Bringing it all together

What can we learn about other faiths from their stories and books?

For our final week of this enquiry year 1 thought about the 3 stories that they have heard over the past few weeks.  They had a picture to represent each story and identified what the stories are about and what they teach people.  They have learnt so much!

For the final week in year 2 the children thought about words we often forget to say, such as:

thank you, please, I love you.

We talked about how Holy books are often about these things, saying sorry and what these books tell us.

The children then chose their own ways to share their learning about Holy books and stories that are important to different religions.

The Qu'ran and voting for the best story ever!

What can we learn about other faiths from their stories and books?

It was the turn of year 1 to look at the Qu'ran this week.  They looked at pictures of it on a stand, covered up and uncovered, the children gave some really good ideas about how these pictures show the importance of the Qu'ran to Muslims.  We found out a little bit about the prophet Muhammad and how he was given the Qu'ran.  We also read the Muslim story entitled 'The boy who threw stones', this story teaches Muslims that they should look after nature.

Year 2 split in to 3 groups this week and took each group had a copy of one of the stories that we have listened to over the past few weeks.  In their groups the children had to read the story that they had and make notes on why they think their story should be voted as the best by the rest of the class.  We had some great ideas but there was one clear winner.

The winner at Hickling was:

Moses and the 10 commandments

The winner at Sutton was:

Daniel and the Lion's Den

Making Torah Scrolls and finding out about the Qu'ran

What can we learn about other faiths from their stories and books?

Year 1 watched a small clip of a Rabbi reading the Torah Scroll in a synagogue.  They thought it was very special and saw the Torah Scroll being taken from it's cover and opened carefully.  They made their own Torah Scrolls using dowelling and paper, we had some fantastic rules on how to live our lives.  After this the children listened to the story of David and Jonathan then made their own special covers for their Torahs.

Year 2 began their lesson looking at pictures of the Qu'ran.  They thought about how the pictures show the importance of the Qu'ran and how special it is.  They then watched an animation on the prophet Muhammad and how he was given the Qu'ran.  We found out that Muslims decorate key words using Arabic patterns.  The children thought of words that are special to them, explained why they are special and then decorated them.

The Bible and the Torah Scroll

What can we learn about other faiths from their stories and books?

In year 1 this week we looked carefully at the Bible and listened to the story 'The Lost Sheep'.  The children found out that the Bible is split in to 2 main sections; the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Old Testament has 39 books in it and is all about God, the New Testament has 29 books in it and is all about Jesus.  The children thought it was amazing how big the Bible is and that it has books, chapters AND verses.

In year 2 the children looked carefully at the Torah Scroll.  They viewed pictures from the messianic synagogue in Norwich and could see the Torah Scroll being carried in to the synagogue, being read and standing in the Ark.  We thought back to the story of Moses being given the 10 commandments and then the children wrote about why they believe the Torah Scroll is important to Jewish people.

Special books

What can we learn about other faiths from their stories and books?

In year 1 we looked at some very special books.  The children walked around their room together writing comments and questions about what they could see.

In year 2 we looked more closely at the Bible and listened to the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den.  The children thought that it was amazing that Daniel did not get eaten.  They talked about how God saved Daniel and what this story tells Christians about God, they also wrote why they think Christians love the Bible.

Special, precious and sacred

What can we learn about other faiths from their stories and books?

We shared some of our special books with each other and said why they are special to us.

In year 1 the children came up with some fantastic ideas of how we could look after special books, here are some of their thoughts:

• keep it on a shelf,
• wrap it up,
• put it on a drawer,
• make a sign.

In year 2 the children looked at the outside of a very boring book, it had the title 'The secrets of life'.  They talked together about what this may have within it and how they could make sure that it was kept safe.

Forgiveness

Why does Easter matter to Christians?

We carefully thought back to all the things that we have enquired about over the past few weeks.  In year 2 we thought about forgiveness and how this makes people feel.

We chose to write poems, prayers or letters to people about forgiving them.  While we wrote them we tried to stand in the other person's shoes to help us think about why they may have done something to hurt us.

Have a look at some of the prayers below: