Tuesday 20th November 2018

What is the Trinity?

LO - Describe how Christians show their beliefs about God the Trinity in worship (in baptism and prayer, for example) and in the way they live.

Christians are baptised with water in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to join the Christian community. Teach pupils about baptising babies and adults in the Christian Church today. Use film or video (see Resources): a good enquiry strategy would be to show short clips of two baptisms (a baby and an adult) with the sound turned down, on a loop. Ask pupils in pairs to create a simple commentary, then listen to the real commentary, comparing notes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zm87tfr

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

Resource 3 – adult or infant baptism card game

Can I write an adult baptism prayer showing belief of the Trinity for a Christian?

Tuesday 6th November 2018

What is the Trinity?

LO -Offer suggestions about what texts about baptism and Trinity might mean

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS BY JOHN THE BAPTIST: MATTHEW 3:11–17

Introduce the idea of a ‘Gospel’ — a life-story or biography of the life and teaching of Jesus. Tell pupils this story from one of the four Gospels, Matthew Chapter 3 (you might use keyword ‘bingo’ to get them to listen out for key terms). Ask what they think is going on (or use a video clip — for example, ‘The Miracle Maker’). Ask for suggestions about the meaning of details: the water, the voice, the dove. At the very start of Jesus’ public life, it pictures the Trinity: the voice of God announces Jesus as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit is present in the form of a dove. Christians believe that one important thing the story teaches is that Jesus is not just a good man, but God, come to Earth to rescue humanity. Ask pupils to list clues they can find in the story for this message.

Look carefully at two paintings of the Baptism (for example, by Verrocchio and Daniel Bonnell). Discuss similarities and differences between how the different painters show God. Christians believe God is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Ask pupils to list the evidence for this belief in the pictures.

Tuesday 19th June 2019

When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?

LO - Make links between ideas about the Kingdom of God explored in the Bible and what people believe about following God in the world today, expressing some of their own ideas.

For Christians, why did Pentecost need to happen? What if it hadn’t? Look at the emotions graphs created earlier in the unit. Remember how the disciples felt before Pentecost and after Pentecost.

Get pupils to do four-minute sketches of ‘before and after’: the teacher feeds information to the class, fast, and they all sketch away to get the picture. The disciples before and after Pentecost/the church before Pentecost and after Pentecost. Look at the pictures that have been created.

What about Christians today? What might they be scared, anxious or nervous about? What might be in their ‘worries bag’? Look at John 14:16–17.

Look back to the emotions that the disciples felt (for example: scared, anxious, nervous, uncertain, worried, bereaved, mystified).

Sharing time in small groups. Children discuss and share times of uncertainty with each other.

When, why, where, how to it work out? What have you learned from this? (on the board)

Tuesday 5th June 2018

When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?

LO - Make simple links between the description of the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God, and how Christians live their whole lives and in their church communities.

Since Pentecost, Christians have been trying to make the world look more like the Kingdom of God. Ask pupils to describe what it might be like, if God really did rule in everyone’s heart. Talk about why Christians would say God’s rule on Earth is a good thing today.

Look at the words of the Lord’s Prayer: what clues does that give to what Christians might believe the Kingdom of God should be like?

Below Tom has drawn the Kingdom of God surrounded by the Holy Spirit with the fruits of the spirit evident all around. A brilliant piece Tom!

Tuesday 15th May 2018

When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?

LO - Make clear links between the story of the Day of Pentecost and Christian belief about the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Next, put a selection of artworks, including those using more symbolic imagery, in the centre of big pages of paper on tables: pupils circulate, writing questions, labelling symbols, commenting on the Christian beliefs shown in the art, and saying what they like and dislike.

Which parts of the narrative have been missed out? Why?

Study the emotions on the people in the artwork.

Why might they feel like that? Which parts of the narrative has the artist had to portray symbolically?

Investigate: what do these symbols mean?

Tuesday 1st May 2018

When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?

LO - Offer suggestions about what the description of Pentecost in Acts 2 might mean

Use a Pentecost story bucket. It contains lots of things which connect to the story in Acts 2: a fan, a candle, matches, the Lord’s Prayer in lots of languages, French and German phrase books, a crown, a dove, a wrapped present, a speech bubble, a map or blow-up globe, a cloud cut-out, a guidebook, a battery, a bottle of wine. Tell pupils they’re all connected to the day when the followers of Jesus grew from 120 people to over 3,000 people. Can they imagine a story where all these things have a place (you could make a tag-story talking game of this). What might these things represent? Note any ideas

Read or tell the story of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1–15, 22 and 37–41). Make it dramatic and exciting — there is fire, tornadoes, accusations of drunkenness, multilingual confusion and 3,000 people changing their lives!

Tuesday 17th April 2018

Kingdom of God - When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?

LO - Offer suggestions about what the description of Pentecost in Acts 2 might mean

Good King, Good Queen, Bad Queen, Bad King: a role-play game. Each group of four prepares a pupil to be a good or bad king or queen, suggesting some rules or commands they could give to the class: snuffle like a dog, sing like an X Factor loser, spell some hard words, touch little fingers with everyone. Anyone who is late or last to comply is out. How can we tell who is being a good ruler, and who a bad ruler? Consider: if Jesus was queen, or king, what would he want people to do (refer to prior learning)?

Pupils created rules like, read your Bible, hold hands,  moo like a cow and jump up and down constantly. We had some bad queens and one good.

Remind pupils of their learning about salvation in Unit 2a.5: ‘Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?’ Christians might say it is because it was the day when love saved the human race. Jesus died and was raised to life to bring in a new ‘Kingdom’ where God rules in people’s lives.

The Day of Pentecost: Acts 2: 1–15, 22 and 37–41. Set the scene for this event (see Essential Information). Ask pupils to create an emotion graph of six key moments in the story, from the death of Jesus to resurrection and to this story. Decide and explain when the disciples were scared, confused, excited, relieved, amazed, fearful, mystified, and so on. They wanted to show everyone that God rules on earth — but how? What did they need? What might happen next? Label the graph (see Resource Sheet 1).

Thursday 20th March

LO - Offer suggestions about what the narrative of the Last Supper, Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial might mean.

The Last Supper

up your classroom without chairs; lead the pupils in to sit around a cloth on the floor. On the cloth have a series of foods that would have been shared at Passover. Have some real unleavened bread and red grape juice. 

Tell the pupils the story of the Last Supper. Remind them that Jesus entered into Jerusalem and everyone cheered. Since then he has been telling parables and throwing out people who were selling things in the temple. It seems things are going pretty well. This Passover meal should be a great celebration.

Key Point - Tell the pupils that Passover is a festival every year during which Jewish people remember the terrible things that happened them to when they were captive in Egypt, and how they were set free by God and led out of Egypt by Moses. Retell or read the story from a suitable Bible: the Last Supper, from Matthew 26:17–25.

Stop the story before Judas betrays Jesus. You could use the Conscience Alley strategy, with one pupil playing the part of Judas, one line of pupils suggesting why Judas should betray Jesus, and one line of pupils suggesting why Judas should not betray Jesus. 

Some reasons for betraying Jesus

• Judas believed that Jesus was weak by not physically removing the Romans
• He thought his life was in danger
• He had never had money before
• Greed

20th March 2018

Why do Christians call the day Jesus died 'Good Friday'?

LO – Describe how Christians show their beliefs about Jesus in their everyday lives: for example, prayer, serving others and sharing the message of Jesus

Tuesday 6th March 2018

LO - Offer suggestions for what the texts about the entry into Jerusalem, and the death and resurrection of Jesus might mean

Ask the pupils to write a simple diary piece for Mary for the entry into Jerusalem, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Each piece must include a picture of the appropriate cross. In her diary, Mary needs to explain why she has included that cross, what has happened on that day, how she feels, and what she thinks the day might mean.

Sally Whites diary entry:

Dear Diary,

Palm Sunday

Today I was walking into Jerusalem with my son Jesus. He was on his donkey; everyone was walking behind him, praising him, shouting ‘Hosanna.’ I felt proud of him because I was happy to see my son happy and that so many people who don’t know him were praising him. Strangers were laying down clothes and palm leaves for him and his donkey to walk across. I felt very amazed and full of joy. Later that day Jesus went to the temple and I went with him. Jesus saw that people in his Father’s house were using it for a market and for selling things. He got really angry and threw everything around. I had never seen him this angry before. Today was horrifying and I felt very worried and stressed.

Good Friday

I felt horrified my son had been arrested. The Romans had put a thorn crown on him and a wooden slate on to his back. My trust in God is slowly fading away, I can’t believe why they chose a murderer to stay alive and instead chose Jesus, my son, the good man, to punish.

I walked with him up the dark hill. The Romans came too. I felt horrified to see my son with the Romans. I feel like they have taken him over. I couldn’t believe my son was going to be nailed to a cross with two other murderers. It looked like he was one of them. I kept thinking that I would have to say goodbye to him when he has not done anything wrong. He was the good man, the healer. Jesus has always done things right. I am confused that God does not want to save him.

Now the Romans were hammering nails into him and the two criminals and slowly lifting them up. The sky went black; my faith in God had gone. Today was a bad day.

Easter Sunday

It was Sunday night when I walked down to the tomb. When I got there the stone was rolled away, the tomb was empty and Jesus wasn’t there. I was scared that maybe grave robbers had taken him. Then I saw Mad Mary sitting on a rock crying. Someone came up to Mad Mary and said, ‘Why are you crying?’ Mad Mary said, ‘Someone has taken my Lord.’ Jesus said, ‘No I am here.‘ Mad Mary stood up and hugged Jesus. Jesus told her to go and tell everyone that he was alive. Nobody believed her but they all came and saw him. They were all so happy that Jesus had risen from the dead. I felt amazed; I should never have lost my trust in God.

Tuesday 21^st February 2018

Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?

LO - Offer suggestions for what the texts about the entry into Jerusalem, and the death and resurrection of Jesus might mean

Tell pupils that they are going to be writing a diary for Mary, the mother of Jesus, for three important days in Holy Week: Jesus entering Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), the day Jesus died (Good Friday), and the day Jesus came back to life (Easter Sunday). In order to do this they need to listen carefully as you retell the story of Holy Week, using extracts from the Gospels below (remind pupils that the Gospels tell the life and teachings of Jesus: see Essential Information). Use drama or pictures as appropriate.

• Matthew 21:7–11

• Luke 23:13–25, 32–48

• Luke 24:1–12

After each retelling of the story, stop and discuss what Mary might think about this. How does she feel and how did the disciples feel? What do people think about her son at this part of the story? What was surprising about the events, to her and to the disciples? Which cross matches to this part of the story? Why does it match?

Tuesday 30^th January 2018

Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?

LO - Give examples of what the texts studied mean to some Christians

Remind pupils of the work they did on Holy Week in KS1. Can they remember any of the events? Show pupils three crosses: a palm cross, a crucifix and a plain cross. Ask pupils which cross links to which aspect of Holy Week. Tell the pupils that one way of categorising these is palm crosses, Friday crosses and Sunday crosses. Show pupils a selection of crosses to sort. Can they explain why the crosses are sometimes given these names?

What is the Trinity?

LO -Offer suggestions about what texts about baptism and Trinity might mean

Look carefully at two paintings of the Baptism (for example, by Verrocchio and Daniel Bonnell). Discuss similarities and differences between how the different painters show God. Christians believe God is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Ask pupils to list the evidence for this belief in the pictures. Ask the class to make their own pictures of the baptism of Jesus which include symbols for the voice of God and the Holy Spirit.