Friday Headlines

the weekly newsletter from EHS

Celebrating Diwali

05 November 2021

In Westbourne our first Beyond the Curriculum day of the half term took place this week. The theme for the day’s activities was Diwali. The girls in Nursery, Kindergarten and Reception all had the opportunity to visit each classroom where there was a different activity waiting for them to experience.

When the girls visited Reception 5 they were able to make their own Diwali lamps (diyas). Kindergarten and Nursery girls made the more traditional clay pots and decorated them with brightly coloured paint, topped with glitter. Using a different medium, Reception girls used scallop shells to make their lamps. They also decorated them with paint and sparkles. Each girl was given a little light to place inside their diya. There was a great deal of discussion on each table, and it was interesting to hear how the girls celebrated Diwali in their households.

In Reception 4 classroom, they made biscuits in the shape of diva lamps.They all enjoyed taking it in turns to mix the ingredients, roll out the biscuit dough and cut out the diva lamp shapes with a biscuit cutter. These were then put in the oven and everyone enjoyed eating them when they got home.

The activity in the Kindergarten classroom involved making Diwali cards. For the background the girls used a doily and then added shapes to represent a diva lamp and a flame. The girls then inserted a message by copy writing, tracing or mark making as appropriate for their age group.

As they visited Nursery the girls were able to create a piece of group art. They put black paper on the floor to represent the night sky. They then used a variety of paints and flicked the paint on to the paper to make a splatter effect like fireworks. To finish the firework pictures the last step was to sprinkle powder paint and glitter on top.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed the Beyond the Curriculum experience with one Reception girl commenting it had been 'the best day!'

Back to Friday Headlines