Building understanding

Instructional Texts: Creating a Card

Primary

Communication and language

﻿Today, we are looking at different festivals and celebrations from around the world and different objects and artefacts from them. Next, we're going to make a card to celebrate one of the festivals. For this lesson, you will need: card, writing equipment, glue, glitter, sequins, and paint. Press pause whilst you get your things ready. There are three things you need to consider before starting the activity. You will need a quiet environment with minimal distractions. For example, you might need to turn the telly off. Find a place that your child is happy to work. This could be on the floor, at a table, or outside. Consider your child's sensory needs. This may mean checking the lighting and other sensory distractions. You know your child best. So if you know results that may work better, please use this. Things don't always go to plan, just be positive and enjoy the session. Now, let's look at all the different objects from the different celebrations and festivals around the world. First, let's have a look at Chinese New Year. During Chinese New Year, friends and family place money into red envelopes and give it to their friends and family. Also, the colour red is a good luck symbol in China. For Chinese New Year as well, they decorate their houses with gold and red decorations like these. Adults, can you encourage your children to think of times where they have decorated their house? Diwali is the festival of light. It covers the story of Rama and Sita. During Diwali, people decorate their houses with rangoli patterns, using different colours like these ones here. They also use tealights and different materials to make diyas. Next is Eid. Eid is celebrated at the end of the long month of Ramadan. People join together with family and friends and eat lots of different foods. Eid is also celebrated at the sight of the new moon. They also exchange gifts such as money. Next is Christmas. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ. People decorate their houses with things such as symbols of Jesus, with Christmas trees that they will decorate with tinsel and lights. They also exchange presents and money and sing lots of different carols. Also, they give to each other Christmas cards. Let's have a closer look at a Christmas card. Now that we've explored all of the different ways that people celebrate Christmas, let's have a look at how we can make our own Christmas card. First, we need to fold our card in half. Fold it in half. Adults, you might need to help your child at home to do this. Now, it's in half. Next, we need to fold the cupcake wrappers into different sizes. So I've got one, two, three, four cupcake wrappers. I'm going to fold them into different sizes. So fold them in half. I'm going to make some big and some small. There's one. Fold it in half. And there's two. Fold this one in half and make three. And then one more, four. So I folded the cupcake wrappers into different sizes. Next, we're going to glue the cupcake wrappers to make a tree. Get my glue and my spreader. I'm going to start with the big wrapper, the big wrapper, and spread on my glue. You could use PVA glue like this one or a glue stick if that's what you have at home. And push and press down, and get another one. Spread on the glue. Make sure there's lots on so we can stick it down, and push it down. Let's take this one next and spread on the glue and stick it, and you can see that the shape of the tree is starting to show. One more. Spread on the glue, then stick it on, and there is our tree made out of the wrappers. Let's have a look what's next. Next, we need to draw and cut out a tree trunk shape. So I've already done that for us here. So I've used brown paper for card. Now, I'm going to use the glue again and spread it and stick it on there, and I'm going to use some scissors to trim off the bottom. There we go. Next, what we've just done, we glued the tree trunk onto the bottom of the tree. And then finally, number six, we can decorate the Christmas tree. So here I've got lots of different coloured glitters. I could use a little dot of glue on the Christmas tree and then add glitter to look like balls, and even a few dots here and add some glitter to make it look like a star. Let's try the gold glitter first. Sprinkle it on, a little bit more. Let's try the blue this time, and then give it a shake, and there it is, our Christmas tree Christmas card. Adults, at home, you can then use the question cards that we've used before. What have you made? Who are you going to give it to? And where shall we put it? Will it go on the fridge or on a shelf? To make it easier, you could create one card from one country. For example, just make a Christmas card or just an Eid card. To make it harder, you could begin to write letters inside the Christmas card instead of using symbols. For more ideas, you could find out about the different festivals and celebrations your friends celebrate and make them a card to send to them. You could also explore different crafts. You could make a lantern, make wrapping paper, or any other different festival or celebration ideas. I hope you've enjoyed the lesson today. See you next time.

Instructional Texts: Creating a Card

Instructional Texts: Creating a Card

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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