CARING FOR MYSELF, CARING FOR OTHERS

These activities will address the following Key Questions from the South Glos RE Syllabus:

  • Who is important to me and why? (Identity & Experience)
  • How do people care for me? How do I care for others? (Values & Commitments)
  • What is special about me/others? (Meaning & Purpose)
  • What do faith stories teach us about care for others? (VC)

The level statements which are addressed and could be assessed through this unit of work are as follows:

LEVEL 1

  • I can tell my teacher some things about a religious story I have heard.
  • I can recognise some things that religious people do.
  • I can talk about things that happen to me.
  • I can talk about what is important to me and why.
  • I can show how I feel about what I am learning.
  • I can say what I find interesting or puzzling.

LEVEL 2

  • I can retell some religious stories and talk about why they are important to religious people.
  • I can tell my teacher about some things religious people do and why they do them.
  • I can talk about some of the things that are the same for different religions (if similar activity undertaken on e.g. Divali or Sukkoth)
  • I can ask my own questions and I know that some questions are difficult to answer.
  • I can talk about feelings and experiences that are important to me and others.

GAME

  • Large picture cards of the types of people who might or might not help us/care for us to be used on the floor for a life sized board game. Picture cards to include: mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, teacher, friend, policeman, nurse, doctor, vicar, pop star, footballer, Queen, Jesus, Hindu gods/goddesses, myself, pets.
  • Children to have a small card divided into 6 sections. They choose from small versions of the floor cards to put in their place in front of their card.
  • Children take it in turns to throw a floor sized dice and to move around the “board”. When they land on a picture that they have chosen as their own cards, they go to their place and put the small picture onto their card. The first to place all of their small picture cards is the winner.
  • Each time a child lands on one of their chosen pictures they must explain why that particular person is one who they care for/cares for them.

STORY

The stories of Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan (Judaism), the friends lowering the lame man through the roof (Christianity), and/or Krishna and Sudama (Hinduism) can be used to explore the concept of caring for others and being cared for. Links can then be made between actions of people with a faith and their reasons for such actions. Persona Dolls can be used in the telling of the story.

e.g. Ruth and Naomi

Sam here is a Jew. Can anyone remind us of what we know about the Jewish faith and Jewish people?....

Jewish people have a lot of special stories in their religion and Sam would like me to share one of them with you today. It’s a story about 2 ladies, one called Ruth and one called Naomi.

Ruth had been married to Naomi’s son and they had all lived happily together. But Ruth’s husband had died and now both of the ladies were very sad. Ruth had lots of family – brothers, sisters, cousins etc – but Naomi had no-one now that her son was dead. She was all alone – at least she would be when Ruth went back to live with her family – which was what Ruth was expected to do. That is what ladies did in those days if their husband died.

But Ruth loved Naomi very much and even though Naomi wasn’t really her mother it felt like she was. Naomi cared very much for Ruth too.

The two ladies were very poor and they only just managed to get enough food to eat. In fact, some days they went hungry. The only way that life would get better for Ruth was by going back to her family or by getting married again – but she didn’t really think that that was going to happen. And as for Naomi – well, she was old and nobody was going to marry her and she didn’t have any family so the future didn’t really look very good for her.

Even though Naomi didn’t want Ruth to leave she knew that it would be best for Ruth if she did. So she tried and tried to persuade her to go and find her family again. But Ruth held onto Naomi crying and refused to leave her. She said to Naomi “Don’t make me leave you. Where you go I will go. Where you live I will live. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.”

So Ruth and Naomi decided to stay together and try to make a new life even though they were very poor and alone. They helped each other out and cared for each other. One day, Ruth even met a man and fell in love again. When they got married they kept looking after Naomi. So things worked out well for Ruth and Naomi after all.

  • Why do you think this is a special story for Jews? What does the story tell us/Jews about caring for other people?
  • Who cares for whom in the story? How can you tell?
  • Is there anyone whom you care for like that? How do you show that you care for them?
  • How do other people show that they care for you?

FOLLOW UP ACTIVITY

The children have explored who cares for them and who they care for through the floor board game. They have also listened to the story of Ruth and Naomi and heard how the 2 characters in the story showed care for each other.

They could now be encouraged to retell the story in their own way, to reflect on the actions of the characters and to explore reasons for the ways in which they acted and the decisions they made. They could do this in any of the following ways:

  • Act out the story using your own words
  • Draw a picture illustrating what you think is the most important part of the story which shows the care that Ruth and Naomi showed each other.
  • Listen to the story again and have percussion instruments. When you think that a part of the story shows how the characters care for each other, you should play their instrument loudly – as long as you can explain why you have responded to that part of the story.
  • Design a gift and thank you card that either Ruth or Naomi would like to give to the other. Write a message inside the card which communicates the message of thanks that you think the character would like to make. The gift you design (and make) should reflect their thoughts and feelings towards the other character.
  • Imagine that you are Naomi and you have to decide whether to try to persuade Ruth to stay with you or go back to her family and friends. What would you do and say? Act this out with a friend. Has your faith got anything to do with what you decide to say to Ruth?
  • Imagine that you are Ruth when Naomi says that you should go back to your family and friends instead of staying with her. What do you think you might do and say? Act this out with a friend. Explain in your short drama why you make the decision that you make. Has your faith got anything to do with your decision to stay and care for Naomi?
  • Look again at the characters you chose for the floor board game. Why did you choose those particular people? Can you rank them in the order that they care for you – put the one who you think cares for you the most at the top and then the next etc… Why have you ordered them in this way? Was it a hard decision? Are there any who care for you the same amount do you think? Why do you think this? What about the amount that you care for them? Can you order them in this way? What are your reasons for these decisions?

RESOURCES

  • Persona dolls for Ruth and Naomi
  • Floor sized dice
  • Floor pictures
  • Individual boards
  • Small versions of picture cards for each child