RE – What is a soul and does everyone have one?

This was a lovely session as it was great to hear the children discussing their views on a soul and what they think it is responsible for. One child was a little shy about sharing how they believe God is responsible for our soul but we encouraged them to be proud of their beliefs. Children then drew what they thought a soul looked like which was really interesting.

RE continues in MI

In our RE lesson we firstly recapped our lesson last week on the soul. We explored different icons thinking how they could represent an idea on what makes humans special. Children explained that the brain could represent the soul as it controls peoples thoughts and some could show inner self. We then looked at our learning target which was describing what some people believe about being human through exploring personal responses. We watched a video clip to explore this further. This clip explained what different religions opinions were in response to having a soul. We unpicked these together, stopping the clip in different places. We came to the conclusion that the clip was showing that all people are special and unique.

We then looked a range of different statements that reflected on what some people believe about humans having a soul. Our main activity then allowed us to complete a soul snowflake where children had to think about how strongly they agree and disagree with a variety of statements. Children then joined all their answers together and the inside of their shape showed similarities and differences between their own and others’ snowflakes. Our debrief allowed us to think about how we can live in harmony when we have different worldviews. This was a great discussion 🙂

What is Humanism?

In RE last week, we learned about Humanism. We discovered that Humanists don’t believe that God created the world but that we evolved through Science. The world started with a single organism and these continued to multiply and adapt. We discussed what makes humans special and it was lovely to hear the children share their thoughts on this.

Humanism in RE

Today we looked at what makes humans special and we explored humanist beliefs. We watched a range of video clips to build background knowledge and discussed our own ideas and opinions on each. We discussed the key beliefs of humanists explained in the video clips. We then thought about what we think is inside a human and created an anchor chart. We thought about what makes us happy and what makes us feel important. We worked in mini crews to discuss our ideas. We then explored the symbol below thinking about why it may be chosen and what it suggests about humanist beliefs. Lots of great discussion today 🙂

Crew MI learn about Ramadan…

In today’s RE lesson we learnt all about the month of Ramadan and what Muslims do during this month. During this time, Muslims fast during the daylight hours to demonstrate self control and discipline as well as empathy towards those people who unfortunately have to starve on daily basis. This time is especially important because it brings the family closer together and it is a chance for Muslims to reflect and be close to Allah. Throughout the lesson, we had great discussions and watched a couple of video clips to help us to understand what happens during this special month.

Exploring Hinduism

Today we have started our third case study, Hinduism. We have explored the key facts, did you know that hinduism is the worlds oldest religion? Most Hindu’s live in India, in Doncaster there are approximately 1,294 Hindu’s. We discovered that Hinduism is third largest religion worldwide, after Christianity and Islam. To finish off our first lesson today we carried out a Kahoot quiz to assess our understanding, needless to say, Leo had remembered lots of key facts!

Exploring the Islamic faith

During our expedition lesson we have been exploring mosques, an Islamic place of worship for people of the Muslim faith. We discovered that Mosque buildings have large open spaces inside, with mats or carpets covering the floor. Men perform prayers, under the guidance of an imām, who is a worship leader in the Muslim community. When women pray in the mosque, they must be in a separate space to the men. We discovered that Muslims pray five times a day and a special prayer mat is used to ensure cleanliness between the worshipper and the ground.

Visiting our Local Church

Year Two took a lovely scenic walk up to our local church at Owston to complete our first case study in Christianity. Along the way we ensured we were stewards of our local area and collected litter, we were praised by the public for our lovely manners and care to our community. When we arrived at the church we were excited to explore the grounds and noticed lots of old artefacts which dated back to 1086, Owston Church we discovered was also mentioned in the Doomsday Book. A fantastic piece of history, right on our doorstep!

RE continues in MI

Today we continued learning about what it is like to be a Muslim in particular how important charity is to them. We focussed on the third pillar of Islam ‘Zakat’ which is all about placing a great importance on donating to charities whether that is donating money, clothes or food. We also discussed how charity becomes even more of a focus during Ramadan. During this month, Muslims make personal sacrifices as fasting helps them to remember those who go without food, shelter and water. Next, we discussed that not all charity has to be about donating something physical. We looked at what children could do and focussed on what actions they could do, we called these ‘good deeds’. Something as simple as a smile could make someone’s day. We created an anchor chart with what we had learnt and what we could do to help people particularly those less fortunate than us. To finish, we read a story ‘The Two Brothers’ where we talked about how kind the two brothers were to one another. We even acted this out. We really enjoyed this sessions today. Well done Crew MI.