Martinmas and Diwali

On the 11th November this year it was Diwali and Martinmas and I decided we would look at both festivals as they both involve lanterns and light in them. It was also Remembrance day but as we had done crafts last week, talked about it and attended the Remembrance service on Sunday, I felt we had covered everything I could with age group and could move on to something new.

Diwali

We've started with Diwali, reading the story of Diwali and sharing this book Lighting a Lamp. We watched the Tweenies episode that shows the Tweenies acting out the story of Rama and Sita. We also watched part of  this clip which shows a family celebrating Diwali, talking about having new clothes, giving away the old ones to charity, giving gifts. We learnt that they give sweets to people in the hope that people will think sweet thoughts about them, we stoppered watching when we got to the retelling of Rama as it was rather too scary for the little ones, the Tweenies retelling isn't scary.

We used card board rolls to make candles and some glittery cardboard to make the flames.

We made clay lamps, usually we would decorate them with glitter and/gems but my little ones were rather tired and had a longer nap than usual, so we run out of time but they enjoyed painting them.

Martinmas

I told the children that St Martin was the patron saint of the poor and the outcast and his story was - on a cold night he stopped when he saw a beggar, sitting in the cold dark night. He shared his coat with a beggar by tearing it in half, so they both had warmth, he gave the beggar his lantern so he had light and could see in the dark. A time to think of those less fortunate than us. The story of St Martin

I made the lantern transparency from this book and it looks lovely on my door.

We made some lanterns using jam jars and gluing tissue and kite paper onto them, pipe cleaners for handles and then some little led tea lights so the children could safely carry them in the garden, later when it got dark.

They thoroughly enjoyed our night time lantern walk around the garden singing

I walk with my little lantern,

my lantern walks with me

Above the stars are shining

on earth we are shining to

I also had some glow sticks for the children to play with in the garden,we joined them together and made circles etc, they had great fun whirling them around etc making patterns, while I took some photos and then they enjoyed looking at the photos when we came back inside.

All this talk of light, lanterns and celebrations as got me thinking of all the Christmas crafts, can't wait to start planning the run up to Christmas.

Mirror Painting

While looking for ideas to do with our night time theme, I came across painting on mirrors and now wondering why it has taken over 25 years years in childcare to discover this fun activity! I bought some A4 mirrors from ImagiDo as I know I will use them for other activities throughout the year. The children ended up spending the morning enthralled by it, first using the mirror as a mirror, giggling at their reflections, what they could see behind them etc before deciding to try the paint.

I put out a mixture of normal paint and some glitter paint, as they started to paint they talked about how they could still see their reflection and then they would paint over their reflection, giggling saying "now I can't" and repeating this till the whole mirror was covered in paint.

They then discovered by dragging the paint brush through the paint and /or twisting it around they could produce different patterns.

Washing up produced more interest as they realised the water made different patterns as the paint was washed away and that they could see their reflection again.

It was then back to the table to start painting again, they repeated this several times.

They attempted hand prints on the mirror

which left behind an interesting pattern.

They also enjoyed writing and drawing patterns on the mirrors.

I can see this will be an activity that will be asked for again and again, also thinking how ell this would work for fire/firework patterns, will have to remember this for next year when we do fireworks. Also be good to see if the children could paint their reflection in the mirror.

Remembrance Day

Today we attended the remembrance service, when we came home we read some poems together including Poppy Poppy What Do You say by T'Prang, which sums up our hope for peace.

As apple printing worked so well last year for poppies, we used them again, to make poppy wreaths with paper plates.

Then still using the apples they printed some pictures.

Firework Crafts

We have enjoyed watching some you tube clips showing some wonderful firework displays. Tonight I have enjoyed watching lots of fireworks from our sitting room with some very happy excited children.

In the morning we made some breadstick sparklers, I wasn't sure how well our dairy, soya free chocolate would melt and we didn't have much so I decided to use some icing sugar and water. We discovered that the gluten free breadsticks are rather brittle but the children thought this was a good thing as they could make more sparklers.

We made some gingerbread biscuits and then we decorated them to look like fireworks, well most of us did but one little one decided to make faces and iced eyes and legs on theirs.

We then had fun painting firework pictures.

The Starry Night

Over the last couple of days we've been talking about the night sky, what can you see in the sky, stars the moon, aeroplane lights and fireworks. This afternoon I showed them a picture of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night and we looked at Katie and The Starry Night

I had this idea that if we used shaving foam and paint they could have fun and recreate some of the swirling images from the painting. It wasn't about recreating a perfect copy of the painting rather them exploring the movement and images. I did think about cutting out some houses etc for them to add to it, if I do it again when they are older I might add them, then again I might just wait and see what they want to add themselves, as it's always interesting seeing what they see and what they take from a painting.

 

As per usually here, once we had finished the planned activity they were let loose to do and create (within reason) whatever they wanted! Using a spatula they mixed the paint and foam together and created a lovely mint green.

Then they added more foam and used their hands to mix it in.

One then decided to use the spatula to paint with

and the finished spatula painting.

Then they asked for some more paper and decided to place the paper in the tray on top of the remaining foam, press it down and then lifting it out to see what they had created.

When I'm doing a theme, I always sort out a selection of relevant books and put them into a basket for the children. They have enjoyed looking at books on owls and reading some owl stories. I printed out laminated a tree and 5 owls to go with the 5 Little Owl rhyme, they have loved this counting rhyme and the owl pictures. We have sang the song and played with the owl pictures several times. Lots of counting done as well, as each time an owl flies away they are counting the owls left on the tree. Yes one owl is upside down, when I first put them on the tree, I pointed out one was upside down, I went to turn him the right way up but they said no and now every time they have to have one upside down owl!

5 Little Owls

5 little owls on a dark, dark night,

5 little owls are quite a sight,

5 little owls, are you keeping score?

1 flies away and that leaves 4.

4 little owls as happy as can be,

1 flew away and that leaves 3.

3 little owls calling "Who, who, who"

1 flew away and that leaves 2.

2 little owls having lots of fun,

1 flew away and that leaves 1.

1 little owl and we're almost done

He flies away and that leaves none.

Night Time

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at night time, what do we do at bedtime, what animals are awake at night time, lots of owl stories and crafts as the children love them. We will also look at some festivals/celebrations that take place in November, which all involve light and/or fireworks, mainly Martinmas, Diwali and Bonfire Night

I came across some lovely owl songs/ poems, the printable that I will use to go with 5 little Owls and other owl based activities which can be downloaded  here for free.