During an oracy activity, we talked about what a celebration is and what happens at a celebration. We recorded this in a bubble map. Some of us thought of birthdays as a celebration, where we would need a cake, candles, balloons, presents, decorations and banners. A few of us have been to a wedding, which is also a celebration, with a white wedding dress, lots of people in smart clothes and a beautiful cake! A Baptism is another celebration, which happens in church, where the baby wears white and receives a special candle. We have recently celebrated New Years Eve when some of us had a party and we were allowed to stay up late to watch lots of amazing fireworks going off in the sky! Before that, we celebrated Christmas, which we know is a celebration of Jesus' birth. At Christmas, we also have presents, decorations and most of us eat a delicious turkey dinner. 

What else have you celebrated? How did you celebrate?

We worked collaboratively to set up our class Christmas tree. We followed the instructions to assemble the tree (with some adult help!) and decorated the tree with baubles, streamers, lights and religious decorations we have made.

Other Faiths: Hinduism

As part of our 'Other Faiths' learning in 'Come and See', we have been finding out about Hinduism.

We listened to and talked about the story of a Prince called Rama and his wife, Sita. In the story, Sita was taken and kept in a prison by an evil man. All of the creatures helped Rama to look for Sita. Finally, he found Sita, with the help of a monkey who could fly. Everyone in the story was so happy that Sita was safe again and that Rama and Sita could be happy. People lit oil lamps to celebrate and drew beautiful, colourful patterns.

We created our own Rangoli patterns using coloured salts, sands and glitter, as well as making our own patterns on My Time on our creative table and in the outdoor area using chalks to mark-make.

We also created our own Diva lamps, just like the ones people light at Diwali each year, to celebrate the happy ending to the story of Rama and Sita. We used clay to create our little lamp pots and then painted them ourselves, as well as adding the jewels and sequins of our choice.

We gathered around our lamps to reflect on our learning in Hinduism and say what we enjoyed doing and talk about our favourite part of the story of Rama and Sita.

We planned our first Gweddiwn. A Gweddiwn is our collective worship prayer service which we take in turns to plan ourselves for the rest of our class to participate in.

We chose how we would like our class to Gather at the start of our Gweddiwn, read the Word of God and chose how we would respond to this and chose a Mission to give to our friends to go on and complete.

We laid down a mat for us to sit around for our prayer service and chose different prayer resources ourselves. Some of us chose plants, prayer stones, hearts, a Jesus doll, a cross and leaves to place around our God’s Story.

The children who planned and prepared the Gweddiwn in our morning class decided to ring a bell as we gathered, until we were ready to pray. They also played quiet music to help us focus on our prayer. As our response, the children decided to pass a shell around for everybody to hold and think about God’s love for all of us. We then gave our mission for our friends to tell their mum or dad that they love them.

The children who planned and prepared the Gweddiwn in our morning class decided to gather by singing ‘Come and join the circle’ together. As our response to the word, the children decided to pass around a bowl of water, which we used to make the sign of the cross, thinking about how God loves us. We then gave our mission for our friends to pass a smile around the circle and make each other feel happy today!