuman, king of the monkeys, they find Sita. There is a mighty battle and Rama fires an arrow which kills the wicked Ravana. Rama and Sita are then free to go back home and become king and Queen. The people lined the path with Diva lamps to welcome them home... ( This took 14 years but Cherry class did it in 10 minutes!).

We listened to the story and then took on the different roles and acted it out.

Rama and Sita.....

The 10 headed demon king captures Sita...

Our 'Sita' actresses change roles! And here she is banished on the island ( otherwise known as Mrs Hough's chair!)

Rama follows the jewels that clever Sita dropped, just like Hansel in the story of a Hansel and Gretel.

Hanuman, king of the monkeys, comes to the rescue!

And his army of monkey friends, help to rescue Sita.

And Rama, with his friend Hanuman manage to get Ravana. Rama (Henry) manages to kill the demon king with his mighty arrow! 

Then Rama and Hanuman rescue the lovely Sita and take her back home.

Their path is lit with lovely Diva lamps.

And they both live happily ever after!

During Diwali, the ladies have their hands decorated with Mendhi hand patterns, using real henna as a natural dye. We looked at photos and saw a video of the ladies having their hands painted. We drew around our own hands and used fine black and brown pens to decorate our own hands. We also used paints to paint our own hands with Mendhi patterns! 

We made our own diva pots ( and forgot to take photos!) and then we looked at different candles and talked about wax. We predicted what would happen to the wax when it got hot and also what would happen when it cooled down. We talked about special times when we light candles and turned the lights off to watch the flames and observe the colours. When it was time to blow them out, we all made a special wish. 

Mrs Hough put some melted wax onto a stick.

The stick was passed around and the children and the children could feel the wax as it was soft but then soon noticed it turning hard again.

In maths we thought about pattern and we used rice, lentils and split peas and coloured sand to create our own Rangoli patterns. The Hindu people decorate the outside of their homes with these and they are a sign of welcome. We also used beads to make Rangoli patterns.

And we enjoyed making our own Princess crowns.

In PE with Mrs Verrell, we even learnt how to dance Bollywood style.....

And of course this is just a snap shot of some of the wonderful learning and play that we have been busy doing this week. 

The Children's own interests are starting to develop and shine through. We've had lovely Mums and Dads and teacher role play, investigating worms and other small insects and then the highlight of the week was the magicians! We really had children making pencils and even each other disappear!!! I think magic is a theme we could see quite a bit more of next week.....