Finding out about Shabbat

Sometimes it's called The Sabbath. Watch this clip and find out more about Shabbat, a very important day for most Jewish people.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucEIPOxR-bs

Talk to someone you live with about what you have discovered.

I wonder if you remember eating Challah in Owls class a few months ago? Do you remember how it tasted?

I wonder if you have a favourite day of the week? Why is that day your favourite one?

I wonder if most Jewish people feel close to God when they celebrate Shabbat?

I wonder if you ever feel close to God, or do you have one person you feel especially close to?

Finding out about The Torah

Take a look at this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0bGnFnm-4c  you probably won't want to watch it all! The really interesting part starts at 1:57 and you'll get to see this very special book and find out what it's made from, why you don't touch the words with your hands, what the last word of the Torah is and how it is stored.

Enjoy watching this clip and make sure you share some of the things you find out with someone else you live with.

I wonder what is the most interesting thing you found out about the Torah?

I wonder if you have a favourite, special book which you like to read?

More about Passover - the Seder meal.

In this clip you will go into a Jewish home and find out a little bit about the special foods Jewish people eat as they celebrate the festival of Passover.

https://www.truetube.co.uk/film/charlie-and-blue-celebrate-passover

Can you talk with someone you live with about what you saw, perhaps you'd like to think about these questions:

I wonder if Jewish people enjoy the taste of the foods on the seder plate?

I wonder if I can think of any special foods we eat in our family?

I wonder why Jewish people celebrate the story of Passover with a meal?

I wonder which important times our family celebrate with a meal?

Special Stories- Old Testament, incl. Passover

For many Jewish people, Moses is a very important person and there are lots of stories about him in the Jewish people's holy book, The Torah.

Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdSQT7DS1lI to find out more about Moses and hear about the Passover story which Jewish people celebrate every year.

Can you answer some of these questions?

I wonder if you can talk to other people in your house about what you saw?

I wonder what kind of person you think Moses was?

I wonder how the Israelites felt when they crossed The Red Sea to freedom?

I wonder how Pharoah felt about losing his slaves?

I wonder why most Jewish people today still remember this story and celebrate it?

Jesus chooses his Disciples (12 special friends)

Jesus chose 12 special friends who he asked to follow him while he travelled around talking to people. He told them about what God was like and how they should live to be closer to Him.

Jesus' special friends were called his Disciples, or the Apostles. We thought Jesus' special friends must have thought he was really special and amazing.

Christians believe Jesus was a human and God at the same time.

We talked about the qualities we would like to have in a friend we chose:

"being kind"

"to be helpful, if we need some help to do something difficult"

"buying presents"

"sharing"

"a good listener"

Perhaps Jesus chose his special friends for some of these reasons.

Then we watched these clips and listened to the Fishers of Men song too:

Jesus teaches about love

Who can we show love to? How can we love people? Jesus told people that we should love everyone, even people who are difficult to love. 

"I love my friends"

"I love my dad"

"I love my sister"

"We can buy presents"

"We can be kind if they are sad"

"We can give them a hug"

"I kiss my dad"

"I hug my nanny"

The Wise Man and the Foolish Man

Today we heard the story of the wise man and the foolish man. Jesus told this story to explain the importance of building your "house" on something solid, something you can depend on. We talked about what that could be for us...most of us thought about our families and the people who love and care for us.

Then Mrs.Taylor reminded us about the bear and hare from last week. Christians believe that the solid and dependable thing to rely on is God and that, just like the bear, God will carry them and care for them.

We learnt this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAjEjxX-DhA and we sang it and did all the actions too!

What Jesus taught about praying.

We thought about the special people we talk to when we have important things to tell.

"my dad"

"my friend Phoebe"

"my Godmother"

"my granny and grandad"

Then Mrs.Taylor told us about how Christians believe they need to talk to God often. Christians might pray to say "thank you", "Sorry" or to ask for something special. Christians believe God can carry them when they are sad or in trouble. Mrs. Taylor showed us a bear and hare...the bear is carrying the hare, this is a bit like the way God cares for His people.  Jesus told the people who followed Him to pray to God, it was something Jesus said was very important.

Then we watched this video, a song all about how big Christians think God is:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAjUa4C_HLE

Some of us joined in and did the actions too, it was fun!

Special Stories - (Jesus)

This is the first week of our new topic in RE. We are going to find out more about the person of Jesus and some of the important stories he told. We'll be thinking about why these stories are still important to Christians today.

This week we heard a story about God and how Christians believe there is only one God in three parts: God the Creator and Father, God the Son who is also called Jesus, The Good Shepherd and Immanuel which means "God with Us". Finally there is God the Holy Spirit, sometimes seen as a dove.

After we heard the story, we talked about it for a while:

"I like the candle God best" (God the Father/Creator)

"I like it when Jesus was a baby. When he was grown up he died."

"All of the story is important."

"I liked it when you told us about God the Father, then Jesus and then the bird (dove=holy spirit). It was nice."

After the story and some discussion, we coloured in some leaves with three parts and we stuck the three different parts of God onto them. Mrs. Taylor cut them out for us.

Tasting Hanukkah!

Today we talked about the story from last week. We remembered lots. Then Mrs.Taylor

lit the candles in the hanukkiah, she used the shamash, the helper candle, to light all of the others.

We watched this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsXQfCeMHs8 which tells the story of the miracle of the oil which happened a very long time ago. We also tasted Hanukkah. Jewish people eat lots of food cooked using oil during the eight days of Hanukkah, so we tasted doughnuts.

Hanukkah-the miracle of the oil

Today we heard a story about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. We looked at a special candlestick which holds 9 candles. The candle in the middle is the helper candle, it is called the shamash. Jewish people light the shamash and one more candle on each night of Hanukkah until all 9 are lit on the last night.

Mrs. Taylor told us a story called Sammy spider's first Hanukkah. Then we talked about special festivals we celebrate in our house. Christmas is coming, so we thought about that.

"I'm getting a Christmas tree tonight."

"We eat Christmas pudding at Christmas."

"I have sweets and biscuits at Christmas."

"We play games together."

The Jewish day of rest, Shabbat.

We watched a clip about Shabbat, the day of rest for Jewish people. Then we were able to try Challah, special bread that is eaten on every Shabbat. We also lit candles and drank squash from pretty cups, like the Kiddush cups Jewish people drink from.

We also talked about our own lives, times when we have special food and drink.

"when my daddy cooks roast beef"

"at the weekend we have croissants and rice pudding"

"on holiday in France I ate bread like that"

National Interfaith Week

Today we heard a story from Hinduism and we were able to work with the story afterwards too.

Special Times- Hanukkah

We are exploring special times for Jewish people and this week we began by thinking about the day of rest, Shabbat. We heard the Biblical story of creation, and thought about why it is important to rest.

"to get more energy"

"because we sleep to feel better"

"to make me happy"

We also remembered where Jewish people go to worship G-d.

"in a synagogue"

"it's like a church for them"

Completing our topic.

This half term we have been thinking about why we are special and unique and also learning some of the stories Christians know about Jesus and why they believe He is special and unique. This week we revisited some of the stories we have heard. We were able to work with the stories again, this helps us to remember them.

This week we took a look at some pictures of churches, where many Christian people go to worship God, and synagogues, where many Jewish people go to worship God.

We made our bodies into shapes to match the symbols we have learned this term:

A Happy Human - Humanism

A Cross - Christianity

A Star of David - Judaism

We looked at the crosses and talked about why Christians use the cross as a symbol of what is most important to them. We chose things we could use as a symbol of what is important to us;

"my favourite story book"

"my teddy"

"my mum"

Then Mrs. Taylor showed us The Bible, it is a very important book for Christians and it has lots of stories, songs, poems and letters inside. Mrs. Taylor read us a story from The Bible, a story about Jesus and his 12 special friends, called The Storm on the Lake.

Special Me- The Good Shepherd

We heard the story of The Good Shepherd today. Jesus said he was The Good Shepherd, he knows all of his sheep by name and watches over every one of them, no matter where they go.

We thought about how the sheep would feel to be looked after by such a good shepherd:

"safe"

"frightened sometimes if they can't see him"

"happy, because he looks after them"

"scared if the wolf comes"

After Mrs. Taylor had told us the story, we were able to work with it on our own.

Special Me - The Happy Human

Today we looked at the Happy Human symbol. Humanists believe that humans are at the centre of everything and that the things we do to help others and look after the world around us are very important.

We tried to make our bodies match the Happy Human:

We talked about how we can be helpful and kind. What can we do to help other people?

"I got the honey out for breakfast."

"buy them (other people) flowers to cheer them up"

"I cuddle mummy and she cuddles me."

"buy a present"

"I help tidy my brother's bedroom."

"tidy up at school"

Special Me- Who Are we?

We have been thinking about our special qualities. In which ways are we different from other people? What makes us unique? We created a class tree with leaves made from our finger prints. Each finger print is unique and special to each one of us.

Why are humans important, special and precious? -Humanism

We have been finding out about what Humanists believe. We have discovered that Humanists think humans are very special because we can ask questions and use the answers to change the world.

We thought of some questions we wanted answers to...

Haydn: Why are robots silver?

Shylah: What do monkeys do?

Adam: How do you chop a tree down?

Albie: How can I go faster?

Ella: What does animals do?

Harry N: Are toys alive?

Jemima: What do scientists do?

Florence: What do butterflies eat?

We also had a visit from Liz, she is a Humanist and she lives in Taunton. She told us that Humanists believe that people are at the centre of everything and that people should always be learning new things and try to do good things for others and for the world while they are alive. Liz doesn't believe there is a god and that this life is all that we have.

We thought about how important it is to be helpful, because we can make a difference to the world by helping other people.

The Golden Rule

We began exploring The Golden Rule this week. It's about treating other people in the same way we would like to be treated. We played some games where we had to share and make sure everyone was included if they wanted to be.

The church building.

We recalled our lesson from a few weeks ago. We could remember quite a lot! We thought about some of the important things we can find inside a church building: a cross, a font, a cup to hold wine, candles and love from God. And we can also find people who are there to worship God, they are called Christians and sometimes they are called "the church".

We had a go at making our own church buildings and putting some of the most important things inside them. 

This one has a font, pews, a tower with a weather vane and a stained glass window.

This one has a tower and an altar and pews inside.

In the church we made outside, we used this as a font.

and we made a cross too...

Some of us chose to draw church buildings instead of making them from Lego or other materials.

A special place - baptism

When someone becomes part of the Christian church family they are welcomed with a baptism. We watched a baby being baptised and then we watched an adult baptism. We noticed what was the same and what was different. We noticed items used in baptisms; always water, but also sometimes candles, oil, a font, prayers and the sign of the cross. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8Bco9QN8U  from 1:55 to 3:27 only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Vz46eD3hI  from 2:25 to 3:10 only

A special place for Jewish people- synagogue

We discovered that the place people go to worship God if they are Jewish is called a synagogue. We had a "virtual" tour of a synagogue and then we looked at some of the important artefacts which can be found there. 

The Torah (Holy text)

The Yad (pointer)

Kippah (skull cap)

Tzitzit vest (prayer tassels)

A special place for Christians - Church

Today we began to explore buildings which are special for Christians. These buildings are called churches and Christians often go to churches to pray, sing together, to celebrate important festivals and events in their lives and to worship God.

We watched this clip which shows a visit to a church:

http://request.org.uk/restart/2015/01/12/tour-of-a-church/

We began to learn some of the special words for the important things inside a church building including; font, altar, cross, pews, pulpit and lectern.

http://request.org.uk/restart/2014/12/30/inside-a-church/

This term we are exploring "Special Places". The first thing we did was to find out about Mrs.Taylor's favourite place...we had lots of picture clues to help us work our where it was.

Then we shared our special places with our learning partners and we explained what makes them special to us. Our special places include:

my bed

snuggled up on the sofa

my mummy's bedroom

going to eat out at a restaurant

the park

at my nannie's house

Hidden Treasure?

People often wondered who Jesus was. Was he different on the inside to how he seemed on the outside? Christians believe he was "Immanuel", God with us. So Christians believe Jesus looked like a human, but he was God on the inside.

We read the book "Red" by Michael Hall all about a crayon who isn't the same on the inside as on the outside.

We thought about ourselves, are there things we sometimes hide about who we are? We made a class list of the things we want people to know about us:

funny, kind, sharer, good friend, happy, peaceful, good at playing...

More stories Jesus told...

This week we heard about two men who built houses. One built his house on rock and the other built his on sand. When a storm came, the house built on rock was safe, but the one built on the sand fell down. Christians believe God is like the rock, keeping them safe, even when life gets "stormy". 

Mrs.Taylor showed us how quickly the house on the sand might fall down once it began to get wet. The house on the rock stayed standing though.

Continuing to hear stories Jesus told

This week we heard the parable of The Lost Sheep. Christians believe Jesus used this story to explain how important every single person is to God. We made our own lost sheep using paper plates, paint, glue, cotton wool balls and googly eyes!

Stories Jesus Told

We discovered that most of the Bible stories about Jesus talk about what happened to him when he was an adult. Jesus also told stories, called parables.  We heard the parable of The Great Pearl and afterwards, we worked with the story.

This term we will be asking the question: Why is Jesus important to Christians? This week we will be talking about how Christians believe Jesus was a baby and God all at once!

Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light

Today we heard the story of Hanukkah and found out about how Jewish people celebrate this festival. We heard about the "miracle of the oil" and how Jews still remember this story by lighting candles in a special candlestick called a Hanukkiah menorah. The candlestick has 9 candles; one for each day of the 8 day festival and one "helper" which lights all the others.

This half term we are continuing to explore the question "Who are we?".

We will be learning about how some people use lights during important celebrations. We are going to take a closer look at the festivals of Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas.