Teachers’ Tips

Over the last six years a number of teachers have written in and told us how useful they have found our outfits and other multicultural items. So now we thought it was time to share these tried and tested suggestions that other teachers might find useful. To keep these tips coming in, we are offering £25 worth of EWE products (free p&p) for every suggestion used in this section. We would appreciate a picture or two if possible.

INDIAN WEDDING KIT

 

We used the Indian Wedding Kit during our topic work on festivals and celebrations with our Reception classes. It formed part of our scheme of work on ‘SPECIAL EVENTS – Weddings’ taken from our ‘Bromley Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education’ in which it states the concepts and objectives for the unit of work as:
 

….explore with pupils clothes worn for a special occasion ……..help pupils  to explore the features of a wedding that are a celebration (this could also be dramatised)……… and similar rites of passage should be explored from other religions….’

The children learnt about Christian and Hindu Weddings and were able to compare the two. The Indian wedding set was a super practical resource that the teaching staff could use in a multi-sensory approach because of the music, costumes and props it incorporated. The children were able to learn in a variety of styles.

‘Well-planned play is a key way in which children learn with enjoyment and challenge during the Foundation stage’ (Curriculum Guidance for Foundation Stage 2000).  We were certainly able to do that since the children absolutely loved the costumes! The colours and vibrancy captured their attention and they were all keen to try them on. The music was an added bonus and we were able to successfully recreate a Hindu wedding within our classroom.

After the session in class the children independently used the set and recreated the wedding in our role-play areas.

Thank you for helping learning come alive in our school!

Andrea Moss

Darrick Wood Infant School, Orpington, Kent

"We used the costumes for our school's entry in the annual town procession. Our theme was Bollywood and the costumes were perfect - full of colour, beautifully made, and easy to put on. Everybody loved them - children and adults alike and we even won a prize. The dads, in particular, loved dressing up!"

Anne Millar
Chair of New Lanark Primary Parents Association.

“I have a Year 1 class and have used the dolls Priya and Raj, costumes for other dolls and display materials to enrich the children’s experience.

In RE the topic for the half term was ‘Belonging’; this encompassed belonging to a class at school, belonging to a family and belonging to other groups, particularly other faiths.

I used the dolls Priya and Raj to introduce the children to the different clothes that people wear and that show they belong to a group, culture or religion. The children responded instantly by sharing their own experiences: ‘I have a sari’, My mum wears one’, and so on. All the children wear very taken with the dolls, even the boys and took great care of them when playing with them. They were especially concerned they might lose the shoes, Raj’s in particular tended to fall off easily!

Following on from this I introduced the other dolls clothes and we dressed the dolls we had in the classroom and two new Asian dolls I had bought. The children wanted to give the dolls names and they really took on personalities and became part of the class.

I produced a colouring sheet to match Raj and Priya and the children were encouraged to design their own saris and salwar kameez. From the beginning I tried to use the correct names for the outfits and encouraged all children to do so too. We had quite a discussion because children from different backgrounds had different names for the items, whether Urdu, Hindi or Gujerati. It might be a useful addition to list all these for teachers.

For the minority of multicultural children in the class they have been able to share their own experiences with others and have really been excited at having familiar items at school. It has raised their profile and self esteem; others have asked them lots of questions and been impressed by their knowledge.

For the majority ‘white’ children it has given them a fun way to learn about other faiths and cultures. They have learnt the names of the outfits and had fun playing with them. When we watched a video about Divali and Eid they recognised all the clothes they knew!

Helen Ford
Gossops Green School