Culture Day- Celebrations around the World
Tweed Class had an exciting day looking at Thanksgiving. We looked at where it was celebrated, what people gave thanks for and watched part of a thanksgiving parade in New York - which everyone loved! We then did a rotation of activities including making a handprint turkey, a turkey biscuit, and activities encouraging us to thinking about what we can be thankful for and how we can show our gratitude.
In Medway, we really enjoyed learning about a different culture and the Moon Festival yesterday! The children loved searching through the atlases to find China, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan and could re-tell the ancient ledged of the Goddess of the Moon, Chang'e. It was really lovely for them to experience something completely different, including creating a parade of collaged lanterns in the afternoon to celebrate!
In Dart Class we were learning about Pongal - a harvest celebration that takes place in India and Indonesia by the Tamil community. We used our map work skills to locate the countries on the map and identify the surrounding countries and other geographical features. We discovered that Pongal lasts for 4 days and often falls on January 14th/15th. We discovered that the Tamil people are mostly Hindu but they do come from many different faiths. One custom that happens during the celebration was that they put decorative pictures made from rice outside their doorways known as Kolam and we had a go at doing our own colourful rice artwork too!
Avon Class loved Culture Day's focus on India today. We used Culture Day as an opportunity to study the world map. We recapped that there are 7 continents, and we learned that there are 5 oceans. We enjoyed understanding the difference between the 2 polar regions and why one is a continent and the other is not. We were very surprised to learn about the huge population of India and that it is one of the richest countries in the word.
The children in Mersey enjoyed using maps to locate where in the world Jerusalem was and research different facts about the country. They also enjoyed learning about different Jewish traditions and how they are celebrated. At the end of the day, they were able to compile all their learning within a group and the presented this to others and in assembly which they thoroughly enjoyed.
Year 6 learnt about the Jewish Harvest festival of Sukkot. Children had to use atlases to identify where Jerusalem is and any places of note nearby. They identified the continent that contains Israel. Through an independent research task, they looked in more detail at Sukkot and in particular Sukkahs. They linked to this to their prior knowledge of Judaism (in particular Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur). Children then created either a poster or piece of art to share with Key Stage 2 in assembly. It was amazing to see the detail that children included and lovely to see them presenting their work so confidently.