Wiltshire RE Starter Stimulus

Starter ideas for the following key question from the 2011 Agreed Syllabus:KS2.1 What do different people believe about God?

These images offer a way in to getting your pupils thinking about this question.

The slides give some pupils’ responses, revealing different beliefs about God.

You might pose some questions and get pupils to pose their own: e.g. Is God in a person’s heart? Is God in a place of worship? In the sky? Beyond the stars? Underneath everything? Through the whole world? Is God hiding? Is God quiet, or does God speak? What is God like? How does believing in God help some people?

It offers a flexible resource for you to use with pupils – for example, you may decide to select some images for your pupils rather than all of them. Some suggestions for use are given in the notes with some slides and on slides 15-17.

Josh, 7, says:God is in my heart. God is bigger than me.

“This is spiritual because the colours stand for all the good things the person is praying for. God loves everyone just as much as everyone else.”

Olivia and Hannah, 11.

Can God be found in prayer?

This Muslim boy is 9. His picture shows that Muslims don’t make pictures of God, but they do believe God is able to see everything that we do.

7 year old Shahzad says that God / Allah is everywhere. She drew this mosque to show that humans can draw near to God at the mosque, but really they are never apart from God.

“The reason I chose this title is because God is everywhere; in shells, in animals and in your mind. You might not see God but God is everywhere and constantly looking over all the people and animals in the world, from when you wake up in the morning to when you fall asleep at night.”

Chloe, age 10

Allah is the Islamic word for “God”. In Islam, Allah cannot be pictured. This pupil has used a repeater pattern. It shows that God – Allah – is in all things.

Sophie is 10.

If you had to give the prize for Spirited Arts, which picture would win the prize for…

…being the happiest?

…being the most lively?

…telling the most about what God is like?

…being the one that makes you ask the best questions?

These resources are intended as a flexible starter stimulus for the unit “What do different people believe God is like?” They give answers from within Christian, Muslim and Hindu traditions.

Here are some suggestions for ways you can use the images, and ideas for taking the unit further.

1. Key wordsGive pupils the following key words that fit a Christian understanding of God. Help them to find out what they mean if they are unsure of any terms.Give them a selection of images from this resource and ask them to match these terms with the images, where possible. Where there are no images to match the words, ask pupils to think about how to express that idea in art.

loving invisible omnipotent Father

Spirit Creator omnipresent omniscient

perfect good eternal indescribable

2. Key texts

Give pupils one of the following texts. One is from the Jewish and Christian scriptures, the other from Islam.Put the text in the centre of the piece of paper. Ask pupils to label where part of this text is illustrated by the artwork in this resource. E.g. Jade (slide 9) has illustrated the idea that God is Creator, “setting the earth on its foundations”. Can pupils match the words from slide 16 too?

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, full of love.As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who worship him.The Lord has set his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all.He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

(from Psalms 103 & 104)

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds;Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the day of Judgement.It is You that we worship and to You alone do we turn for help. Show us the straight way.

(from Surah 1, Al-Fatihah)

www.natre.org.uk/spiritedarts

All of these images come from pupil entries to the annual Spirited Arts competition. Have a look at the amazing gallery on the website.

Why not enter your pupils into the annual competition?

Details are online, including the themes for the year.Closing date: end of July each year.