This week Owls have celebrated Diwali! The week began with a very exciting delivery. The children found a box full of exciting and new things! We had gems and chalk, new foods, some candles, cards and books! Over the course of the week we used the different items to learn about Diwali.

We began by reading the story book and finding out what Diwali is. The children learnt that it is the Hindu festival of lights, and that people celebrate by visiting the temple, having a family feast, decorating their house with lights (called diyas) and special patterns (called rangolis). We tried some of the foods that people may eat including samosas, bhajis and a sweet treat called gulab jamon! The children used adjectives to describe what the food looked, smelt and tasted like and then wrote about it in their writing books. They said "it is sweet", "it is spicy" and "it is sour". 

We made our own diya lights using the beautiful gems from the box, making sure to use the templates to cut out the lamp base and flame and using patterns to decorate. The children were really creative with their lamps and made some beautiful diyas! 

In maths, we learnt how to combine two numbers by counting to find the total. We used lots of different resources to combine many different groups, and even challenged ourselves by looking at some number sentences and talking about what they symbols meant. 

We made our very own rangoli patterns, both outside using chalk and leaves and inside colouring in a large pre-drawn pattern. 

Congratulations to our star of the week this week, Ned! Ned has been working so hard on his phonics learning and building his confidence, well done Ned!

Next week we will be beginning our reverse advent, where the children are invited to bring a donation for the food bank in. Your child will bring home their slip letting you know what the desired donation would be and the date it needs to be in by. On Friday afternoon we will be taking part in our Santa Fun Run! Parent volunteers are welcome to come and join in or watch the children as they run around the field in their Santa hats!