Year 2 [Unit 2/e] 5 hours

This unit is about: the work of religious leaders within the community

• Who are the important people in the lives of the class?
• Who are the important people in the lives of religious people/groups?
• Why is it necessary to have leaders of religious communities?

Ask the children ‘who is important to you and why?’

We have made our own big book about church leaders. Contact us to arrange a loan.
Make a class big book about the work of church leaders - click here for suggested text and find or draw pictures to illustrate the book.

If booking a visit from a church leader then please bear in mind that not all of them are used to talking to young children. Contact us if you need help.

Jesus is the most important person to Christians. Read stories about his life from ‘The Lion Storyteller Bible’ or ‘The Gentle Carpenter’.
Suggested Activity: Read the story of Jesus choosing his disciples (page 70 of the Storyteller Bible). Draw a picture of Jesus walking away. Imagine you are one of the fishermen. What are you going to do now? Write a sentence about it.

The new ‘Watch’ series on Christianity, produced by the BBC, includes a big book called ‘Followers’ and an accompanying episode on the video. This particular episode was filmed locally in Bushey and shows children taking their harvest gifts to Watford New Hope Trust.

Watch the ‘Jesus’ episode on the BBC’s ‘Pathways of Belief’ video.

Year 2 [Unit 2/f] 5 hours

This unit is about: the ultimate questions raised by the natural world

• What are easy questions? Why are some answers difficult?
• Who is God?
• Why am I here?
• What is good, what is bad?
• Is death the end?

Introduction

Some questions do not have easy answers. Look at and adapt the questionnaire compiled for Year 5 use.

1 Who made the world?

Most religions have creation stories. The Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths share the same belief in one God who created and sustains everything in our world.

The Christian and Hebrew Bibles describe the creation of the world from nothing. Many Christians believe that God created the ‘big bang’; he created something out of nothing over a set period of time  (‘days’ not necessarily representing 24 hours).

We have big books available for loan on creation.

Read ‘In the Beginning’ big book, (given to Infant Schools in 2004).

Watch the ‘Creation’ episode (15 minutes) from BBC’s ‘Pathways of Belief’ video. The Bible describes God as caring, loving, wise, powerful, fair, holy. Listen to how the children in the video try to describe God.

Activity: Look at various natural objects under a microscope or with a magnifying glass.

Imagine the world without any colour.

Look at and draw flowers and leaves much larger than life.

2 Why am I here?

The Christian and Hebrew Bibles describe how God made humans and that each person is special to God. The Bible describes how people have been made by God for a purpose - to be his friends, to love him, to love one another and to care for his world.

Psalm 139 says that God knows each one of us. Jesus said that God knows how many hairs there are on your head and in Isaiah it says that our names are written on the palm of God’s hand.

The book ‘You are Very Special’ by Su Box (ISBN 0 7549 4269 5 Lion Publishing £4.99) opens a young child’s eyes to their value as an individual. There is a mirror in the back of the book and it is available through our loan service.

Discuss some amazing facts about our bodies:

Each one of us has unique fingerprints and DNA.

Our bodies are growing and changing all the time.

There are 650 muscles in our bodies - we use 17 to smile, 43 to frown and over 200 to walk.

Our hearts have been beating since before we were born - pumping blood around the 100,000 km of blood vessels in our body (equal to travelling twice around the world).

Ask the children to sit in silence listening to their own breathing. If they put their hands on the centre if their chests they can count their heartbeats (running on the spot first will make this easier).

Ask the children to bring in baby photographs. How have they changed?

Read a child’s adaptation of Psalm 139 and talk about the words.

Activity: Ask the children to look carefully at one another and describe similarities and differences. Draw or paint self portraits.

3 Who is God?

The Bible describes God as a loving father. In Isaiah chapter 49 verse 15 God says

‘I will not forget you. I have written your name on the palm of my hand’. How do these words make the children feel?

Read the story of the prodigal son, which illustrates the loving father who forgives his son. Talk about how the people in the story. How do they feel?

Look at the picture of a father and child called ‘Tell Me!’ by Andràs Simon, (click here to see a copy of the picture). Talk about what the father and child are doing and the fact that the picture is drawn as one continuous line. What might they be talking about?

Explain that Christians enjoy talking to God and that many have a set ‘quiet time’ for reading the Bible and talking to God every day. Christians believe God can communicate with then through the words they read in the Bible. The Bible says that God always hears our prayers but answers them in different ways - yes, no or not yet.

Ask the children for ideas of what people might talk to God about.

Activity: Imagine and then design a special quiet place. What might you put there?

4 Where do we go when we die?

Explain that all living things are changing every day (and will eventually die one day).

Ask the children to pinch the back of their hands and watch their skin as they let it go. Explain (and show if possible) that older skin is different - it takes longer to go back into place. Think about other changes that occur as someone approaches old age. Look at life cycles and the changing seasons.

See our ‘Sunflowers’ assembly.

Think about what the Bible says about life going on after death. Remind pupils of the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus at the first Easter and the promises Jesus made about life in heaven after death.

Watch the end of the BBC’s Pathways to Belief ‘Easter’ episode which tells the story of the ‘Dragonflies and the Waterbugs’. (also available in a booklet 0 264 66904 5 for about £1.50).

Christians believe that the spirit of a dead person (“the invisible part inside them”) has left their body and gone somewhere else. They believe their old body isn’t needed anymore.

At a Christian funeral the people are sad because they will miss the person who has died. But they also think about all the good memories they have of that person and they say thank you to God for their life. Flowers are often used as a symbol and as a reminder of their new life in heaven.

Explore what the Bible says about heaven in Revelation Chapter 21- that it is a wonderful place where there will be no more tears, no more pain and that God will be there. Poems about heaven are in Cracking RE Autumn 1999 page 15.

Read the Good-bye Boat by Mary Joslin (given to Infant schools in our area Easter 2001) 0 7459 3693 8 £4.99. Use the imagery of a boat sailing over the horizon disappearing from our view but appearing to someone else in a far off distant land. We are sad but the people they go to meet are very pleased to see them.

Think about the positive ways that we can remember others.

Activity: Imagine what the city of heaven would be like (as described in Revelation Chapter 21). Make a 3D model or collage of the city using gold, silver and brightly coloured materials.