Diwali: Festival of lights and SHAPES 😀

 

Ball-shaped ladoos, dimond-shaped shakarpali, circular chakali and anarasa……….. and the list goes on! These mouthwatering food items remind us of Diwali or Deepavali. Diwali (line of lights), as the name suggests is a festival of lights. And yet it will not be wrong to call it a festival of SHAPES. The food, the lantern (Aakash Kandil), the rangoli (a colourful pattern created on the floor in front of the door), everything is a full of different shapes and geometry. Children get very enthusiastic about preparing the lantern and drawing the rangoli at home. Their participation in these activities means children learn all about shapes, arrays and geometry even without realizing it. They will not resist simple information about shapes particularly if it is accompanied with Diwali delicacies 👼.

 

Diwali celebrations teache us so many things about symmetry, and shapes. For instance, look at this lantern made up of squares, triangles and rectangles.

Or the one below where the upper and lower parts are circles. The body is made up of many squares that are folded to form triangles.

 

Traditional Maharashtrian rangoli is made by joining the dots. Here, one has to first create an array of dots and then create the pattern. Something like this…….

 

As can be seen, even this simple pattern shows many shapes.

Let’s celebrate this Diwali with wonderful bright lights and learn about shapes with this simple Diwali Activity.

 

Diwali Activity: Small Lantern

Take a rectangle card stock/bond paper and form a cylinder by joining the narrow sides

Take a square craft paper and fold it into two.

Then cut out strips from the folded side and leave the upper portion joined as shown in the picture.

Now, paste this striped craft paper on the cylinder as shown.

Lastly, cut out strips from another square craft paper and form the lower portion of the lantern.

 

Happy Diwali to all of you 😀 🎉🎇🎇🎆🎆