Watford Schools
Trust

Providing RE resources for local schools

Year 3 [Unit 3/e]  8 hours

This unit is about: rules and how they influence actions
(part of this unit looks at the rules Muslims
follow)

  • What rules do Christians follow?
  • How does giving to charity help our neighbours?

1. Rules - why do we need them

Discuss the need for rules. Why are they there, to spoil our fun or to keep us safe?

Imagine a football game without rules or a referee. Think about the different rules needed for different places - home rules, school rules and rules for a country. Point out that the British legal system was originally based on biblical rules.

Activity: Imagine you are shipwrecked on a desert island. Design a set of rules for your island.

2. The Ten Commandments

The Ten commandments are listed in Exodus Chapter 20. This is a version in simple English: (sensitivity will be needed when discussing number 7 in the class).

1. Worship only One God

2. Do not worship any idols

3. Keep Gods name very special

4. Keep one day a week holy

5. Respect your parents

6. Do not murder

7. Do not take another persons husband/wife

8. Do not steal

9. Do not tell lies

10. Do not want what other people have

3 Jesus’ Two Most Important Rules

Jesus was once asked what he thought were the most important rules. He replied that we should love God and love our neighbour. He explained that if these two rules were kept there wouldn’t need to be any others.

Watch the video clip from The Miracle Maker, of Jesus telling the story of the Good Samaritan. Or you could read the story from Best Loved Parables or The Storyteller Bible.

Explain that there was real prejudice against people from Samaria. Samaritans were avoided and looked down upon.

Ask pupils to freeze frame the story at the most important part, or draw the injured man’s view. What is he thinking and how do his feelings change when the injured man arrives.

Why don’t people stop and help others today? Point out that although children should not stop and help strangers themselves, they can always go and get help.

Act out a modern version of the story. What sort of people might we not expect to help others today?

4 Good Neighbour Recipe

What ‘ingredients’ are necessary for us to be good neighbours? Write a ‘recipe’: eg a cup full of kindness, a teaspoon of patience etc.

5 Helping Others - the Work of Charities

Look at the ways Christians try to help others today.
For example, see the work of Watford New Hope Trust - visit  www.watfordnewhope.org.uk . They have a representative trained to visit local schools. (Telephone Number 01923 210680.)

Find out what local Christians are doing in the community.

 

Year 3 [Unit 3/f] 5 hours

This unit is about: special places including those for Christians and Muslims

  • What meanings and significances are attached to special places?

Introduction: What makes a place special to you? You may like to try a ‘stilling exercise’ with the children and then ask them to think about and design a special quiet place. What colours would they use, would would be in the place, what would not be there? For some examples of stilling exercises click here.

There are some excellent websites for schools use which look at churches.

www.educhurch.org.uk compares three very different churches and looks at different aspects of the buildings and what goes on inside.

www.request.org.uk looks at church buildings and going to church with simple text, clear illustrations and teacher’s notes and worksheets.

The book ‘The Path that Runs by the Church’ has been given to all local schools. This book follows a year in the life of a village church. (We have a series of lessons based on this book for Year 2 which could be adapted for Year 3 use.)

Look at our web pages about Churches.

BuiltWithNOF

The first 8 hours of the Autumn term will be spent looking at Stories of Authority (Muhammed) and Ways of Describing God (the 99 beautiful names of Allah).

Year 3 [Unit 3/c]  3 hours

This unit is about: Christmas

  • Christmas Angels

Introductory Lesson - Names

Why do we need names?
Show personal items such as a passport or medical card.
Discuss why we have names, rather than just identity numbers.  Look at a birth certificate.
Show a name book and point out that many names have meanings - both first names and surnames (and place names).  Look up a few examples.
Ask pupils if they know who chose their names and why. Are they named after someone else? Do they have any nicknames? Do they know if their names have a meaning?

Activities:
Design a personalised passport on folded A4 paper. Include all names, leaving space for extra information to be researched at home.  This could include place of birth, date of birth, the meaning of the name, who chose the name and why.
or:
Write personalised acrostic poems using first name (if short use surname as well). An example is shown below.

               I...

                     Can play the recorder
                     Am good at football
                     Like to eat chocolate
                     Love my dog Cindy
                     Understand how to play chess
                     Make model planes

or:
Pupils could produce their own name, decorating the first letter as an illuminated script.

Angels

1  Think about some of the ways we send news to people - fax, radio, telephone, sign language, text messages.  Christians believe that God wants to communicate with people today and that is why we have the Bible.  On special occasions God used angels to bring his messages.

Retell the Christmas story from a children’s Bible or from ‘The Tallest Candle’ big book, given to Watford Schools a couple of years ago.

2  Read a letter and talk about receiving news.  Using drawings with captions or speech/thought bubbles ask the pupils to describe what Mary thought when she heard the angel’s news that God was going to use her to have a very special baby. Have pupils ever been given a special responsibility or honour? Click here to see ‘The Annunciation’ by Fra Filippo Lippi, courtesy of the National Gallery, London. We have worksheets available on this painting - or see ‘Jesus Through Art’.

3  Show a letter and talk about the fact that it is addressed to a person by name. Recap on names, their meanings and why we have been given them. What did the angel tell Mary to call her baby? Jesus means ‘God saves’. The name ‘Immanuel’ means ‘God is with us’. Activity:  Write an acrostic poem for the name ‘Immanuel’; an example is given here.

         Inns were all full
         Mary was tired
         Make room in the stable
         Angels sang the good
         News to the shepherds
         Under the star Jesus was born
         Everyone worshipped the
         Light of the World

4  Think about the Christmas story so far. Who is missing?  Show a picture of a shepherd and talk about what a shepherd does. Shepherds were very ordinary people and yet God sent angels to bring his good news to them.  Tell the story from ‘The Night the Stars Danced for Joy’ by Bob Hartman. 

Activity:  Imagine you are a reporter and produce a newspaper or TV report on what the shepherds have seen - this could either by written or acted out.

To think about: the good news at Christmas is for everyone.

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