Learn how families in the UK celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Diwali, Eid and Chinese New Year by helping five families get ready for their special days.
Reception understanding the world · 1
Reception understanding the world · 1
Reception understanding the world · 1
Reception understanding the world · 1
Reception understanding the world · 1
Reception understanding the world · 1
What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:
Festivals and Celebrations is an interactive game that teaches children aged 4–6 how different families and faiths in the UK celebrate special days, and what is the same and different about them. It matches the Reception (EYFS) goal of knowing some similarities and differences between religious and cultural communities in this country.
Children visit the houses on Celebration Street and help each family celebrate. They light candles on a birthday cake, build a nativity scene, light diyas to guide Rama and Sita home, blow clouds away to find the new moon that starts Eid, and drum a lion dance for Chinese New Year.
Along the way they meet the special places, words and objects of each festival, such as the church, mandir, gurdwara and mosque. Lumi the firefly reads every instruction aloud with captions, so children who cannot read yet can play.
Christians celebrate Christmas, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains celebrate Diwali, and Muslims celebrate Eid. Chinese families, and many others, celebrate Chinese New Year. Lots of families also celebrate birthdays, and some families celebrate more than one festival.
Diwali is the festival of light, when light wins over dark and good wins over bad. Families light little clay lamps called diyas, make colourful rangoli patterns, share sweets and visit the mandir or gurdwara.
Eid al-Fitr begins when people see the thin new moon at the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Because the Islamic calendar follows the moon, Eid comes about 11 days earlier each year, so over time it moves through every season.
It is for children aged 4 to 6 and is pitched at Reception (EYFS Understanding the World). Every line is read aloud and shown as a caption, and children answer by tapping pictures, so no reading is needed.
The game has six chapters, each with an animated introduction, hands-on activities and short picture questions, followed by a 10-question street party quiz. Playing everything takes about 40 minutes, and children can start any chapter from the street.
TapLearnGetting it ready…
Great work on chapter 1! To open the next chapters, ask a grown-up to take a look.
To play this game, ask a grown-up to take a look. There are lots of free games you can play right now too!
Create a free family account and your child can play every chapter of every game for 7 days, with no card needed. Their progress is kept. After that, the free plan is free for ever, and membership is £6.99 a month if you'd like to keep every chapter.
That's all the learning time for today. Great work! Flip will be ready to play again tomorrow.