TOPIC:PENTECOST

YEARS 1 & 2 THEME:CHURCH DATES:23.04.12 –25.05.12

Learning intentions / Key words / Teaching / Pupils’ activities, group differentiation / Assessment / Resources
1. To hear the Word / Pentecost
Bewildered
Amazed
Astonished / Ask children to discuss in pairs what they remember about the Easter Story.
Give children in pairs the following events to put in chronological order at their tables.
  • Good Friday (disciples watch as Jesus dies on the cross)
  • Easter Sunday (They find the tomb is empty)
  • Jesus reveals himself to the disciples and promises not to leave them alone.
  • Jesus promises to send them his Spirit to be with them forever.
  • Jesus returns to his Father in heaven.
  • The disciples talk about Jesus and all the things he did and said.
  • The Holy Spirit comes to the disciples.
Children to come back to the carpet and go through these events and order correctly together / HA/MA- Children to work in pairs, place the pictures and events in chronological order.
LA – Work with TA to place the pictures and events in chronological order. / Pictures and descriptions of each event leading up to Pentecost

2. To hear the Word

/ Pentecost
Holy Spirit
Jews
Devout
Bewildered
Galileans
Disciples
Use the term ‘different countries’ when referring to all the countries listed. / Introduce topic title to chn.
Key Questions to learn about this topic:
What do we celebrate at Pentecost?
Why is this a special day for the Church?
How does the Holy Spirit help us?
(these questions will be on the topic title page to be answered at the end of the topic)
Q: What is a celebration? Why do you think we need to learn about the celebration of Pentecost?
Explain that we will be basing our learning in this unit on a piece of NT Scripture from the Acts of the Apostles. This book in the New Testament is thought to be written by Luke and is all about what the disciples did after Jesus had left and gone to heaven. This book is all about how the disciples continued the work of Jesus and worked to establish the Church.
Display passage on IWB: (Acts 2: 1-13)

Identify any terms, places or roles chn are not familiar with. Check any meanings at:

(Teachers to look at P-P (found on Encounter the Word – HISTORICAL P-P) on Shavu’ot to understand what this Jewish celebration is)
Look at the setting of the story – the disciples were gathered together in a house in Jerusalem following Jesus’ ascension to heaven.
Where is Jerusalem? Display a map of Jerusalem.
Why were they there? (The feast of Shavu’ot is what was being celebrated by the Jews on this day (Pentecost))
Story book explaining what Shavu’ot is: Sammy’s Spider’sFirst Shavu’ot by Sylvia Rouss and Katherine Kahn. / Class discussion – answer questions and clarify any misunderstandings.
Children complete Title page – to include questions:
What do we celebrate at Pentecost?
Why is this a special day for the Church?
How does the Holy Spirit help us?
(These will be answered later on or at the end of the topic) / Story book explaining what Shavu’ot is: Sammy Spider’s First Shavuot
(Available on Amazon.co.uk)
3. To hear the Word / Pentecost
Holy Spirit
Jews
Devout
Bewildered
Galileans
Disciples
Use the term ‘different countries’ when referring to all the countries listed. / Display and read story again.
Invite the chn to ask any questions they may have about the story.
Discussion
Q: Who are the characters in the story? The disciples and the crowd.
Q: Where does the story take place? In Jerusalem
Q: What happens in the story? The disciples receive the Holy Spirit which enables them to go and spread the good news.
Q: What is the message of this story? / In groups, chn to rehearse a performance of the story.
Encourage chn to consider the use of movement and gesture within their performance to enhance the story.
Take photo of the children performing and display in their books.
Plenary:
Share performances. / Online Bible
Copy of story
Story strips
4. To hear the Word
Assessment Piece / Pentecost
Holy Spirit
Jews
Devout
Bewildered
Galileans
Disciples
Use the term ‘different countries’ when referring to all the countries listed. / Recap the story.
Display passage on IWB: (Acts 2: 1-13)
/ LA/A
Retell the three main parts of the story using the three pictures RE Provide YEAR 1 (Pentecost – pictures and placeholders)
HA: Retell the story in your own words. / AT 1 (i) Level 1 & 2 / RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 - (Pentecost – pictures and placeholders)
Sentence starters
5. To encounter the Word / Sad
Happy
Frightened
Confused
Puzzled
Shocked
Excited
Amazed
Thankful
Worried / Short recap of the events leading up to Pentecost (see lesson 1 above)
Display the list of emotions and discuss with the children how each one makes you feel.
Emotions: sad, happy, frightened, confused, puzzled, shocked, excited, amazed, thankful and worried.
Q. Can you give an example of a time you felt this way? / HA – RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 - (Feeling graph – the promise of the Holy Spirit)
Write a sentence for each event e.g On Good Friday the disciples felt ……, because……
MA – RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 - (Feeling graph – the promise of the Holy Spirit)
Choose 4 of the events and write a sentence about it, e.g. On Good Friday the disciples felt ……, because…….
LA – Working with TA. Talk through the events and discuss how the disciples felt about it and why. RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 - (Feeling graph – the promise of the Holy Spirit) / RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 - (Feeling graph – the promise of the Holy Spirit)
6. To encounter the Word / Amazed
Astonished
Resurrection
Ascension / Display passage on IWB: (Acts 2: 1-13)

Luke describes the crowd in verses 5-13 as bewildered, amazed and astonished.
What do you think the crowd saw and heard?
The crowd may have seen: the disciples coming out of hiding, the disciples full of joy, people gathering around; people speaking to each other in different languages.
The crowd may have heard: people speaking to each other in different languages, about God’s deeds of power (events of the resurrection and ascension) / HA/MA – Imagine you are a member of the crowd. Create a diary entry about what you experienced on this day. Give children guidelines of what you want them to include. E.g. what they saw, heard, felt etc.
LA - RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 – Relate - Pentecost day worksheet. / RE PROVIDE YEAR 1 – Relate - Pentecost day worksheet.
7. To recognise some images used to represent the Holy Spirit. / Holy Spirit
Wind
Fire
Hands
Dove
Images/symbols / How is the Holy Spirit described in the passage?
Sound like a rush of violent wind and tongues of fire.
Q. What are the characteristics of wind and fire?
Discuss how wind and fire moves, sounds and feels.
Q. What images/symbols are there of the Holy Spirit? Dove, fire, wind, hands.
Q. Why have these images/symbols been chosen to represent the Holy Spirit?Dove – gentle/peaceful, Fire – gives warmth and light, Wind – gentle/powerful, Hands – feeling of safety/protection/comfort/reassurance. / Create a mosaic pattern for one of the images/symbols of the Holy Spirit. / For Yr 2:
AT1(i) Level 3 if they can explain their mosaic = “story to belief” / Images of dove, fire, wind, hands.
Collage materials to create mosaic
Glue
Paper
8. To recognise how the Holy Spirit helps us in our lives. / Holy Spirit
Gifts
Courage
Patience
Love
Faithfulness
Strength / Recap over previous lesson.
Q. How did the Holy Spirit help the disciples?
Q. What gifts did they receive? Gifts – courage, strength, faithfulness, patience, love, kindness, to speak other languages, to share Jesus’ message/the good news. / Sorting activity – using cards from RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (What does the Holy Spirit do)
Select the descriptions that show how the Holy Spirit helps you.
HA – Worksheet showing how the Holy Spirit will help you in all areas of your life: school, home and play.
MA – As above (choose one area)
LA – Use a template of one of the images of the Holy Spirit. Write inside it how the Holy Spirit will help you in your life. / Cards from RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (What does the Holy Spirit do)
Teacher to create worksheet for HA/MA group.
Template of a dove, hand or fire for LA.
9. To recognise how Pentecost is celebrated in the Church. / Pentecost
Holy spirit
Vestments:
Chasuble – priest’s outer garment.
Stole – priest’s scarf
Banner / On Pentecost Sunday (May 27th) our Clergy will wear red Vestments and
place red cloths on the altar. How does the colour link to what this day
celebrates - the coming of the Holy Spirit?
Power-Point from RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (Relate – Pentecost in the Church)
Talk about the words and images used on banners. / Children to create their own banner for Pentecost.
Share the prayer from the P-P ‘Come Holy Spirit…’ / Power-Point from RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (Relate – Pentecost in the Church)
10. To write a prayer to the Holy Spirit. / Look at the Power-Point from RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (Relate – The promise of the Spirit)
Discuss what Jesus tells us about the Holy Spirit – record these on the IWB. / Write a prayer to the Holy Spirit (differentiated writing frames) / Differentiated writing frames for prayer to the Holy Spirit
11. To state what we know about Pentecost / Have a class remembering session, recapping over what we have learnt about Pentecost.
RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (Remember – Pentecost PDF) / RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (Remember – Pentecost PDF)
LA – TA support. / Assessment
opportunity / RE PROVIDE – Year 2 (Remember – Pentecost PDF)
12. To prepare a class liturgy. / Celebrate
Liturgy
Pentecost
Holy Spirit
Disciples / Recap over what we know about the Holy Spirit.
Explain to chn that they are going to create their own class Liturgy to be celebrated in the next lesson. Display the list below on board.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
Where are we gathering?
Who is invited?
Where will they sit?
What do we need?
What roles will people have?
What reading do we want? (Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-18)
What song do we sing? (e.g The Spirit lives to set us free)
What prayers do we say? (use one that has been written in previous lesson)
How do we end our gathering? / Take photographs of children planning and discussing ideas.
Prepare prompt sheet with questions for children to work in groups or pairs. / Bibles or photocopied page of passage from Acts
Prayers chn previously written.
List of songs to sing with lyrics.
13. To participate in a class liturgy. / Celebrate
Liturgy
Pentecost
Holy Spirit
Disciples / Arrange chairs in a circle (if possible), set up a focal point (red cloth to represent Pentecost and image of the Holy Spirit), light a candle.
Read from Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-18 / Celebrate the Liturgy that the chn have composed in class. / Prayer focus – red cloth, image of the Holy Spirit etc.
Candle
14. To show that we understand what Pentecost means to Christians. / Explain to the chn that we are going to look back at the Title Page and revisit the questions we first asked at the very beginning of the topic – have a class discussion and brainstorm the answers to the questions. / Chn use whole class brainstorm activity to revisit title page and answer key questions.

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