Autumn Festivals and Special Days
Earlier this term the children celebrated a flurry of festivals and special days, from Diwali to Remembrance Day.
Celebrating festivals from different religions helps us foster an understanding of traditions from around the world. In turn, this helps the children appreciate diversity and shared human values, like kindness and gratitude.
Creating Light for Diwali
We welcomed the Hindu festival of lights ‘Diwali’ on 31st October. Diwali is a religious festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists. The theme of the festival is to celebrate light over darkness, or ultimately seeing good triumph over bad.
The children listened to the meaning of Diwali before getting creative making Rangoli – intricate designs of coloured rice – and paper lamps called ‘Diya’.
Happy Halloween
As well as the start of Diwali, the 31st October marked the start of Halloween, a celebration recognised by several countries, including the UK and America.
It marks the start of ‘Allhallowtide’, the time of year dedicated to remembering the deceased, including saints and martyrs. Over the years, Halloween has evolved becoming a celebration of all things spooky and supernatural.
On Halloween, the children arrived at nursery dressed in their spookiest attire. There were a variety of creepy characters on display, including scary skeletons, wicked witches, and funny Frankensteins.
Older children enjoyed carving pumpkin faces and listening to spooky stories, like ‘Scaredy Bat,’ about a baby bat scared of the light. While the younger ones delved for creepy crawlies (toy ones!) in Halloween sensory trays.
Our spook-tacular sensory play
Bonfire Night
Darker evenings signalled the arrival of Bonfire Night in November. Also known as Guy Fawkes Night, this traditional annual event is observed across the UK on November 5th.
To celebrate the older children were told the tale of how Bonfire Night originated and how it commemorates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, led by Guy Fawkes, to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
To bring the story to life, the children made vibrant firework paintings – representing the gunpowder explosives that were foiled – and played with tactile displays.
Whizz, crackle, pop! The children enjoyed the messy play
Remembrance Day 2024
We also took part in Remembrance Day in November, a special day commemorating British armed forces and civilians who lost their lives in conflicts since the First World War.
The children painted and made beautiful red poppies; a symbol of remembrance associated with the First World War. As well as being one of the first flowers to bloom on war-torn battlefields, poppies were the subject of the famous poem In Flanders Fields.
Archie and Freya making Remembrance Day poppies
