On Tuesday 26^th January 2016 the whole of year 5 had 2 visitors come and teach us about Buddhism. We learnt about a singing bowl where you had to hit the bowl with a stick and circle it clockwise making sure your fingers don’t touch the edge of the bowl (It gives you a little bit of a massage). After we’d learnt about the singing bowl and Miss Marks, Miss Tinsley and a few of year 5 had a go. (Miss Marks was the best!). Kavita, the lady who taught us about Buddhism, showed us how to meditate. To meditate you have to join your index finger and thumb together, place them on your knees with your eyes closed.

After break we took of our shoes and went back into the hall, when we were in there Sam (who was the Buddhist man) told the children who weren’t dressed up to sit around the edge of the hall. Meanwhile Kavita was doing Buddhist face paint/hand paint for the children that wanted it which included sunrise for the boys and flowers for the girls. Before lunch Sam said that some people say death is good. This made pretty much everyone confused for the whole lunch. Roughly before the bell went Sam taught us a Buddhist dance including the head dance, the god dance and a few other moves, which we had to perform class by class and the best dancers from each class got a prize.

When lunch was over for the second time we took our shoes off and went back into the hall.  Soon after all of year 5 were in the hall Kavita & Sam showed us how Indian children carry buckets of water on their head using a “golden donut” and a lotus flower. One of the last things we did was learnt on how the Buddha became the Buddha with a little help of some volunteers who weren’t dressed up to play one of the characters. Eventually it was time to go home, on our way out Kavita gave us an elephant stamp that was the symbol of good luck in India.  By Marco Maggi and Georgia Lambert