Celebrating Diwali

We have begun our preparations for celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Mrs Neil led us in a Diwali dance procession in the hall. We pretended to dance with Diva lamps to Indian music. We then heard that Rama rescued Princess Sita from the castle. We danced a joyful Sita dance, followed by a strong, marching Rama dance. Look at the video clips of the dancing and the photos on the sub pages too.

We joined in with a song about Diwali and watched a video about families celebrating Diwali by visiting the temple and making Rangoli patterns. Our Diva lamps were made from air drying clay. The children decorated them using stars and sequins. The children drew around their hands and cut them out; they decorated them to make Mendhi hands.  We watched a video about Rangoli patterns and then the children painted their own Rangoli patterns outdoors using pearlised paints. Some painted shapes, flowers, houses, their pets and family as well as blocks of colour. We chalked Rangoli patterns too, including fireworks and rainbows by Joseph, George drew a "big, big ship", Nancy and Darcy worked together to create "a treasure map and X marks the spot",  Harry drew his hamster and Ivy chalked Mummy and Daddy.  

At the Diwali party many children dressed up in traditional costume and colourful fabrics. They tasted naan bread, poppadoms, onion bhajis, vegetable samosas and mango chutney. Lots of children enjoyed the naan and George especially loved the poppadoms. Patrick in th afternoon enjoyed and ate all his Indian food and Jax had seconds of everything!

Click on the link below to join in with the Diwali song and watch the video. Can you spot the Diva lamps and fireworks?

Click on each sub page to see many photos of our celebrations and scroll down to view a few short video clips of the children dancing.