New Year lesson idea

This looks like an interesting activity for the new year - there's a video on daruma dolls, which are a 400 year old tradition in Japan. They represent perseverance, patience, protection, prosperity, achievement and good luck in the new year. There's also a video on how to make an origami or papier mâché daruma doll.

Click here for the videos and more information.

Diwali

Some resources for teaching your class about Diwali - click the link below the picture:

A great video on Diwali as a festival of light:
You can also watch it here and find more videos on Diwali.

Background information on Diwali

Interactive Story and quiz

Background information on Hinduism - there is a link to further resources on Diwali on the page.

Dangerous routes to School

Next time I'm finding it hard to get up in the morning, I'll be thankful that my route to school doesn't involve any of these methods. Some fantastic images to share with your class - I imagine they might find some of these exciting though! You could use these as a basis for discussing risk assessments when planning a trip, looking at risks in road safety, or in learning about other children around the world. You could also look here for more images of children around the world to compare to our homes and classrooms.

Children around the world

 This article to promote a new book 'Where Children Sleep' is a fascinating insight into the lives of children around the world - could prompt some interesting discussion in class.

It reminded me of this article from last year, showing classrooms around the world. Might be fun to provoke some thought in your classroom.