English Reception Autumn Prepositions and Descriptors

Celebrating Light and Dark

Use Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain to help explore the use of prepositions and how we feel about the dark. Get creative with descriptive words while learning about Diwali and Firework Night inspired by the texts Rama and Sita and Let's celebrate 5 days of Diwali.

Festivals and light (suggested as 5 days)

Active Learning

  1. Bear prepositions
  2. Feeling safe at night
  3. Goldilocks' making amends list
  4. Passing sentence on Goldilocks

Creating and Thinking Critically

  1. Preposition walk
  2. Reading prepositions
  3. A journey of prepositions
  4. Flickering candles

Exploring and Playing

  1. Act it out!
  2. Rangoli patterns
  3. Build a dark space
  4. Diwali chefs

Books to Share

  1. Share and enjoy Bears in the Night reading it and enjoying the suspense. Read the last pages really fast to get the bears safe back in bed! What makes it exciting? What do children think will be at the top of Spook Hill? What do they think that the creature is? An owl? A ghost? A monster?
  2. Look again at Bears in the Night. Say that many people are afraid of the dark. Even grown-ups often feel more scared if walking in the dark, or going somewhere strange in the dark. That’s why we have festivals in winter (when it’s dark) to celebrate light – with candles/fireworks
  3. Read Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali up to the end of Day 2. Have any of the children celebrated Diwali? Or do they know others who have.
  4. Read the last half of Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali. Do children think it sounds fun? Recap the Days of Diwali (see resource) and discuss which day sounds like the most fun.

Poetry/Rhyme of the Week: Fireworks and Penny for the Guy
Introduce two poems: Penny for the Guy and Fireworks this week. Children choose which poem they like best. They will work together to learn this one off by heart.

You Will Need

Essential text: Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Websites
Oral story of Rama and Sita - Part 1 and Part 2 from Hamilton Trust
Rangoli patterns from jenniferslittleworld.com or rangoli patterns from activityvillage.co.uk
Coloured rice from theimaginationtree.com
Bead designs from jenniferslittleworld.com
Rangoli patterns to colour from activityvillage.co.uk
Handel's Water Music from youtube.com

Resources
Cloaks and sleeping bag for role play
Dark or black out material
Ingredients for burfi sweets
Torches