RE Topic Summaries

We visited our local church to re-enact a church wedding. Reverend Richard demonstrated what happens in a Christian wedding.

We had a bride, groom, bridesmaids, a best man and flower girls! The children were involved in preparing for the wedding and enjoyed the celebrations!

We explored how Hindus and Sikhs prepare and celebrate Diwali.

We listened to and retold the story of Rama and Sita.

We thought about why people get married and what it means.

We participated in Diwali celebrations. We created rangoli patterns using beads and chalk.

The Jewish festival of Hanukkah provided many opportunities to discuss and compare other festivals that we have learnt about.

We wrote out our own cards, created decorations as part of our celebrations.

We created our own Star of David.

As part of our topic, we explored the festival of Christmas. We shared the story of the first Christmas and understood that Christians believe that Jesus was born to help make the word a better place and help us grow.

We also looked at the basic symbols of a Christmas tree and what it symbolises.

We looked at Christmas trees and how they have changed over time.

Reception: Autumn 2 Learn about the Christian festival of Christmas

“So if Jesus was born on Christmas Day, does that mean it is his

birthday?”

We found that this symbol was different to the Christian cross, the Hindu ‘Om’ and moon and star of Islam.

Year 1 Spring 1 Belonging to the Muslim family

To begin our topic we thought about our own families and how we show that we belong through doing special things together and doing kind things for each other.

We explored belonging to different groups and the symbols we can use to show we belong together. We looked at the symbol of the cross and recalled that this is the symbol of Christianity and that we had seen it on churches and candles when we learnt about Christian baptism. Then we were introduce to the symbol of Islam—the crescent moon and the star.

Then we looked at some important Islamic artefacts and talked about ways Muslims show respect to Allah through how they treat them We discussed how sharing these artefacts would bring Muslims a feeling of togetherness and belonging. We then drew or labelled some important objects that show belonging to the Muslim family.

Role-playing the welcoming of a new baby into the Muslim family.

We watched a video of a Muslim family performing wudu and role-played the actions before ordering the steps ourselves. We understand that this process helps Muslims get ready to pray to Allah.

Year 2 Spring 1 The Torah—God’s Law for the Jews We compared important features of the three religions we have learnt about. We could describe similarities and differences well.

Learning about the ten commandments—we ordered them and re-wrote them in our own words to demonstrate understanding.

We learnt important stories from the Torah, such as the story of Abraham and Sarah. We listened to and sequenced the story.

We also worked with our talk partners to think about what the people in the story might be saying or thinking. We had some amazing ideas that really showed our understanding!

After watching videos telling us about the Torah and exploring real examples, we made booklets explaining what we knew about the Jewish holy book, We also enjoyed the timed challenge to explain what we knew to the class!