COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION
AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)

Theme Map

KEY SUBJECT SKILLS
A broad range of skills from Music, Dance, Drama, Art and DT (dependent on teaching and learning focuses and activities)
  • Chinese New Year
  • Remembrance Day
  • Eid
  • Navaratri
  • Weddings
  • Anniversaries
  • Harvest
  • Christmas
POSSIBLE FOCUS ASPECTS
  • Food
  • Clothes
  • Gifts
  • Ceremonies
  • Stories
  • Decorations
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Games
  • Specific activities i.e. firework display
/ RESOURCE LIST
  • Dimensions Movie Channel ‘Chinese New Year’ and ‘Eid’

Multiple choice of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas – Poem:
  • – (Video clip)
Multiple choice of Poems about key festivals
  • - ‘The Works’ collections (poems on any subject, category that you’ll ever need)

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION
AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)

Concept Flow Activities

Chinese New Year
  • Make a Chinese Dragon/ Lion and learn a dance to perform at a Chinese New Year parade
  • Learn some Chinese phrases and write your name
Remembrance Day
  • Create a poppy wreath
  • Watch the BBC footage of the Cenotaph. Talk about the armed services representatives, the invited guests- Queen, Prime Minister. Practice marching and saluting in unison.
  • Have a remembrance service in school and write prayers to present
  • Use the British Legion school materials to support learning and understanding in schools
Eid
  • Design an Islamic tile pattern for a celebration card
  • Look at and chart the changing moon throughout the month
Navaratri
  • Make puppets or masks to retell the story of Good v Evil
  • Create Batukamma (flowered pots) and perform Bollywood inspired dances around them
  • Make a procession of elephants using clay, junk modelling
Weddings
  • Look at wedding photos from the past. Identify similarities and differences.
  • Discuss ‘commitment’ and what things the children are committed to. Make rings as a symbol of commitment.
  • Create a fictional couple or if someone the children are familiar with is getting married ask them design a wedding cake for the couple. Use Fimo to create cake toppings
Anniversaries
  • Which events do your family mark as anniversaries? Are there any traditions to mark the day?
Harvest
  • Make soup and distribute
  • Collect tins, packets or essential cleaning items - toothbrush, shampoo etc. and donate them to a homeless shelter in your area
  • Investigate food labels and find where in the world the food was harvested. Calculate the distance it has travelled.

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION
AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)

Theme Links

MATHS LINKS /
  • Time – festival year calendar, New Year’s Eve
  • 3D Shape – Make 3D decorations, using regular shapes

ESSENTIAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE / Make a decoration for the school Christmas tree
THE APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE / Materials – Meltdown!
MAKING IT REAL! / See some Christmas lights
BUBBLES RESOURCES / Bubbles LKS2 Music ‘Come and Join the Celebration’
Bubbles LKS2 Dance ‘Come and Join the Celebration’
Bubbles LKS2 Drama ‘Come and Join the Celebration’

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION
AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)

Theme Links

CATALYST QUESTIONS / What is a celebration?
How and why is music important at Christmas?
Why do people celebrate?
Can you think of some novel Christmas gift ideas?
HIGHER ABILITY CHALLENGE / Write an acrostic for harvest to be used in an assembly
ART LINKS / Printing / Mixed Media
DESIGN TECHNOLOGY LINKS / Cooking – Celebration Food
COMPUTING LINKS / COMPUTER SCIENCE – DIMENSIONS COMPUTING: SCRATCH
  • Lesson 1: Algorithm recap – Practical
  • Lesson 2: Hokey Cokey – Repetition/loops within algorithms

COMPUTER SCIENCE – DIMENSIONS COMPUTING: COMPUTER NETWORKS.
  • Lesson 1: Networks Introduction
  • Lesson 2: Human LAN network
  • Lesson 3: WWW & the Internet
MULTIMEDIA
  • Use VoiceThread (An example from younger children here, created by a teacher ) , Photostory 3 or AudioBoo to share research they have undertaken about the chosen celebration.
  • If available Purple Mash Themed resources are fantastic at Christmas time and for other celebrations.

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION
AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)

LITERACY FOCUS
Poems to Perform
  • Share ‘Twas the night before Christmas’
  • Ask groups to perform each verse and make a class performance poem
  • Think of the structure, rhyming and rhythm of the poem and use it as a framework to write about a different festival e.g. Diwali/ Hanukah
  • Have a performance poet visit the children or watch a video
  • Think of how a performance can be enhanced by movement and/or music
  • Discuss the differences between performance poetry and songs
  • Look at popular Christmas songs e.g. ‘When Santa got stuck up the Chimney’, ‘Rudolph’ and use them to perform
  • Write a poem to finish the school play
Plays
  • Look at written speech and how it is structured in fiction, non-fiction, in a report and in a script
  • Take part in mini play scripts - read through, think of actions and bring the piece to life through performance, rehearse as a group and learn lines.
  • Write alternative scenes for a Christmas play being put on in school
  • Change a familiar story into a script, including stage directions, actor notes and a list of props
  • Write a dialogue between Father Christmas and the Elves or Rama and Sita
  • Make props and costumes to enhance a performance
ADDITIONAL WRITING OPPORTUNITIES
  • Instructions- making decorations, food for the party season
SPELLING WORDS (Y3/4 LIST)
calendar, continue, disappear, occasion(ally), describe, favourite, particular, special, surprise / APPLIED LITERACY
Reports
  • Hot seat and interview characters / visitors and take notes
  • Use different sources to collate information and write a report about a festival or event

Literacy Links Application

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION

AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)
Assessment

MEMORY BOX ASSESSMENT / Teacher completes, depending on celebrations chosen
ASSESSMENT WHEELS
CREATIVE CHALLENGE / Linked to celebrations / festivals studied

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION
AUTUMN TERM 2(A) KS2
Festivals and Key Events (Faith and Community / Expressive Arts)

Learning Journey Overview

ACTIVITIES / LITERACY / MATHS LINKS
PART 1 / FESTIVAL / CELEBRATION 1
  • Catalyst Question
  • Higher Ability Challenge: Write an acrostic for harvest to be used in an assembly
  • Bubbles LKS2 DRAMA‘Come and Join the Celebration’
  • DT:Cooking – Celebration Food
  • PSHE:Core Theme 3 Unit 4 Lesson 1: Money Choices – A Million Dollars
  • PSHE:Core Theme 3 Unit 4 Lesson 2: Managing Money – Design Choices
/ Applied Literacy:Reports
Applied Literacy:Instructions
PART 2 / FESTIVAL / CELEBRATION 2
  • The Appliance of Science: Materials – Meltdown!
  • Bubbles LKS2 MUSIC‘Come and Join the Celebration’
  • Catalyst Question
  • COMPUTING: Computer Science – DIMENSIONS COMPUTING: SCRATCH
Lesson 1: Algorithm recap – Practical
Lesson 2: Hokey Cokey – Repetition/loops within algorithms
  • ART: Printing / Mixed Media
  • COMPUTING: Multimedia
/ Literacy Focus:Plays
PART 3 / CHRISTMAS
  • ELE: See some Christmas lights
  • Making it Real!:See some Christmas lights
  • Bubbles LKS2 DANCE‘Come and Join the Celebration’
  • Creative Challenge:Linked to celebrations / festivals studied
/ Literacy Focus:Poems to Perform
Maths Link:
  • Time – festival year calendar, New Year’s Eve
  • 3D Shape – Make 3D decorations, using regular shapes

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