Guest Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 Hi Everyone I'm Rani, doing a pgce in early years. At the moment I'm doing my first placement in a nursery, which is free-flow with 80 children. As I am sikh I celebrate diwali and so the nursery asked if i would like to do this. I agreed and decided to do some rangoli patterns following on from bonfire night and the patterns u would c in the sky as the fireworks explode. Any way i thought I would move from that and and show the children how Hindus draw patterns outside their homes with rangoli to invite the God to come and bless them with wealth and prosperity. The problem is the teacher asked me how I would explain what a pattern is to the children, does anuone have any ideas as the children are aged between 3 and 4 at the moment and i am very stuck. Also what is meant by symmetrical because apparently Hindus do symmetrical patterns when they design them? Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 hi rani im doing rangoli patterns as well but my planning is on my husband's computer. I will post you some information tomorrow. But rangoli patterns are basic ones and if you draw out the patterns for the children , they can choose colour to fill up the spaces. It works well on thick black card with the pattern drawn on with white chalk. children can spread glue and then use coloured sand or powder paint to fill each area of the rangoli pattern. As the chidlren complete theri pattern you could draw theri attention to the parts that are the smae of each side. You could have 1/2 template of a ragoli pattern and demonstre how it can be made to look complte using a mirror at the imcomplete edge. Make a few of these 1/2 complete patterns- laminate if you want it to last a few days and lav some plastic mirrors along iwth them at a table. this will encourage chidlen to investigate symmetry as a free choice activity and then you can discuss waht they observed. Does any of this make sense? Hope its of use. will send you some basic rangoli patterns if yu need them Best of luck with you placement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 Hi Rani and welcome. Leo has given you some good starting points. Make your patterns very simple and use mirrors to demonstrate symetrical. Im sure the children will be able to tell you both sides are the same and then you can introduce the term. You could also do this by folding paper in half and putting paint on one side and then folding over and pressing down. With these very young children I think it is also acceptable for them to just enjoy colouring in some predrawn rangoli patterns. Perhaps they will be able to talk about the colours they have chosen or the one they like best and why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted November 8, 2004 Share Posted November 8, 2004 we use very simple predrawn patterns for our rangoli, this year we added colour to the pva glue and they coloured in the different areas, (some have been very good) and they sprinkled coloured rice on which has given them a texture, (we ran out of coloured sand and the powder paint travvelled a very long way last time we tried it) They have been very effective have been dislpayed in our entrance hall. Agree morror simplest way of showing a symetrical pattern, Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 today we did rangoli patterns . we did painting and folding the paper as said before . i made a larger pattern that the children all came and scrunched and glued tissue paper onto. i also laminated some and the children covered them with beads or buttons , fun and reusable. we also went outside and chalked our own on the floor ,never heared them that quiet! totally engrossed. maddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 we did our rangoli patterns today- i felt it was quite abour intensive and directed and glad i was not being observed. Some chidlren were really carefula bout the gluing and keeping within the lines and speading the coloured snad while some lost interst as it was quite a 'on task' activity. but they all look different and some actually look like rangoli patterns so atleast people will recognise that it is the chidlren's own work an not directed (entirely) by me. they llok quite effective but i'm glad that diali comes onece a year! I also used half tempaltes of shapes for the chidlren to use mirrors and make the whole patterns- symetrical. one littel girl placed 2 mirrors in sucha away that she could see 2 symetrical patterns and not just one.. There's always one in evry class isn't there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 i apologise for my spelling -its emergent you see!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 It's wonderful leo!!! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apple Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 many simple paint programs have a line of symmetry (Black Cat 'Painter'; 2 Simple Toolkit- this one has both a horizontal and vertical line of symmetry). I've found using ICT this way to introduce symmetry excellent and the children are fascinated too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 here's something i found earlier!! diwali.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Hey, leo, They're great! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Hi All I just wanted to say thanx to everyone for all their ideas and taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it!!! It's really nice to know that I am joining a profession where everyone helps and supports one another in this difficult and challenging, yet very rewarding profession. Thanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Rani, Sorry, I have been in playful mode here, I can be deadly serious when necessary, and as supportive as possible!! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Rani, Sorry, I have been in playful mode here, I can be deadly serious when necessary, and as supportive as possible!! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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