R.e. Inspection

[Guest]

Hi all

 

I really need your help! We are having our R.E. inspection the second week back after Easter and im struggling for ideas to do for our 'Good News' topic. We are being observed on the first week of the relate section and i am finding it so hard to do it with the Nursery. Has anyone got any good ideas that i could do that is catchy and gets the children interested? It has to only be 20 mns long and that includes the focus activity. Any suggestions would be really helpful.

 

thanks

 

kate

[AnonyMouse_1195]

I think it might be helpful to have a bit more information about your RE theme. I assume you are in a Faith School which requires Nursery to follow the schools RE syllabus, which is not the case for many of us. What would you be expecting to cover in 'Good News' and by relate section, does that mean relating it to the children's daily lives. Sorry if I am asking the obvious, but it might help with coming up with ideas.

[Guest]

Hi,

 

It sounds like you're following the 'Here I am' scheme for R.E. like we do. I have a Reception class in a catholic school and we have just had our R.E. inspection too. We are on the same scheme but following it on a different cycle by the sounds of things because our topic was 'Growing'.

 

For my lesson I asked all the children to bring in photographs of themselves as babies and I used these to make a starting point display in our sacred area so that the topic related particularly to them. During the lesson input (I also asked them to bring in their old baby clothes) I referred to the display and we discussed how each other had changed, who we could recognise etc. I then chose a couple of volunteers to lie down in the middle of the circle and with their baby clothes next to them to draw out the fact that we had changed by growing physically. I then referred back to the way that Jesus had grown up and we talked about the kind of person that Jesus had grown up to be and the things he did in his life - we read bible stories on a regular basis so it was easy to refer back.

 

After the input the children then went off to do activities in all areas related to growing e.g. making flowers, measuring plants e.g. tallest shortest, caring for babies in the home corner etc. The focus activity was an activity where the children drew pictures to show how Jesus had grown up to be kind, caring and to love others - they then had to draw pictures of them doing those things e.g. helping Mum at home, loving their family and friends etc. This was to try and move them on from thinking purely about physical growth to the more abstract concept of growing globally as a person - tricky with such young children, but possible.

 

At the end of the lesson we came back to the carpet and I showed them a daffodil plant and a cactus plant and I asked them which they liked best - they all liked the daffodil because it was prettier - this worked really well because the objective was to think about how we grow in terms of knowledge and how we grow to be 'good' people in the way that Jesus showed us. It was a good opportunity to talk about how anyone can grow on the outside but to understand the importance of growing to be good on the inside. At the end of the lesson, the children brought the flowers they had made during the activities and said a prayer as they put them into the vase. We had time for reflection at the end (lit a candle etc.) and finished off with an appropriate prayer.

 

It worked really, really well!!! I know that you're on a different topic, but the structure of it might help. I know nursery is a little different but I hope it's of some use to you.

[Guest]

thanks greengirl

 

yeh that is the layout that we do any way in each of our topics. we are covering growing at the moment so it will prob be the same scheme as your school so after Easter the topic will be Good News which is when we are being observed. Apparantly Nursery are only meant to do 20 minutes including our focused activity so i dont know how on earth i would fit all what you just said into 20 mins its so hard. Plus they want to see an input and a plenary but we have been advised not to keep the children on the carpet for a long period of time only either at the beginning of session or at the end not both. Im finding it difficult thank you so much for your help

 

kate

[AnonyMouse_11548]

Hi katie, last year i did sevareal successful activities with the children relating to the easter story. I'm assuming 'good news' refers to when mary magdaline (or whoever-some people say different things) found out that jesus had risen? I have a great powerpoint that tells the easter story and some activity plans etc. if you'd like me to PM them just let me know x

[AnonyMouse_11548]

http://www.refuel.org.uk/curric/infant_top...ster/index.html

 

if you follow this link it tells you the story of easter. the children really like it because they can click the buttons to turn pages and as they do the narrator reads the story. Great of Vis and Aud learners.

[Guest]

Thanks Jenny for the link but i dont think it will be suitable for the Nursery children what age where the children you used it for? the activity plans would be great thank you so much

 

kate