India As My Country For International Day- Help!

[Guest]

Hi my reception class have been given India for international Day we are supposed to be performing a song or dance/ presentation in assembly for the parents to watch any ideas please.

 

So far we have made flags and done some simple craft things - we have painted Taj Mahal, tiger and peacock paintings, elephants masks but I am stuck for song/ dance.

 

I was thinking of a simple hand movements or Bollywood dance? 4 children in the class speak Malayam and I have asked parents for costumes or to come in and teach a nursery rhyme/ song or counting but they say they feel too shy to help.I found some ideas on Mama Lisa website but it still seems too hard for myself to learn pronounce so not sure how chn would cope. I wondered which Bollywood song is simple or repeptive. We do have an IWB to put music/ ppt on in hall or is there anything simple on You tube I could look at ?Have tried to search myself with not much luck. I'm grateful for any help. Thanks

[Panders]

This may be of no use, but I was watching a children's programme on Cbeebies last week called Same Smile, it is about diversity. Anyway one of the children attended Bhangara/Bollywood type dancing school. The music was by Beyonce, but it had been re-mixed with bhangara beat. It was a simple dance but very energetic, perhaps some of your mums know of an indian style dance school near you which may be of help

[Guest LornaW]

I agree with Panders see if you have anyone in your community who does Bhangra dancing and get them to come and work with the children. There are many Bhangra group about up and down the country!

Edited May 8, 2012 by LornaW

[Guest]

We have just had an Asian Culture theme and the children loved it. If you go to www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips and type in bhangra dancing you will find some good clips. We asked the children in Yr 6 if anyone knew any Bhangra dancing - 3 boys put together and practised a short routine which they then performed to the Reception children in the hall. We then all joined in together - great fun! We put some indian clothes, scarves, shakers, bells etc in the role play area with the cd player and let the children get on with it. We also used non fiction books to learn about snakes (which the boys loved) and made our own books.We cut out spiral snakes to hang in class. We painted elephants and stuck on some squares of indian material for their backs. We looked at mendhi patterns, drew round hands and designed our own. We had a playdough disco using Bhangra music - squeezing, rolling, flattening playdough in time to the music. Children decorated strips of card to make bangles.

This was probably one of our most popular themes! Enjoy ....

[Guest]

Thank you everyone for all this inspiration and all the lovely ideas x