During our topic 'Called to Serve,' we have been exploring our responses to Jesus' invitation to be a disciple. We have thought carefully about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and how it might influence our thoughts, actions and how we live our lives. We have written poems to express our personal responses to this invitation.
This term we have been studying a topic called 'The Transforming Spirit' in RE. As part of this topic we learn about what happened after Jesus' death and resurrection and how the behaviour of the Apostles was transformed by the Holy Spirit. We look at how the lives of Peter and Paul were transformed and how this impacted their lives and the lives of followers of Jesus around the world. Throughout this, we reflect on how the Apostles' experience can help, guide and lead us to Jesus.
This week we have been learning about how Jesus made Peter the leader of the Church when he went back to heaven. We explored what Jesus said to Peter and what these words meant. “I say that you are Peter (the rock) and on this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt16:18-19) We got creative and made models of what these words represent.
We have been finding out that popes are successors of St. Peter and have researched the lives of the most recent popes. We have spent some time reflecting on how they lead us to Jesus.
We have been learning about the Ascension and what happened at Pentecost. We have been learning about how the Holy Spirit transformed the apostles, especially the lives of Peter and Paul!
A Creative Take on the Story of Pentecost
We explored the story of Pentecost in a number of ways. We watched and listened to the song below and imagined we had been asked to teach the children in Drake class about Pentecost. We had to think of actions that would accompany this song. We were able to collaborate with a friend.
Pentecost Song No More Waiting
We learned what life was like in the early Christian Community and about the Apostles’ arrest and their miraculous escape. We explored what we can learn from the Apostles and early Christians about faith, suffering, courage and hope. We explored what we thought changed a group of fearful men, who used to meet in secret, into a group of fearless preachers and linked our learning to 'Myriam's Story' an Iraqi Christian refugee.
Myriam's Story and Song
We watched the clip, ‘Myriam’s Story and Song’ and gave reasons why we believe she is a ‘Shining Star.’ We reflected upon what message we would you like to send her in the light of our recent learning. We were able to see that theHoly Spirit was working through Myriam also.
We have been learning about the events of the transfiguration
We think Lego is a brilliant learning tool - have a look at these photos of Scott's Lego models telling the Easter story.
As part of our home learning about Holy Week, we have been creating 'Resurrection Eggs' to retell the Easter Story in detail, using symbols and Bible references.
We looked at examples of artists' work portraying Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. They are so well done!
We learned about when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at The Last Supper and after retelling the story, we considered what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples and how we can apply this lesson to our own lives.
We have been thinking about advent and how we can prepare by asking for forgiveness in our reconciliation service. We used the door to represent God’s invitation to us to enter the kingdom and welcome Jesus’ coming..
We used drama to explore the story of Elijah and Naboth’s vineyard. God calls to us all to speak out against injustice.