Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali everyone! Today we celebrated the Indian Festival of lights. We were so lucky to have Pooja in our class to tell us all about how this festival is celebrated in India. Later in the morning we experienced lots of Diwali customs including making ‘Rangoli’ and having henna tattoos painted on the back of our hands. We also made a special painting for our friend who was not in the class today. The watercolor painting will be put onto a special calendar and then laminated in the next few weeks. On the table this morning we saw two enormous plant pots filled with soil. Next to the flower pots we also saw two bowls of flower bulbs and two small trowels. We firstly needed to transfer some of the soil from one of the plant pots to the other as one had a little too much and the other had too little. We then dug a small hole with the trowel and placed the bulb the right way up into the hole. After covering the bulbs with soil we marked the spot where they were planted so that each one had plenty of space to grow. The plant pots were then put back outside and will wait and watch for the bulbs to flower in the springtime. On the carpet area we saw 4 play-tents joined together alongside the dress up costumes.  We moved many of the toys and puzzles into the toy play tents and had a great time playing with our friends. The toy kitchen was also very popular today with several of us pulling food from the cabinet, cooking it on the stove and then serving it on the small table to our friends. After packing away the toys and art materials we all made a circle on the carpet and sat with Pooja to discuss the Diwali celebrations. Pooja told us all about how we would be celebrating Diwali today on the 3rd floor. It was very cold outside today and we realized we wouldn’t have time to go to the park unfortunately this morning. After eating our yummy snacks we sat to look at a new book in the library called ‘The Billy Goats Gruff’. Several of us said we knew the story but hadn’t seen this book. It was very exciting and we learnt a new word ‘Enormous’ which means very big. It was a funny book which made us smile at the end when the troll got knocked over the bride. We were then joined by Shruti, one of our friends moms in class who told us how Diwali comes in October or November as it has no fixed date and translates as the ‘Festival of Lights’. Diwali is celebrated on a moonless night and is a time to show we care and can share. On the 3rd floor we were immediately greeted by Pooja who was dressed in traditional Indian clothes. She greeted us at the door to the office saying “Happy Diwali”. On the floor we saw a beautiful shape called a ‘Rangoli’. The shape was brightly colored and was filled with the colored rice we made in class yesterday as well as some other pulses. Together we completed the Rangoli and were lucky to have henna tattoos painted on our hands. We chose to have butterflies or flowers painted. We needed to let the henna dry for a while before washing it off. It should last a few days. We had a group photo with our friends and were stunned by the beautiful candles and Rangoli on the floor.

Thank you Pooja and Shruti for a wonderful celebration,

Love, Flowers Class Children