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Rangoli Patterns

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Rangoli Patterns

As part of our Hinduism topic, P1-7 have been learning about Rangoli patterns.

A Rangoli pattern is a colourful pattern used during the Hindu festival of Diwali. They are drawn at the entrance to welcome the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, into Hindu’s homes in the hope she will bring them good luck.

Rangoli patterns are made up from lots of 2D different shapes. They are often symmetrical and take ideas from nature: peacocks, swans, flowers, etc.

Traditionally Rangoli patterns are made using coloured rice, grains, flour, sand or chalk.

Primary 1-3 used coloured salt to symmetrically colour some well known Rangoli patterns.

Primary 4-7 designed their own Rangoli patterns and coloured them using traditional coloured grains.

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Whole School Discussion

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Before lunch we had a whole school discussion, the first discussion was about the attainment gap. Jessica explained to everyone what the attainment gap is and asked everyone’s opinions on why they think there is this gap. Everyone had a chance to give their thoughts on this topic and Jessica noted these down for the teachers to have a look at to see if there is anything that can be done.

The second discussion was why our school is different to other schools – we had a great discussion on this one, here is some of our points:

  • some schools aren’t as colourful as our one
  • some schools have different playgrounds for different classes whereas we can play anywhere in our playground
  • we all gather together in the morning to say good morning to everyone in different languages and share our news (local, national, international and personal) We also gather together at other parts of the day like after break and lunch and at the end of the day when we all say good afternoon to each other.
  • we don’t have separate classes with different teachers for each primary – it is split primary 1-4 and 5-7. This gives us the chance to build friendships and have discussions with different people.
  • we can walk into the other classroom to get a pencil or glue sticks for example as we do this quietly without disrupting the class whereas other schools you have to knock, interrupt that lesson and talk to the teacher
  • we don’t have assigned seats – we can sit anywhere
  • when it is someone’s birthday they get to wear the birthday hat all day and we sing Happy Birthday to them in 11 different languages! (English with sign language, French, German, Italian, Croatian, Gaelic, Spanish, Chinese, Welsh, Dutch and Lithuanian)
  • the teachers here are in our community so we see them more and you feel you know them better
  • teachers here don’t shout in our school whereas in other schools they do
  • our teachers listen to what you have to say
  • our teachers are friendly

We are the best school in the world!

 

School

Pancake Day

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Yesterday was Pancake day or also named Shrove Tuesday…..

Shrove Tuesday is the day when we eat pancakes. This is the last day before the Christian festival of Lent. In olden days Christians did not eat many foods such as milk, eggs and fats during Lent.

They did not waste food so before Lent began, they had a feast using all the food that would go bad before they could eat it again. Pancakes were a dish that used up the foods by adding some flour.

Lent is the 40 days before Easter – We don’t count Sunday’s though. At this time, our days get longer and it is the start of Spring Time.

Lent begins the day after Pancake Day and the last day ends with Palm Sunday. This is the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and people waved palm leaves at him and laid them at his feet. Jesus went to the desert for 40 days and nights. He didn’t have any food or water. The devil came and tried to make Jesus eat and drink and made Jesus lots of promises but Jesus said NO!

Lent is a time when Christians give up something special like chocolate. This reminds them when Jesus went into the desert and gave up food.

There are many special days during Lent leading up to Easter. Easter is the most important of all Christian festivals. Lent is a time when Christians prepare for Easter and think of Jesus.

If you were to give up something for Lent what would it be? We had a great discussion of lots of things we could give up.

So yesterday afternoon we made pancakes and our school cook Jem made us pancakes for lunch too so we were very lucky to have pancakes twice!

We got to measure out all the ingredients:

  • 200g of flour
  • Tablespoon of sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • Milk

Once we measured out all the ingredients we had to mix this together to make the pancake batter. After we got all the lumps out of it we spooned this into the pan to make little individual pancakes to cook them. We all had the chance to flip the pancakes and even tried to flip pancakes from one frying pan to another. It was great fun and there was lots of laughter!

Once the pancakes were cooked we each got to eat one and they were tasty!

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Diwali

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Primary 1-4 have been learning about the festival of Diwali.

We know that this is a very important celebration for Hindus. It is known as the “festival of lights” and celebrates the new year. The word Diwali means rows of lighted lamps. We read the story of Rama and Sita and were able to put the story in order after hearing it. Here are some of the photos that a few of us took. We like taking photos. 🙂