This year, Lima Primary celebrated Fall Festival with a week long set of activities focusing on the Indian holiday Divali - "A Festival of Lights".    At Lima Primary, the Divali theme was carried out by focusing on good choices over bad choices.  Our Character Counts program was brought to life by our special days:  Monday was Wear something Red for Respect, Tuesday was Funny Feet day for Fairness, Wednesday was Hat Day for Honesty, Thursday was Crazy Clothes for Caring and Friday was our Divali Festival. 

Our festival was planned, sponsored and carried out by the Lima Primary PTA.    Students were able to make sparklers, make sand art projects similar to Rangoli designs, make candles, listen to Indian music and watch traiditional Indian dancing.

In Art class during the month of October, Indian folk art was demonstrated and taught.  First grade students made peacock projects inspired by Indian tapestries and traced their arms and hands to similate the practice of Mehndi where people create henna designs on their hands and feet.  Kindergarten students made Rangoli projects focusing on basic shapes.  In India, homeowners create a "mat" outside their doorway using colored sand or rice powder.  Kindergarten students also made fish rubbings to create patterns based on Madhubani paintings.  To see highlights of our festival, click on the elephant picture above.