Big Questions and Festivals in RE

The thread of this term is engagement. Within Religious Education, the children are evaluating “big questions” linked to the topic of religious festivals. The pictures show how the children are using their first lesson of the unit to explore a concept that will help build their foundation of understanding that will help the big question become more accessible.

Diwali in Reception

In Reception, the children drew on their own experiences to think about when they might have used fireworks to mark a special occasion or celebrate a festival like bonfire night, New Years or birthdays. This fed into their learning about Diwali - the festival of light and the battle of good over evil! They discussed how Hindus celebrate with fireworks and made their own firework paintings using paint, a tray and a marble.

Saving the World in Year 2

In Year 2, the children are working towards answering the big question ‘Why do Christians believe God gave Jesus to the world?’. In order to help them answer this question, the children looked at the theme of saving/rescuing by listening to the story ‘George Saves the World by Lunchtime’. This child has shown that they have thought about what problems in the world need saving and what they think can be done about it.

Symbols in Year 4

In order to answer the big question ‘What is the most significant part of the Nativity story for Christians today?’, Year 4 children looked at the theme of symbols and created their own symbol that represents something interesting about them. This shows that they understand that a symbol is a picture that stands for something and will help them to recognise the symbols within the Nativity story.

Understanding Christmas in Year 6

Year 6 children are building on their knowledge of the Nativity story and symbols within Christmas to look at the question ‘Do Christmas celebrations and traditions help Christians understand who Jesus was and why he was born?’. To help them answer this question, in the first lesson of this unit, the children looked at the definition of celebrations, explored reasons why and how people celebrate and began a to discuss whether it is only Christians that celebrate Christmas. By the end of the unit, children would have explored how different people celebrate Christmas and whether these remind Christians of Jesus’ birth.