A class at Hatherley Infant school celebrated a Diwali morning on October 17th 2008, and presented an assembly to the whole school on Ocober 26th.

The READS practitioner planned the Diwali morning with a Y1 class teacher to use activities listed below in topic groups. When the group was doing the cookery activity, they used digital cameras to take pictures of each other. Later, when they recalled this activity, the photos helped them to remember the sequence of what they did and write captions for the photos.

The class gave a school assembly inviting parents, showing their work and sharing the Hindu culture celebrated by a member of their class. This was photographed by the assistant headteacher.    

RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES FOR CELEBRATING THE FESTIVAL IN SCHOOL:

We made masks	Our stories	We painted Rangoli patterns
Our paper diva lamps	We lit the clay diva lamps	Photos of us cooking ...
We made ...	Peppermint	Creams

Click on an image to see a larger picture

These are the activities the Y1 class did, with resources to download:

• Making masks of Hannuman (Monkey King) and Ravana (Ten Headed Monster) photocopied on card, for following instructions.
• Writing and drawing pictures of three characters from the story to encourage use of adjectives.
• Making a book of the story of Diwali, each child choosing their favourite part.
• Painting Rangoli patterns after learning how these are used.
• Making Peppermint Creams following a recipe.
• Making clay and paper divas, following instructions.
• Using computer programme Young Explorer (the PSHE link) to show how Diwali is celebrated around the world and also website (see below) on the internet.