Along with supporting Children in Need, the children have also been celebrating Diwali this week, which is the Hindu festival of lights. Their activities have been bursting with colour as they created Diwali hand art with paper hands, tissue, and glitter. They also decorated their own paper lanterns with sequins while practicing with scissors. Their role play restaurant were serving up some Asian culinary standards and the Howlers really took pride in their waiting work as they happily handed out menus to all who would take them. Music and movement was a rather robust hula hoop session as the children jumped in and out, lifted them up and down, rolled them across the room, and even tried a little hip wiggle to keep that hula around their middle. For our fundraising efforts, the Howlers made granola bars jam packed with seeds and berries for Roll Out of Bed day.

The Baboons have been busy, busy, busy this week with fundraising, dancing and a visit from Irena the Persona Doll. For Roll out of Bed day, the Baboons rolled up a healthy blueberry oat bite which they quite enjoyed making a mess out of. For Superhero/Villain day they created some rather tasty ‘Super-smoothies’ with kiwi, banana, pineapple and spinach. I know what you’re thinking. If you didn’t try it because of the spinach, trust me, the fruit works overtime to mask the taste. Not as odd tasting as you might think. The group also chopped and prepared apples for their “baby food” jarred applesauce for Opposite Age day. Apparently, applesauce is a very American thing, but trust me, you need it in your life. Applesauce is everything. When they weren’t busy cooking and fundraising, they had Pudsey on the brain as they made Pudsey badges and pictures. Irena the Persona Doll came to visit dressed up as a cheerleader because her other nursery were also dressing up for Children in Need. The Baboons beamed as they told Irena that they had been making money for charity (think I’m going to cry). Irena wasn’t the only one visiting this week as one of Anika’s mother and sister came to celebrate Diwali with the Baboons and do some traditional dancing. Thank you, the Baboons loved it!Not to be outdone, the Gorillas have also gone all out with their Diwali celebrations and have been creating Rangoli patterns using pretty much anything they can get their hands on – chalk, wood blocks, straws, etc. – and they’ve been using real Rangoli pictures for reference. At story time, the Gorillas told me a fantastic tale, the mythology of Diwali, about Rama and Sita and why we celebrate with lights for Diwali. In the small world area, the children then got to act out the story of Rama and Sita using small world people and environments. The Gorillas also made paper lanterns experimenting with colour mixing. Speaking of things that glow, the Gorillas enjoyed an exciting experiment with glow sticks and milk. The children predicted how the colours would appear in the milk and then cracked them and dropped them in. They were utterly fascinated with the glow of the sticks in the milk. Apologies if your milk goes on a walkabout for experiments now. For their writing activity, the Gorillas have been tracing key words for Diwali and Children in Need. Words like helping, festival, lights, etc.

Thank you all for your support and donations last week for Children in Need. The collection tin will remain on the shelf this week for last minute donations and we will let you know our grand total at the end of the week.