On Thursday 12th October, Nursery celebrated their first Harvest Festival. We have been learning about religious celebrations in Autumn time, as part of our on going expedition “What do stories tell us about Autumn?” We recently made “Gruffalo Crumble” using autumnal ingredients which have been harvested and began our explorations from there. The Children watched a short programme explaining what Harvest Festival is, during their “Thoughtful Thursday” Crew. Nursery parents very kindly donated food to help us celebrate Harvest Festival and we looked at the different kinds of foods that grow in fields and are made from harvested ingredients.

Nursery then read a couple of pages from a non fiction text titled “Festivals through the year – Autumn” by Anita Ganari. This text told us that traditionally Christian’s donated food to decorate the church and feed people who didn’t have enough food. We also found out that there is an ancient farmers tradition, where people would make Corn Dollies with the last pieces of corn from the Harvest. These dollies would be hung in barns and farmers kitchens until the end of the winter and then replanted into the fields the following season as seeds to make more corn and bring good luck. Nursery had a go at making their own corn dollies.

Finally as our celebrations drew to a close, we talked about how we would donate all of the food we had collected to the local food bank in Askern, to help local families within our community. We are very proud of our efforts and grateful for the huge generosity of our families – Thank you for helping us to make this possible. Just look how much food we “harvested” to donate!