Driffield Church Of England Voluntary Controlled Infant School

Yesterday, the children in Hedgehogs and Badgers enjoyed a special day learning all about how Christians celebrate Christmas all around the world. This was a whole school event, with the different age groups learning about different countries and their traditions. In Early Years, we learnt all about how Christmas is celebrated in Kenya. The children learnt that the food the people eat at Christmas time is very different from our traditional Christmas dinner. In Kenya, they often have a barbeque on Christmas day. Another favourite is goat stew, rice and chapati breads. We decided against making goat stew at school and instead the children tasted rice with a tomato sauce and chapatis on the side. This went down really well, with many of the children asking for a second helping. Then the children looked at images of Kenyan Christmas decorations. Most of these are made at home from paper or card. The children made their own paper decorations, including paper baubles and paper chains, which we have used to decorate the classrooms. The children also learnt some traditional African dancing. They made feathered headdresses and pasta necklaces and then dressed up in brightly coloured material to perform some African dancing. It was a brilliant day, which was lots of fun and we learnt so many facts about how Christmas was celebrated in Kenya. 

This morning, we had a special whole school worship. Each class or year group shared what they had been doing with the rest of the school and compared how Christmas was celebrated in different countries. 

We are looking forward to sharing our nativity with you next Thursday. If anyone still has clothes to send into school for the nativity, please do so on Monday at the latest as we have a dress rehearsal for the rest of the school on Tuesday. You should have received a letter about the nativity performance on Thursday, but as a reminder, the performance for you to watch is at 2pm on Thursday 12th December in the school hall. This performance will be busy and therefore we cannot guarantee a seat for every member of the audience. If you need to bring along babies or pre-school children, please be considerate of others and if they become upset and start crying, please be prepared to take them out of the hall. There will be an opportunity for you to order photographs of your child as part of a group in their nativity costume. We can only accept cash for these orders, so please bring along some money if you think you will be interested. 

We have many special events planned for next week, including some surprises. Please make sure your child has a restful weekend and lots of sleep in preparation for what promises to be an exciting and memorable week next week.

Have a lovely weekend, despite the weather forecast!

Mrs Dean & Miss Wain