Happy Diwali!

Hello Everyone!

Well we’ve had a great week, learning about Diwali, decorating pumpkins and making soup!

On Muddy Morning we went to John Leigh Park in the gorgeous sunshine and marvelled at the beautiful colours in the trees and the dew on the grass. As we alternate groups, we like to give both groups the same activities. So, as we did the week before, we went on an Autumn hunt around the park. The children were enjoying being in charge of the bag, whilst other children filled it with leaves, conkers and acorns. As there was some extra time, we had a play on the large equipment too.

We were very lucky this week that Anaya, in Green Room, brought in some books about Diwali to share with her friends. The children loved learning about Diwali through Peppa Pig and the Mr Men books, so we added photos and candles to our Curiosity Cube, for the children to discuss further, in their own time. We also watched Let’s Celebrate on Cbeebies which invited us into a Hindu family’s home who were celebrating Diwali. You can watch it here https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/lets-celebrate-diwali if you would like to.

We also used our gross and fine motor skills to roll some clay in to a disc, before curling up the edges around a candle, to make a Diya lamp. The children will be painting and decorating them next week. Anaya also brought in some chocolates too, to share with her friends. In the coming weeks we have very kindly had offers from a couple of other parents who will also be coming in to tell us more about Diwali, which we are very excited about.

The spooky theme has continued this week, as we prepare for Halloween. We have also set up a new signing-in station for the children when they come in in the morning. and have added our ‘Mini Me’s’ to the small world area so that they can make up stories, both by themselves and with their friends.  We also read the story ‘Funnybones’, which led to interesting conversations about bones and the skeletons of different animals. To build on this we will be adding additional resources to the Curiosity Cube next week.

We also got busy mark making. As we like to use different surfaces, we gave the children some pumpkins to draw on and they even decided to glue things to them too. Next week, we will be painting them with chalkboard paint to again, give them a different surface which will allow the children to mark make on them, using chalks.  

At Circle Time we played a phonics game called ‘Silly Soup’ with a Halloween twist. The children had to add to the soup the things that rhymed with ‘rat’. The children had to choose from ‘cat’, ‘hat’, ‘pat’, ‘fan’ and ‘sun’. We always like to add a couple that don’t rhyme to challenge the children’s understanding of rhyme. The children really enjoyed this activity and went off to make their own soups. They also had fun in the garden kitchen, making soups by adding eyeballs, spiders and witches fingers.

Thank you to everyone who has sent a family picture in with their child’s ‘All about Me’ bag. The children find real comfort in our family wall and love sharing the pictures with their friends. 

Have a great weekend!

The Green Room Team