Ioan decided to get Finn involved in his retelling of the Easter Story. He read the story to us and encouraged Finn to use the resources he’d collected to act it out.

Resources

  • Children’s Bible
  • Painted wooden figures
  • Grimm’s Earth wooden toy and semi circle
  • A rock
  • Grimm’s rainbow and boards

Method

Ioan decided to split the story up, telling it on the days it took place.

Good Friday

He gave Finn his first instalment on Good Friday.

After reading the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, he showed Finn how to make a tomb with some pieces from the wooden Earth and a semi circle. They put Jesus in the tomb, rolled a rock in front and left him there until Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday, Ioan took the Jesus figure out of the tomb before calling Finn over to listen to the rest of the story.

Ioan read about the women returning to the tomb to prepare the body for a proper burial and finding the stone rolled away.

The women stepped inside the tomb and found the body was gone. Suddenly, two people in bright shining clothes appeared next to them.

“Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?” they asked. “He is not here. God has raised him to life.”

The women remembered that Jesus had told of thing like this and hurried off to see the disciples. Peter ran to see the empty tomb for himself.

Ioan acted out two of Jesus’ followers walking home to Emmaus and inviting the stranger to stay and share their food. When Ioan put out the same grey character at the table, Finn exclaimed, “Hang on, that’s Jesus!”

The Ascension

Finn set up the scene on the hillside, where Jesus was taken up to heaven.

National Curriculum Framework for Religious Education (NCFRE) for Key Stage 1

The NCFRE says that in KS1, children should develop their knowledge and understanding of principal religions and worldviews. They learn to use subject-specific vocabulary, ask questions and begin to express their own views in response to what they’re taught.

Children are expected to:

  • Recall and name different beliefs and practices, including festivals, forms of worship, rituals and ways of life, in order to find out about the meanings behind them.
  • Retell and explore the meanings of some religious and moral stories, explore and discuss sacred writings and sources of wisdom, and recognise the traditions behind them.
  • Recognise some of the symbols and actions that express a religious community’s way of life, looking at similarities between them.
  • Ask and respond to questions about what individuals and communities do, and why, so they can identify what it means to be a part of a community.
  • Observe and recount different ways of expressing identity and belonging.
  • Notice and respond to some of the similarities between different religions and worldviews.
  • Explore questions about belonging, meaning and truth so that they can express their own opinions and ideas in response, using words, music, art or poetry.
  • Find out about and respond to examples of cooperation between people who are different.
  • Find out about questions of right and wrong and begin to develop and express their own opinions.