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:

Walking in other people's shoes

Why does Easter matter to Christians?

This week we looked back at the story "Let's be friends again".  We thought about how the boy felt in the story and how the girl felt, then we talked about the saying 'walking in other people's shoes'.  We took turns standing on some paper shoes and said how we felt as the boy or girl in the story.

Look at the pictures to see some of the things we wrote about the feelings of other people.

Why does Easter matter to Christians?

We thought about what we talked about last week and what Jesus said to God.  Christians ask God to forgive them because of Jesus' example, He was prepared to die to save and rescue people and heal their friendship with God.

We worked together to think about reasons why forgiveness is important to Christians and how Jesus inspires Christians to forgive others.

Father forgive them

Why does Easter matter to Christians?

"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."

This is the scripture passage that we looked at today in Year 2.  We thought about who is saying it, who they are saying it to, why they are saying it and who they are talking about.

Forgive and Forget

Why does Easter matter to Christians?

The story "Let's Be Friends Again" by Hans Wilhelm is about a little girl who puts her brother's turtle in to the pond and it gets lost.  Her brother is very angry with her, he feels unwell, screams and shouts.  Eventually he forgives his sister.

The children thought about times when they have been angry with someone and how this made them feel.  Some said that they shouted in to a pillow, some said they felt sick and had a belly ache.

We listened to some calm, happy music and talked about how they felt when they had forgiven this person.

Have a look at some of the children's thoughts and feelings below.