World Religion Week

We have had a fantastic week at Astley Park celebrating World Religion! Pupils have participated in a range of activities across Key Stages and pathways focusing on the 6 major religions. Governor, Mr Maher even came to visit and see all of the wonderful, memorable activities taking place.

As part of Religion Week Chestnut Class have been learning all about Hinduism through Attention Autism, stories, food and expressive art and design. We learned about Rama and Sita and the importance of the Diya candles. This week we watched Miss Spear create a Diya candle through Stage 2 Attention Autism and then made our own. We made Barfi sweets which are eaten during Diwalli celebrations. We followed a simple recipe to pour ingredients, mix and roll them in to balls with our hands- they were delicious! We dressed in traditional clothes and had our own Holi celebration through Stage 3 Attention Autism by throwing paint filled eggs onto a giant paper with all of our faces on. We have been lucky enough to get wonderful weather this week to see all of the beautiful colours in our Rangoli sun catchers.

Beech Class have also been exploring Hinduism. They have enjoyed lots of arts and craft activities this week. On Monday they created their own Mehndi hand patterns, by tracing their hands onto paper and adding pretty glitter designs. On Tuesday they made some sparkly candles using paper plates. They have also enjoyed exploring lots of Hindu figurines and fabrics and even played dress up in traditional clothing. In their sensory trays they explored lots of glitter and tea lights.

Maple Class have focused on Christianity this week. On Monday, we introduced the topic through Attention Autism, the bucket contained rosary beads, a Bible, cross and a prayer book. We then made symbolic marks in flour. On Wednesday, we explored churches through photographs and bells, we then created stained glass windows, some of us carried out an interactive matching task on the white board. On Thursday we dressed up and participated in baptism role play, we followed an adult model of making the sign of the cross. On Friday, we celebrated Easter by splatting eggs and having a go at pancake tossing. Our workbox activities have consisted of Easter egg numicon puzzles, creating pancake faces and World Religion I Spy! Our continuous provision has included church jigsaws, sensory bags, pasta threading rosary beads.

Oak and Rowan Class have also been celebrating Christianity through exploration of symbols and the creation of stained glass windows.

Sycamore have been studying Islam and have worked hard creating ‘The Five Pillars of Sycamore’. Willow have also been studying Islam, focussing on the five pillars and the symbols of the crescent moon and five pointed star. Willow class thought about the five pillars of Islam and thought of five important rules/values they have in their lives. Willow explored Mosques by trying to build our own models and replicate some of the mosaic patterns. To end the week they made some tasty biscuits in the shape of the five pointed star.

7A and 7P have been focusing on Sikhism, learning about the 5Ks, Gurdwara temples and creating fantastic mosaics!

On Monday 8A had a discussion about different religions and why we celebrate World Religion Week. We shared that our chosen religion was Sikhism and looked at some key information about Sikhism and their beliefs. On Tuesday, we learnt about the Gurdwara (which is the place where Sikh's go to worship) and the free kitchen that they have inside where everyone works together to cook the meal and clear away afterwards. We chatted about where we like to eat our meals when we are at home and who cooks and helps to clear away. Lots of us said that we would try to help more at home like the Sikh's do. We baked some Langar biscuits. On Wednesday, we created some wonderful mosaics that included the symbol for Sikhism. 8A did some excellent fine motor work! We also read the Sikh creation story and thought about what we loved about our world. On Thursday, we read a story called "The Secret to all Happiness and Success" from Sikhnet. We learnt that if we are grateful for the small things, this can help us feel really good. We created our own gratitude books on book creator. Today we have learnt about the Golden Rule that lots of religions follow, "treat others how you would like to be treated" and created some Norman Rockwell inspired plates to display in our window. They look fantastic!

Islam was the religion studied by 9A and 9G, they took a look inside a Mosque and studied the Five Pillars of Islam before designing their own prayer mats.

10G and 10R studied Judaism. 10R participated in Jewish themed yoga (please see their class blog for further pictures). While 10G explored artefacts before looking at The Ten Commandments and linking them to our school values. Pupils then investigated kosher foods.

Buddhism was the focus of 11R and 11G. 11R learnt about Siddhartha Gautama (the founder of Buddhism who later became known as the Buddha) and expressed their own interpretations of the story through drama. The productions were outstanding!