I expect you have all been wondering whether or not the carpet we discovered in the magic room last week was actually magic after all? Well…of course it was! Thankfully, everyone remembered to bring their imaginations to Nursery this week, so we were able to set off on our magical flying carpet adventure!
First, we read the story of My Granny Went to Market by Stella Blackstone and Christopher Corr. You can revisit the story in the video below. The text is clearly visible so you might like to turn the sound off and read the story yourself. Please note, the story finishes at 2.57 and there is some advertising after this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P61tyqTntpI
At the start of the story, Granny buys a magic carpet from a man in a market in Istanbul. So, we decided to head off to Istanbul to see if we find out where she bought the carpet.
We used Google Earth to fly from Nursery to the market in Istanbul. The children were amazed by the visual sensation of flying over the globe and it was delightful to see their reactions!
If you would like to try this again at home, open up Google Earth and enter St. Matthews CE Primary School, Cottenham Park Road, London in the search bar.
You will ‘fly’ into school where you should be able to spot the Nursery garden (we think the circle is the table in the mud kitchen) and the red roof of the classroom!
We knew we needed to go to a market in Istanbul and a quick Google search soon informed us that The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. So, we entered ‘Beyazıt, Grand Bazaar, Kalpakçılar Caddesi, Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey’ into the search bar – if you just start writing ‘grand bazaar’, it should appear in the drop down! Then, we fastened our seatbelts, buckled up our helmets and held on tight as we flew up, up and away on our magic carpet all the way to Istanbul!
When we came down to land, we were amazed to discover that the roof of the Grand Bazaar was also red – just like the Nursery roof! But this time, it looked like “pop, pop” (aka bubble wrap).
Next, we lifted up the little man symbol and dropped him onto the roof of the market. This took us straight inside and we were able to have a look around! We spotted lots of magic carpets and carpet sellers along with lots of other beautiful things to buy!
We also had a look at another famous building in Istanbul: The Blue Mosque. We found out that a Mosque is where Muslim people go to pray. And we also found out that many of the people who live in Istanbul are Muslim and their religion is called Islam.
https://www.departures.com/travel/istanbul-blue-mosque-trip
We learnt about a special time called Ramadan when Muslim grown-ups fast during daylight hours (they don’t eat or drink) and they do good deeds such as giving money to charity. This year, Ramadan started on 13th April and will finish on 12th May with a celebration called Eid al-Fitr. We also looked at two very special small carpets – which looked very much like the magic carpets we had seen in the Grand Bazaar! However, these are not flying carpets – they are actually prayer mats. And they are traditionally used by many Muslims to make sure the place where they are praying is clean.
While using our good looking eyes, we spotted something in the middle of the dark blue carpet. Can you remember what is was? That’s right – a compass! A compass helps us to find our way, by showing us which way is North, South, East and West. This is very important for Muslims who want to point the top of their prayer mat towards a special place called Mecca. It might also be handy for us to have a compass on our next magic carpet ride!
Our play in the classroom this week was very much inspired by the buildings we had seen in Istanbul…we built towers, cities with spires, bridges and, of course, homes for dinosaurs!
We also used the technique of wax resist printing to create our very own mini magic carpets, inspired by those we saw in the Grand Bazaar. We used a stencil to draw shapes with a white crayon onto a piece of white card. At first, the shapes appeared to be invisible and it wasn’t until we rolled the ink onto the card, that the magical shapes were revealed!
Please note, not all of the children have created a magic carpet yet as we had a very busy week! We will continue with this lovely activity next week and everyone will get a chance to make one. We were especially busy because we started our mix-up sessions and we are very proud of the Nursery children for being so brave, confident and welcoming towards to the Reception children. Well done Nursery!
Have a lovely long weekend and see you all on Tuesday!