Personal, Social and Emotional
Development
Focus Stories
Discuss being safe around fireworks, staying
close to an adult, wearing a glove if you’re
holding a sparkler, don’t stand too close to
fireworks etc.Fireworks as a symbol of a
celebration – a time when people come
together and are happy. Talk about being
brave and that soldiers are people who are
very brave. Discuss why we have
rememberance day and that we are
remembering the soldiers who died when
there was a war. Talk about the silence to
remember and why we have poppies. Talk
about why it is important to remember
people. Children to make a memory box and
fill it with something special from home. Talk
about why it is special and why it is important
to have memories. Is there anyone special
you would like to remember? Talk about being
good and bad. Who are the hero’s and baddies
in our favourite stories? Light a candle and
talk about how it makes us feel (circle time).
Talk about the day that we are born and that
we get older each year. Talk about how people
are different ages, some people are older and
some people are younger. Sequence the lives
of people. Talk about how we normally
celebrate our birthdays with our family. Why
do we give and receive gifts on our birthday.
Who would you give a gift to and why? (circle
time)Play a party game. Talk about ‘giving’.
Can children identify a time when they give a
gift or when they receive a gift? How do
presents make us feel? Talk about going on a
Story of Guy Fawkes, Badger’s Parting Gifts, Story of Rama and
special journey
IDEA FOR HOME: Write a WOW!
Moment for your child to bring in to
share.
Sita, Kipper’s Birthday, The Christmas Story, The Jolly
Christmas Postman, Spot’s Birthday Party, Lighting a Lamp, Here
comes Diwali, Harry and the Dinosaurs make a Christmas wish,
One snowy night.
Lionel Primary School
Communication and Language
Listen to the story about ‘Guy Fawkes’. Discuss what he did and
why he was a bad man. Describing the sounds and colours of
fireworks using amazing words. Listen to the story of ‘Badger’s
Parting Gifts’. Talk about what happens to the Badger and how
both he feels about it and how his friends feel about it. Read the
story ‘Rama and Sita’ Discuss what happens in the story and why
the monkey king is a hero. Say hello in other languages including
Hindi. Talk about how people say hello and greet people in
different countries. Read the story ‘Kippers Birthday’. Discuss
what Kipper did to celebrate his birthday and how we celebrate
our birthdays. Sequence the story. ‘The Christmas story’
Christians believe that God gave people his son Jesus to be a
teacher on earth. Tal k about the story and how gifts were given.
Read ‘Grandpa’s Journey’. Talk about how some journey are
important, some we do every day.
IDEA FOR HOME: Ask your child to talk about one of
our focus stories.
Physical Development
Reception Curriculum Map
Autumn Term 2
‘Celebrations &
Festivals’
Religious Education
What is interesting/puzzling
about the Christmas story?
Linked to Christianity
PE scheme, Pencil control, Writing names,
Using scissors to create firework
rockets. Use fine motor skills to cut out
and make poppies. Mould a diva lamp using
tools to make patterns. Make bunting
with the letters to spell out ‘Happy
Birthday’. Practise letter formation on
the bunting. Hole punch and thread the
string through. Paper chains cutting and
sticking. Snowflakes. Draw around hands,
cut them out and decorate with mehendi
patterns.
IDEA FOR HOME: Practise
independently getting dressed and
undressed.
Understanding the World
Discuss having a firework party with your family as a celebration.
Talk about the food that’s you might eat at a firework party. Talk
about the fact that Hindu people have fireworks during Diwali as it is
the celebration of light. New year celebrations include fireworks.
Discuss fireworks being a source of light. Show children a ‘light box’
and talk about the fact that we can see what is inside once we shine
a light. Set up a dark tent for children to explore light. Look at
growth and different parts of the poppy. Talk about people who are
special to you and why they are special. Talk about the world,
different countries, where our families are from and where we live
and why it is nice to be part of a country. Talk about what hindu’s do
to prepare for Diwali. Taste some indian food. Discuss how people
grow taller as they get older. Look at how we are babies, then we
become toddlers etc and how different things happen as we grow up.
Make a timeline of their lives. Link to birthdays. Discuss Christmas is
Jesus’ birthday. Talk about how Muslim families prepare for Eid and
the celebration itself, the food they eat, the clothes they wear etc.
Introduce where people go to celebrate if they are religious.
Muslim’s got to the Mosque when they celebrate Eid to be with other
Muslims.
IDEA FOR HOME: Talk about where your family comes
from.
Maths
Play sounds of fireworks going off, children to count how many bangs they
heard etc and record. Children to identify one more/two more firework
rockets. Making firework rockets out of 2D shapes.Firework game for
children to set off the fireworks in the correct number order. Feely Bag to
describe 2D shapes, describing sides, corners, properties. Counting petals on
a poppy. Combining groups of poppies and finding the total amount. Look at
months of the year and the months that different celebrations take place.
Look at the months and who’s birthdays are in that month. Make rangoli
patterns focussing on patterns made of colours and shapes. Take away
amounts of objects from different groups. Sequence ages. Discuss months
of the year and what might happen in different months. Put candles on a
birthday cake. How many candles are on the cake? Match birthday badges
to the correct amount of candles on a cake. Weigh and order the presents
to go into Santa’s sleigh. Counting the baubles on the Christmas trees.
Compare sizes of temples, the sizes of each other. Measure themselves and
record how tall they are. Count how many things that they see on the way to
school. (Cars, trees, people etc)
IDEA FOR HOME: Find shapes in your environment.
Expressive Arts and Design
Lionel Primary School
‘This little light of mine’ song. Fireworks song – ‘swish, swish
bang’. Make firework pictures using a variety of media. Make
firework rockets. Working as a team to make a poppy field
picture. Make split pin poppies. Sing “We’ll meet again” and “A
tiny seed was sleeping”. Look at the use of music in a
celebration. Make diva lamps. Talk about different colours, how
they make us feel and what they symbolise. Make salt dough
Christmas tree decorations.Make Christmas cards. Make party
hats. Role play a birthday party. Sing the ‘Eid-ul-adha’ song.
Do a visualisation activity, where children listen to music and
imagine that they are going on a journey. Can they describe it
to you? What can they see? Make Eid sweets. Build a temple in
the construction area. Draw a map of their journey to school.
IDEA FOR HOME: Look at different colour
shades in your environment.
Reception Curriculum Map
Autumn Term 2
‘Celebrations &
Festivals’
Literacy
Read Write Inc Scheme, Write descriptive words about a
picture of fireworks, focusing on the sounds and colours. To
encourage blending and learning to read, Have pictures and
words for children to match. Have pictures of poppies and ask
children to write words to describe the poppies. Write about a
favourite hero or villain. Write a party invitation. Write a list of
party foods. Write a guest list. Writing Christmas cards to our
families. Writing a letter to Santa. Write Happy Eid cards.
IDEA FOR HOME: Continue to practise reading and spelling
key words.