Nina Marni beautiful little learners and their lovely families. A Happy Diwali to our beautiful families.Welcome to our weekly blog.
This week we our little learners Here at Early Learning had the opportunity to celebrate the festival of lights known as Diwali. Diwali marks the beginning of a new year in the Indian Hindu calendar and celebrates the year’s last crop of rice harvest. The festival is celibrated with the lighting of clay lamps known as deeya’s and decorating their houses with Rangoli and painting their hands with Henna. Children had the opportunity to engage in all of these wonderful experiences within their learning space.
We also had the opportunity to include Halloween experiences simultaneously collaborating with our Diwali celebrations into our learning for this week.
Learning Intention 1: To nurture each child’s and educators’ identity through connecting with and learning about their culture and community
Why: Being part of a community has many benefits for a child. It can create that sense of belonging strengthen their sense of identity and through positive relationships with other people in the community.
As a whole school community, we will be celebrating Diwali this week.
Learning Intention 2
Sacred symbols
Sacred symbols are special and important.
Why :
Doctrinal Insights from the Catholic Tradition that support this Enduring Understanding include:
- Sacred symbols remind us that God is close to us, and with us.
- In my Catholic learning environment, I can see many sacred symbols.
- Candle flames remind us that God is with us.
- The Bible reminds us of God’s love for us through special stories.
- The Cross reminds us of Jesus.
- Water is used for special blessings
- Sacred symbols are used in my school/ELC and in church celebrations, prayer and liturgy. (CCC1145)
- Other faith traditions also have sacred symbols.
Doctrinal Insights from the Catholic Tradition that support this Enduring Understanding include:
- Sacred symbols remind us that God is close to us, and with us.
- In my Catholic learning environment, I can see many sacred symbols.
- Candle flames remind us that God is with us.
- The Bible reminds us of God’s love for us through special stories.
- The Cross reminds us of Jesus.
- Water is used for special blessings
- Sacred symbols are used in my school/ELC and in church celebrations, prayer and liturgy. (CCC1145)
- Other faith traditions also have sacred symbols.
Throughout this week children have been very consistent in their routine firstly beginning their day with prayer. The prayer table along with the sacred symbols and flowers are carefully picked and prepared by these little hands. Each day they have the choice to pick a flower or to hold the cross to express their thanks to Jesus for their families , peers their teachers and the natural environment with all of its living beings. We were also very thankful for having the opportunity today to participate in the liturgical service for all Saints day with the school children.
Book Making – Literacy Intentions (Our hopes for their learning)
- Reading picture books regularly. Children will enjoy a joyful connection to picture books.
- Continue using mark-making tools, such as crayons, texter’s, pencils, paint, chalk, sand (as they create texts during this process).
- Children will build symbolic functioning, sharing something about the marks they have created.
- Bookmaking ongoing throughout the term
This week children have been very interested in picking up lots of picture books and requesting the Teacher’s to read to them. Children have been interacting and verbally communicating around the stories and including their valuble input.
As our days through the week have begun with prayer, children are tuned into their learning routine by using and being guided by the flash card chart. Children are now able to develop an understanding of what to expect Now , Next and Then
Our sustainability practices have had a tremendious effect on our children as they have been taking lots of care of all of our foliage providing heaps of supplements of water with lots of sunshine.
Some specs of gold for this week.
Hope you all have a realxing weekend.