Let’s Celebrate… !

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had a really busy time and great fun, celebrating this week! We’ve had a Halloween party, learnt more about Diwali, got excited about Bonfire Night and enjoyed making sandwiches! 

On Monday, the children came in dressed in their spooky Halloween costumes ready to celebrate at their Halloween party. They took part in a Halloween themed yoga story, which say them being taken trick or treating, to a spooky house, where they met a witch. The children then sat down for a special spooky tea, with ghost shaped tuna sandwiches, spooky sprinkled cupcakes and gingerbread pumpkin biscuits. Delicious! 

On Muddy Morning, we headed to the park with chalks in hand, to create some rangoli patterns. The children had a look at the different shapes in the rangoli patterns and then Kate modelled how to draw one. Then the children had a go at drawing one themselves or adding shapes to the one Kate started. When we got back to nursery, we read the story of Rama and Sita and the children painted their diya lamps, that they had made out of clay. In the story we learnt that these lamps were used to light the way home for Rama and Sita, after Rama has rescued Sita from the evil demon king, Ravana. 

We were very lucky to have a visitor this week. Alina’s mummy came in to talk to us about Diwali. She brought in lots of different artefacts to look at, pictures, candles, Hindu dresses, bindis, nail polish and sparklers! The children took turns in the garden, holding a sparkler and talking about what they could hear and see.

Whilst some children were busy in the garden, Alina’s mummy made Rangoli patterns with coloured rice on the star on the floor in Green Room. Not only were our eyes marveled by what we could see, but our other senses were engaged too including incense wafting through the air and Bangra music playing in the background. We all had a wonderful time and enjoyed having Alina’s mummy in with us, having this first hand experience of a celebration was extremely beneficial for the children to get an authentic experience and great for the staff too, to learn more about Diwali. If anybody else would like to come in and share any thing about any important festivals, culture, skills or even just reading a story, you would be welcomed with open arms. 

As we have been looking at fireworks as a celebration of light and Bonfire Night is quickly approaching, the children have been talking a lot about fireworks and have been very interested in a story about Hovis the Hedgehog, who made his home in a bonfire and had to make his way in to the woods to find a new home. He was scared by the fireworks which led to a discussion about keeping our pets safe and inside whilst the fireworks are on, and to check prebuilt bonfires for any hedgehogs before lighting them.

We got creative with our art skills with flicking paint and rolling conkers through paint to create a firework effects on black paper. The children also used a cardboard roll to stick brightly coloured paper to make fireworks too. Not only is this using their creative skills but using their fine motor skills too. At Circle Time we watched a fireworks display on YouTube and the children thought of the different sounds they could hear including, bang, pop, screech and crash to record in our Big Book.

As Thursday was National Sandwich Day, we discussed with the children their favorite sandwiches and made a simple bar chart to record which sandwich was the most popular with ham, coming in first place, closely followed by tuna.  

Next week we will be discussing Remembrance Day in an age-appropriate way and making and leaving a wreath on Chapel Street to remember the fallen soldiers.

Have a great weekend!

The Green Room Team