In RE today – the Toucans learnt about the word generosity and what it means and how we show it. They listened to the story of the Golden Statue. The story was about the generosity of a poor servant girl who gave her only coin to a Buddhist monk in order to make a statue of the Buddha. Toucans discussed how they can be generous and how difficult it would be to give up a treasured possession for the good of others. We then put our talents to use making lotus flowers which are a symbol of purity. Stay tuned to see pictures of our efforts.

‘What is Eid?’ is the question we started with. There was a short discussion about what the children thought. Most knew it was a Muslim Religious Celebration. We learned that Eid was a celebration that marked the end of Ramadan which is a time of fasting. To explain it better we watched a video about a young boy who explained how it was celebrated in his home.

Eid means Feast or festival in Arabic.

Some of the children talked about how they celebrated Eid in their homes. They dressed up, decorated the house and had special food. The children recognised that this was similar to how they celebrated different holidays through the year.

The children wanted to know if Ramadan meant they couldn’t eat anything at all if they were fasting. We discussed that Ramadan meant fasting between sun up and sun down. Children and elderly relatives weren’t expected to fast either. Muslim families are up early before the sunrises to eat a big breakfast. Then they don’t eat again until the sun has set.

To begin with we watched a power point story called ‘The Good Samaritan’. The children were horrified to see a poor man treated so badly by others. We discussed the children’s feelings about how the man was treated.
Then we brainstormed what we thought a Good Samaritan would or should do.

This is what the children said.