What is Easter?

Watch the video, read the text and complete the sorting activity. Can you design your own Easter egg?

The Crucifixion and Peter's denial

Watch the clip and answer the questions. You do not need to write your answers down. You can discuss them with someone at home.

Q1. Who betrayed Jesus by bringing the soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane?

Q2. Who did Jesus predict would deny being his friend?

Q3. How many times did the friend deny knowing Jesus?

Q4. What sound did you hear in the clip after Jesus's friend denied knowing him?

 Q5. Jesus was condemned to die on a hill outside of which city beginning with J?

The Last Supper (animation)

Once you have watched the clip, answer the questions below. You do not have to write your answers down. You can discuss them with someone at home.

Q1. What is the name of the special feast beginning with P which was being held to celebrate the people's rescue from slavery by God?

Q2. Which friend did Jesus claim would betray him?

Q3. What food did Jesus break and share with his friends calling it 'my body'?

Q4. What drink did Jesus share with his friends calling it 'my blood'?

Q5. Finish this sentence: Jesus said "My time has come but do not be afraid. Even though I have to die..." 

The Riddle of Palm Sunday

Watch the clip, then answer these questions. You do not have to write your answers down. You can discuss them with someone at home.

Q1. What are Jesus's loyal followers called?

Q2. What branches did the people wave and lay down in front of Jesus?

Q3. Can you name two uses for palm trees?

Q4. What does it mean to 'put out the red carpet' for someone?

Q5. What kind of person would we put the red carpet out for today?

Learning about Christianity and the Easter story with BBC Bitesize

This week, take a look at this BBC Bitesize page about Christianity. Watch the video, read the text and rearrange the puzzle. Look through the Christianity in Pictures section. Take the quiz at the end.

Our first look at what a shrine is

Many Hindu families have a shrine in their home. They usually pray in front of the shrine each day. Hindus use lots of different items in a shrine to help focus their mind whilst they pray. We created our own shrines, thinking about what would help us to focus our minds and remind us of our chosen focus.  Afterwards, we shared our thinking, what we had chosen and why. 

What do Hindus believe about Dharma, Deity and Atman?

This term we are exploring Hinduism, a religion that is at least 5000 years old. We learnt that Hinduism began in India, and now there are Hindus living all over the world.

This is the symbol for Hinduism, it is called Aum (you say "home" without the "h" if you want to make the right sound). We think it looks a bit like the number 30 with a hat on.

We watched this clip: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02n5xj7

Simran and Vraj are British Hindus and they tell us a bit about what many Hindus do and what they believe. After we had watched the clip, we wrote out some questions we would like to ask Simran and Vraj if we met them.

Ramadan and The Night of Power

Read this article. Can you find out what Muslims believe happened on Laylat al Qadr (The Night of Power)? Why do you think this is such an important night for many Muslims?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zpdtsbk/articles/zjc2bdm

This clip shows a young Muslim boy who did something amazing to help him celebrate Ramadan during the Coronavirus lockdown.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leeds-52396107/coronavirus-boy-s-homemade-mosque-for-ramadan-in-lockdown

Talk to someone you live with about what you have read and watched.

I wonder if you had made changes in your family because of the Coronavirus lockdown? 

I wonder why Yahya thought it was so important to have a mosque at home?? 

Learn more about Islam with BBC Bitesize

This week watch the clips on this BBC Bitesize page:   https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zkvgcqt

You may not want to watch all the clips at the same time as there are three to see! Once you've watched them all, have a go at the quiz to see how much you can remember about what you've discovered.

Remember to share your discoveries with someone you live with. Good RE is about good conversations and discovering more about the world around us. 

I wonder what questions you might ask if a Muslim came to visit?

I wonder what's the most interesting thing you've discovered about Islam?

Places of worship- Islam
In this clip you will see a Muslim family worshiping at their local mosque, but you'll also get to see inside a huge mosque in central London and find out a bit about Islam
around the world and see some of the things Muslims do as part of their everyday lives. Watch the clip (it's quite long, so you might want to break it up into shorter sections) and then talk to someone else in your home about what you've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4J6SjgJ4sc

Can you answer some of these questions:

I wonder what the best part of going into a mosque is?

I wonder if is is difficult to learn to pray?

I wonder if the food for the Eid festival is special?

I wonder if I can spot some of the items which lots of Muslims use in the clip:

• prayer mat
• The Holy Qur'an
• Ladies' headscarves (Hijab)

What do Muslims believe about Islam and Iman?

To begin to understand the religion of Islam and why many Muslims do some of the things they do, we need to know about the 5 Pillars of Islam. Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9U8T8x1AhQ and then talk about it with some of the people you live with.

You might like to think about these questions and talk to someone you live with about what you have seen:

I wonder if it is hard to remember to pray 5 times every day?

I wonder what happens if you forget to pray or you don't have time?

I wonder how long it would take to travel to Mecca?

I wonder how it feels to fast from food and water every day during Ramadan*? 

* It is the month of Ramadan now, so there are millions of people fasting while you are doing this activity!

Learning about The 10 Commandments

Last week we were reminded about the story of Moses being given these 10 laws by God and we started to think about them and talk about them together.

This week we were given the task of using poetry, song or drama to represent each one in a way that would help ourselves and other people to remember them. 

Finally we discussed which of the 10 rules we thought were still important and which ones we could leave out or change.

More about Passover

This week we had a chametz hunt. Chametz is the name for any grain based food mixed with leaven including bread, pasta, pastries, cake, breadcrumbs etc. For a month before Passover many Jewish families spend time making sure there is no chametz in the house. They clean, sweep and vac to make sure all the surfaces and cupboards are chametz free. Mrs. Taylor hid pasta and pieces of bread around the classroom and we had to find them all.

Then we learnt a song called "Dayenu", it is sung during the Passover Seder meal as a song of praise and thanks to G-d for all the things he has given to the Jewish people: freedom from slavery in Egypt, the Torah and the creation and Shabbat, the day of rest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p1pabOX3fc  we even made up some actions to go along with the song.

Finally we worked in pairs to think about all the things we are thankful for and we shared some of them with the rest of the class:

"friends care for me"

"me- I'm healthy and strong"

"food and drink helps me live"

"clean air/oxygen helps me breathe"

"clothes keep us warm and protect us from the weather"

"bathroom and toilet for staying clean"

"emergency services keep us safe"

"school because not everybody gets an education"

Continuing to find out about Passover

We watched several interesting video clips about the origins of the Passover festival and how and why Jewish people still celebrate Passover today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nusOFSAzNYQ  tells the story of the first Passover the the escape from Egypt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzsuL9U1a_k  explains what Passover Seder meals look like and what's on a Seder plate. Only watch until 2:37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn3FNA4Ar40  a song about the four questions the youngest person at the Seder meal asks. It's sung in Hebrew.

The story of Passover and the Seder plate

We watched this video to remind us of the story of Moses and the Israelites escaping from Egypt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF84Wx0dGTg

After that we created a Seder plate for ourselves. Whilst we did this we thought about the sorts of foods we might choose to place on our own plate to remind us of important moments or people in our lives. The photograph below shows what our class plate might look like.

Spring 2020

What do Jewish people believe about G-d, the Torah and covenant (with links to Passover).

This is the first week of our new unit learning about Judaism and what it means to be a Jewish person. We thought about what we already know and then did some research using the iPads to explore the video bank from The Jewish Museum, London. 

 https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/?sfid=492&_sft_jm_asset_type=video

Here's a photo of everything we could remember about Judaism and how Jewish people live from our previous learning in Buzzards and Owls.

Who, what and why? - Incarnation

This week we worked in small groups to answer the questions:

Who is Jesus?

What did Jesus do?

Why did Jesus come to Earth?

We used part of Paul's letter to the Philippians ( 2: 5-11) to help us answer these questions.https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A+5-11&version=ERV

You can see our results in the photograph below.

Non-Religious Naming Ceremonies

After our exploration of Infant and Believers baptism a couple of weeks ago, this week we found out more about how many Humanists and others who don't believe in God still choose to hold a ceremony to welcome and name babies. We watched this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIPzuBeIgDg

We talked about the similarities and the differences between the naming ceremony and an infant baptism:

"there's a baby and parents"

"their family and friends come to celebrate"

"the baby has adults making promises for her"

"everyone is celebrating"

"there's no mention of God"

"they don't light a candle or use oil"

"there's no water"

"they have cake and a party!"

"the baby gets presents"

"they used the leaves for wishes"

We created our own wishing leaves for a baby. We thought about the kinds of things which would be useful to wish for; our list was quite long.

National Interfaith Week

We created artwork based on the idea of "Respect for All". We don't need to believe the same things as others to show them respect. There are lots of different worldviews including many world religions and it's important to respect everyone's right to choose to believe whatever they wish.

Taking a look at Christian baptism

We have been exploring what it means to be baptised as a Christian, why it is important to many Christians and what that might look like.

Here are two clips we watched to help us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0kzf9fHcKY  

from 00:27 until the end of Question 2

and

http://request.org.uk/life/rites-of-passage/baptism/ 

from the start until the part about confirmation (we didn't watch that bit!)

We explored the similarities and differences between Believers baptism and Infant baptism. We thought about what happens in these baptisms, which are the most important parts of the service and what it means to many Christians and their families. Some of us were able to share stories of our own baptisms or the baptisms of friends and family members.

Making Connections

We spent this week trying to make links using some of important words, stories, holy text and people we've learn about this half term. Using the word banks we tried to link as many of the words together as we could and then explain why.

We also had some pictures to look at. These were also linked in some way and we had to work in small groups to work out the connections.

The Storm on the lake

We heard the story of the storm on the lake, where, many Christians believe, Jesus made the wind and waves obey him. After we had talked about the story and wondered how the disciples felt about Jesus' powers we worked in small groups to answer some more questions together.

A continuation of last week's lesson

A three tiered Holy Trinity cake.

"God the Father is sitting on a cloud."

"A cloud for God the Father, a cross for God the

Son, Jesus and a dove for God the Holy Spirit. 

The circle around them all shows they are three

inside one."

Not quite finished...God the Son, a crown of 

thorns and God the Holy Spirit is a dove.

What do Christians believe about God and Incarnation?

The Holy Trinity

This week we began the lesson by listening to this piece of music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reAlJKv7ptU and we thought about the links between this song and the work we have been doing over the past couple of weeks. The song talks about God's love as a lighthouse. We thought this was similar to the Bible verse we had studied which talked about God's word as a lamp and a light.

After that we began to explore the Christian idea of the Holy Trinity and how there are three different expressions of the one God; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We found this idea helpful:

We looked at art works which depict the Trinity and then we created some of our own...

The Holy trinity cake

The Holy Trinity fidget spinner

Several ideas, drawing inspiration from some of

the artworks we had studied earlier in the lesson.

A continuation of last week's lesson...

Here are some more of the lamps and torches we designed. Mrs. Griffiths is going to display them in our classroom.

"My daddy is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

"My mind is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

"My dog is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

and

"My big brother is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

What do Christians believe about God & Incarnation? 

We have begun to investigate why The Bible is such an important text for Christians. First, we talked about what we think The Bible is. Here are our thoughts:

Next we discussed the idea of being lost or alone. We thought about what might help us to find our way:

In The Bible there is a verse which says:

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path."

We thought about how this verse might be a help to Christians today. We discussed how Christians might feel about God who, they believe, guides them and lights their way. Then we thought about what or who helps and guides our lives. We began to create some artwork which we hope to display in the classroom when it is completed.

Some of the things that help to light our paths include:

"My family and friends"

"My snake and tarantula"

"My mum"

"My pony Rascal"

Liz, Our Humanist Visitor

Liz came to visit our class. She brought lots of things to show us and she talked to us about the important people in her life. Liz brought a photo of Beyruz, he came from Iran to live with Liz's family when he was 4 years old. Liz explained how important families are to Humanists who believe that this life is all we have and so we should make the very most of it.

The Golden Rule

We learned about The Golden Rule, an idea which we find evidence of in all the religions and worldviews we study. We thought about how we could use The Golden Rule in every day situations.

NATRE Spirited Poetry Competition

Our poem title is "Where is God?" We began to think about where atheists, agnostics and believers in God might look for inspiration...we talked about nature and the universe quite a lot. Mrs.Taylor showed us this YouTube clip which really blew our minds! If you think the sun is a huge star, think again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA

Next week we'll continue with our poetry writing. Our poems will be judged and the 10 best ones from Yr.2 to Yr.6 will be sent in to this national competition.

Agape love- A visit from Taunton Street Pastors and Foodbank volunteers 

Adrian and Elaine came to talk to us about the voluntary work they do in our town.

It was interesting to hear how Street Pastors and our local food bank help people in need right here in Taunton.

We were able to ask questions to find out more about how this work links to the Christian belief in Agape love.

The Good Samaritan

We recalled the story and then discussed the terms "neighbour" and "enemy".

Then we watched these two clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Pqw20xK10  The Good Samaritan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPehw67L91w   The Good Samaritan -social experiment.

We had time for a class discussion and we wondered a lot, particularly about the social experiment. 

This term we will be exploring the question "What do Christians believe about Agape?"

We are going to take a closer look at some of the stories Jesus told to explain Agape and think about how we might show Agape in our own lives.

Easter through art

We took a look at several different pieces of art which told some of the story of Holy Week. We worked in small groups writing our questions about each of the artworks onto post-it notes. Some of the artworks were very intiguing.

Our questions included:

Is this man Jesus?

Is this place a restuarant?

This man looks worried, is it Judas?

Why are there angels floating overhead?

Why are there elephants in this picture?

Why did the artist use these colours?

After we had finished asking questions we tried to answer them as a class. We were amazed at how many different ways artists has depicted this one event.

A visit from Guddi & Gikki

Chandeep and Manveena from Guddi & Gikki, one of the Indian restaurants in Taunton, came to visit our class. We were able to hear Chandeep play the drum, eat tasty onion bhajis which Manveena made, try to tie turbans and find out about the important spices used to create the delicious Indian food cooked in their restaurant.

You can see how much fun we had from the photos!

Chandeep and Manveena are Sikhs and their families still live in the Punjab in India. Chandeep explained why Sikh men wear a turban and Manveena talked about the ingredients she uses to make onion bhajis. We were able to ask lots of questions too.

What's the link?

This week we were asked to find the link between these items. Can you work it out? 

David and Goliath

We acted out the story of David and the giant Goliath using The Woosh Bible. Afterwards we thought about David's qualities and compared them to our work on Noah. There were many similar qualities.

Then we thought about our own character. We shared with a partner some of our hidden qualities and our partner shared what they have observed about us. We realised that from the outside we can't always be fully known, but, Chrisitans believe, God knows each of us completely, both inside and out.

The story of Noah and God's promise.

We heard the story of Noah and the Ark. We thought about the qualities Noah must have had for God to choose him for this important job. We also talked about God's promise, his covenant. In the story God sends a rainbow to remind Noah of His promise never to flood the whole Earth again.

Bible Detectives!

We have learned that there are 66 books in the Bible, so it's a bit like a library shelf. The Bible contains lots of different kinds of books; poetry, songs, stories and law. The Bible is split into two parts; The Old Testament, all about the time before Jesus, and The New Testament, which starts with Jesus' birth.

We have been hunting in teams for Bible verses containing animals.Here are a few to try:  1 Kings 10:22

            Matthew 8:31

            Daniel 7:5

             Jonah 1:17

If you don't have a Bible at home, you could go to www.biblegateway.com where you can search online.

This term we will be exploring the question: What does it mean to belong to a religion? We will be looking at Christianity and the ways in which Christians demonstrate belonging. 

This week we'll be finding out more about the Bible and how Christianity has its roots in Judaism.

Our trip to Taunton Islamic Centre

We're ready for our trip! We have put together a list of questions and we know which important features to look for when we get there. We've practised our Arabic greeting and we're really looking forward to it!  Watch this space for photos...

The question we have been asking this term is, "What does it mean to belong to a religion?". This half term we will be visiting Taunton Islamic Centre to complete our work looking at Islam.

We are hoping to practise our newly learned Arabic phrase " Assalam u ailakum" which means "Peace be with you". 

Unfortunately, Taunton Islamic Centre is not as beautiful as this mosque! 

We will take lots of photos of our visit though, so keep a lookout for them on the website.