Jumpstart! RE

Games and activities for ages 7-12

Imran Mogra

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315437477
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

This collection of simple-to-use activities will jumpstart students' understanding of the world's religions and belief systems. A wealth of activities, including discussion techniques, group tasks and thought experiments, guides the teacher in delivering stimulating and imaginative RE lessons.

Based around religions' sacred texts, beliefs, leaders, spaces and festivals, this indispensable and practical guide covers all major belief systems including:

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• Judaism

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• Christianity

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• Islam

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• Humanism

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• Hinduism

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• Buddhism

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• Sikhism

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• Jainism

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• Far East traditions.

Jumpstart! Religious Education is an essential classroom resource to encourage students' engagement with and comprehension of religions around the world. If you are a trainee, newly-qualified or experienced teacher looking for a range of quick, effective, fun and challenging ways to teach about religion, then this is the perfect book for you.

CHAPTER 1

Sacred beliefs

RATIONALE

For religious literacy, pupils must become aware that beliefs are fundamental to people and to the fabric of society, locally and globally. One of the most important topics to learn and teach in RE is about beliefs. This is an interesting area of study as it promotes an enquiring approach in which pupils carefully consider issues of beliefs, truth and values in religion. In doing so, they are provided with an opportunity to discuss religious and philosophical questions, justifying their own beliefs and those of others, which enhances their capacity to reflect coherently and consistently in a reasoned and informed manner. They also have an opportunity to consider the challenges posed by these beliefs.

The activities in this chapter will help pupils identify and celebrate the diversity of beliefs in society through understanding and describing the similarities and differences within and between religions. They should also enable pupils to express and discuss their own beliefs, religious truth, viewpoints and ideas without embarrassment or ridicule as many pupils come from religious backgrounds but others have no attachment to religious beliefs and practices. As such, they develop a positive attitude towards other people and respect the right of others to hold different beliefs from their own.

The activities provide ways of describing the key beliefs of several religious traditions and humanism and consider how peoples’ beliefs about God, the world and others impact on their lives. Pupils reflect on their own and others’ insights into life, its origin, purpose and meaning. They would be expected to recognise religion as an important expression of human experience and how beliefs inspire people to respond to global issues of poverty and suffering and, be exposed to beliefs in action.

Some concepts to engage with include: Brahman, ­destiny, dharma, dukkha, faith, fate, free will, God, ­humanism, incarnation, karma, moksha, monotheism, nirvana, omnipotence, polytheism, redemption, salvation, shirk, sin, tawhid, theism, transcendence, trinity.

CHRISTIAN BELIEFS

In Christianity, Jesus is believed to be the Son of God, rather than a prophet. He is unique in the sense of being both God and human. Christians believe that God manifests himself to people in three interrelated ways: Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. This belief is recognised as the Trinity. It does not mean that there are three separate Gods, since Christianity accommodates in its belief system that there is one God. Rather, God exists in three forms. This belief is expressed in the following manner: God, the Father, sent His son, Jesus, to earth, and after the Ascension, the Holy Spirit constantly works for God in human affairs.

The key doctrine is that God loves His people unconditionally, as He is the Creator of everything. As Creator, God is also directly involved in the affairs of creation. God, as Father, cares for people more than the rest of His creation, since they have been made in His image and are responsible for looking after it.

Christians believe that God lived on earth as Jesus. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He was human and therefore could feel all the emotions that humans feel. In addition, Jesus is considered to be the promised Messiah who, it is believed, died upon the Cross to save humanity by conquering sin. After his death, Jesus rose from the dead after three days as a sign of reconciliation, so that people can die with sin and still live again in eternity with God. It is believed that Jesus will return one day at the Last Judgement and set up God’s kingdom on earth in peace and justice.

On earth, Jesus promised his disciples that he would forever be with them, so when he ascended into heaven, the Spirit of God was sent to be their guide on earth. This is thought to have been received on the Day of Pentecost. The Spirit abides in Christians to bring guidance, strength, courage and inspiration. This is the unseen presence of God as He functions in His creation.

Christians believe that heaven is where Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and this is where the righteous will dwell as their reward when they die. In traditional Christian theology, hell is the place regarded as the state of eternal torment and damnation for the soul after death. Judgement is the sentence that would be passed on the actions of people on the Last Day. It is believed that Jesus Christ will have all judgements committed to him, as God made him the judge of all people.

ACTIVITIES

Examine the Lord’s Prayer

Ask the pupils to individually read the Lord’s Prayer and highlight the phrases which they think are profound, those they think might be central for Christians and those difficult to understand. Invite pupils to discuss these with their partner. Then, in pairs, pupils should identify questions about the meaning of the prayer and the source of it. These questions should reflect what they would like to know more about. This activity can be used for the Mul Mantar, Shema, Al-Fatihah and the Gayatri Mantra.

Our golden rules

Explain to the class what a creed is. Read to them a simplified version of the Apostles’ Creed and inform them what it is, its purpose and features. Ask them to identify anything which they may be familiar with and give them an opportunity to ask questions about the statements. Then, ask each pupil on each table to write one creedal statement for the class. As a table, they discuss these, focussing on the meaning, significance, why they wrote that and what they hope to achieve through it. Pupils then select three creedal statements from their table which they consider to be the most important and present these for the class debate. During the class debate, five to six statements are eliminated. At each stage, it is important that pupils explain the purpose of the statements and justify them by giving reasons for rejecting and keeping them. Once ten to twelve statements are collected, they are all put in a box and the teacher or pupils pick out five which are then prominently displayed in the classroom for a term as golden rules.

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

He descended into hell;

on the third day He rose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting. Amen

Worship and symbols in two dimensions

Present a range of images to the class which show Christians expressing worship and devotion. Ask the pupils to discuss:

•What they can observe.

•Why they think the actions are being carried out.

•What those actions might be symbolising.

•How the believers might be feeling.

Then organise the pupils to work in pairs. Ask both to take turns to express an emotion and get them to photograph each other or an adult can do this, where possible. Collect all the photographs and show them to the class using the interactive whiteboard (IWB). Invite them to identify what they think is being expressed by each action. Invite the child whose photograph it is to reveal the emotion being expressed and why the particular action was chosen. Revisit the images from the faith community and discuss the relationship between faith, worship, actions and symbols. Use their photos and their answers to create a display about worship and symbols.

Storytelling and forgiveness

On one side of the whiteboard, write the word forgiveness prominently. Ask the pupils to help you make a list of thoughts and actions which they think are bad or naughty. Use a whiteboard wiper and erase the word forgiveness totally, leaving the list as it is. In talk partners, engage them in a conversation about forgiveness, scaffolding it by interjecting questions such as what is forgiveness, what to forgive, where to forgive, when to forgive, why to forgive and who should forgive. Read to them the story about Jesus teaching his best friend, Peter, about forgiveness. Ask the pupils what they have learnt from the story. Ask them what the story says about forgiveness and what they think Christians believe about God and forgiveness. Invite them to reflect on when and what they would or would not forgive. For older pupils, a big question, such as, ‘is it always right to forgive?’ can be used at the end of the lesson.

HINDU BELIEFS

The Hindu system of belief is rather complex and considerably diverse. Many Hindus believe that there is one God (Brahman) who can be worshipped in many forms and who takes on many forms, both non-human and human, including being male, female, baby or mother. They also believe that God can be worshipped with a form or without a form. Moreover, God can appear in images, icons and in human form, such as saints. In Hindu dharma, God is also understood as threefold, known as Trimurti, consisting of Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Shiva (Destroyer).

There is a universal belief in reincarnation, meaning that there is no end to life, until moksha (liberation). The endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth is called samsara, which suggests that existence c...