Judaism 

In our first week back we will be studying Judaism. 

From Easter to Pentecost 

We have explored the story of the resurrection this week and retold it in our own words.

Our next RE topic will focus on the period after Easter leading to Pentecost, celebrated the 50th day from Easter Sunday. This period of time commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem.

Keep your eyes peeled for the wonderful work we will do within this next topic!

From Lent to Easter 

Over the past three weeks, we have been exploring the importance of Lent and how it is time for reflection and self-sacrifice. We have spent a lot of time looking at St Paul and his trip to Corinth on his mission from God. We learnt how he taught the Corinthians all about God and how to be ambassadors of Christ. We also studied how we could do the same and reflected on our choices and how we can be more like God. 

The children have also been exploring a way of prayer called Examen, where you pray backwards and try and find examples of where God has been with you through the day. It is reflective and shows your gratitude for God. Here are some of the ones we wrote. 

Over the course of this next topic we will be exploring the period of Lent and the special time that Easter is for Catholics.

People of Prayer

Our Spring term topic will focus on People of Prayer and why this is important of us. It will also feature an other faiths unit in which our focus will be Buddhism. 

From Advent to Christmas

Today in our Class worship we used the gospel from church over the previous weekend and lit the candles on our Advent wreath. 

Today we prayed as a class using Lectio Divina (an ancient sacred form of prayer using scripture). We used the Gospel of Mark, as was the reading in church on Sunday and as a class we made some promises/missions and added it to a memory box. We will revisit these promises during Advent so we can make a difference to ourselves and those around us.  

During our lesson today we looked at the Advent wreath and one of the purple candles, Hope. We then discussed what Advent means to Catholics and how we should do more acts of kindness in order to prepare for the second coming of Christ. Each child then wrote their own prayer around the theme of 'hope' and asked God to bless their family and friends. 

Today' class worship was based around kindness and learning to act how Jesus taught us. Our mission is to be as kind as we can, to as many people as possible. 

Today we looked at preparing and the build up to Jesus' birth. This time we looked at the Gospel of Matthew and read all about King Herod (Matthew 2:13). We discussed what kind of a person King Herod was and what evidence we could find in the Bible. 

After that we discussed what helps us keep a track of the days in Advent and symbols associated with it. As a class we made our own Advent calendar. 

During this unit we have been learning how to use and read a Bible. We have specifically been learning about Mark's gospel and how it differs to the other, as it begins with the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, rather than the birth. The children read, asked and answered questions about this special event and considered how they might feel if they were John the Baptist. 

Sikhism 

During this unit, one of the things we discovered was where people go to worship. You can learn more about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB0RMrFpu0M

The children were very interested and learnt how it was similar and different to our church. After learning about the special items and structure of a Gurdwara, the children designed their own. 

Beginning the with Church 

During this topic we have and will continue to look at various aspects of the church and why they are important. 

This week we looked at the 7 sacraments. We looked at what they were and how the church uses words, symbols and actions to represent all of these. We then had a go at making our own symbols and actions for the sacraments and asked our partner to guess what they were. Well done 3W!

We have recently investigated Vatican II and the metaphor 'The church is the body of Christ' and what this phrase means. We believe this is because everyone has a role to play in church, no matter how small.

We designed our own churches and considered the affect Vatican II had on Mass. We prefer how mass is celebrated now as we are allowed to be much more involved! 

We've also looked at the objects within a church and the different things used in services, foe example, the pulpit, the tabernacle and pews etc. 

We have discovered more about our class saint, St Martin and worked hard to create a beautiful door display! See our photo below.

And of course, we have been reflecting on the words in hymns and their meaning within our lessons and our reflective time during class worship.