10 replies to this topic

[julieb]

Hi
We have starting developing a creative curriculum and are using a published scheme- Dimensions. This seems to be working well further up the school, but I am struggling even though it is supposed to be based on the way the foundation stage have traditionally planned.My reception class is quite a difficult one this year, compared to last years who were a dream! In order to make any progress we are having to be a bit more structured so we can gradually give the children more control, behaviour can be an issue and some children don't do anything without lots of encouragement. Our 'theme' is come and join the celebrations. This fits in well from the end of November with Christmas but I refuse to start Christmas next week! We will start with a little bit of Halloween and Bonfire night but what next? We are taking part in a big wide talk project with a light focus so I was trying to link that and celebrations.Thought maybe candles and lanterns Last years topic light and dark was fab and both staff and children really got into it all and we did some great stuff. This year I am stuck and I cannot seem to get the planning together. Can anybody help with some ideas to kick start my enthusiasm again
I have looked at the celebrations bit but there isn't a lot for the time I need it and everything -Hannukah, advent, christingle, festival of light, St Lucia all come in December. Help!

[kazdav1]

Hi! You don't happen to have any of those Light and dark ideas to hand do you? majorly struggling myself with that. Trying to think of celebrations. What about diwali festival of lights? Sorry seem to have Light and dark stuck in my head. If I think of something i will post it.
Ta Kazdav1

[julieb]

kazdav1, on Oct 28 2009, 12:43, said:

Hi! You don't happen to have any of those Light and dark ideas to hand do you? majorly struggling myself with that. Trying to think of celebrations. What about diwali festival of lights? Sorry seem to have Light and dark stuck in my head. If I think of something i will post it.
Ta Kazdav1

Got to take my daughter out now but will try and post some stuff later today or early evening - it was a great theme and the children loved it!

[misssunshine]

We are going to be doing a similar 'celebrations' theme. Here are some additional ideas that might be useful;
- autumn celebration, collect leaves etc
- birthday celebration, create cards for teddy's birthday
- personal celebrations, what can you do now that you couldn't do before you started school in an award ceremony.

Hope this helps, it is a bit of a tricky theme to pull together for several weeks.

[Panders]

Hmm, don't know, I'm almost in the same spot, but I was going to begin with bonfire night, going on to dark nights, what happens at night time, so work, animals etc. bringing in a space/star theme which would lead nicely on to getting things ready for Christmas

[JacquieL]

It's lovely that this time of year has so many celebrations in it, but it can get a bid overloaded and confusing for the children. I think a good place to start is obviously Bonfire Night as that is imminent, and then go on to talking about other celebrations asking the children what they can think of as celebrations meaningful to them, birthdays, weddings or whatever is special to their family, and then move on from there. Children can be very surprising in what they know about. Remembrance Day is coming up and they may be aware of that.
Ways in which we celebrate often involves light, which might be candles, or fireworks or light such a Halloween lanterns, to frighten away evil spirits, so that could be something to look at. Hannukah is a festival of light not far from Christmas.
Looking at birthday celebrations leads in very well to celebrating Christmas which is Jesus' birthday, and how we celebrate that.
There is also a Christmas song 'Come and join the Celebration' with a catchy tune which the children could learn.

[SueJ]

This is quite an obscure festival but I love doing it with the children as it's so relevant.

It's called Shichi-Go-San and it is a Japanese festival celebrating children's ages 7, 5 and 3 so quite relevant for early years. There's lots of symbolism, Cranes (bird type), Turtles and Pine Trees to symbolise long life which are used to decorate a bag in which the children collect "thousand years" candy (I usually do candy canes).

It is also an opportunity to look at different writing forms and clothes etc. and other cultural stuff to do with Japan.

A google search will bring up lots of sites - this is just one

Link to site explaining Shichi-Go-San

[emmajess]

julieb, on Oct 28 2009, 13:48, said:

Got to take my daughter out now but will try and post some stuff later today or early evening - it was a great theme and the children loved it!

I'd be really interested to see that planning, too, julieb - always good to see different people's ideas to give you fresh perspectives on a topic you've done before.

[JacquieL]

What a lovely idea SueJ, and as you say really appropriate for Early Years it fits in well with birthdays and Christmas as well. Thanks for the link.

[julieb]

JacquieL, on Oct 29 2009, 08:48, said:

What a lovely idea SueJ, and as you say really appropriate for Early Years it fits in well with birthdays and Christmas as well. Thanks for the link.

I too love the Japanese idea and will look into it.
Haven't forgotton about light & dark planning - I think it must be on my laptop that crashed though unusual for me not to have saved it on home pc too- have got some activity plans so don't quite know why I haven't got the med term plans, but will post them as soon as I can find them!

[SuzieC8]

I find this BBC calendar really useful:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...tools/calendar/

It gives the dates of major festivals (holy days and secular festivals), bear in mind that many change their dates from year to year - this calendar gives the correct dates for each.