Wiltshire RE Starter Stimulus Starter ideas for the following key question from the 2011 Agreed Syllabus: KS2.4 How does a Christian follow Jesus? This resource aims to provide some stimulus images and ideas to help pupils begin to address the above question. It links to the following learning outcomes from p52 of the syllabus: Pupils can: describe events in the life of at least one modern day Christian, making a link between their actions and the teachings and example of Jesus; ask and respond to questions raised by stories from the life Jesus and contemporary followers

What’s important to Sarah and her family?

Look at the pictures on the following slides. What do you think Sarah and her family are doing? Can you work out what is important to them from these pictures?

Sarah and her family are Christians and try to follow the example and teaching of Jesus in the way they live their lives. The next slide gives some teaching of Jesus that Sarah’s family try to follow in their lives.

Here are some of the things Jesus said: Treat others as you would like them to treat you. Luke 6:31 Love the people you don’t like and pray for people who upset you. Why should God reward you if you only love people who love you? That’s what everyone else does! Luke 5:43 & 6:32 You are so important to God, even the hairs on your head have been counted! Matthew 10:30 “Do not be worried or upset. Believe in God and believe in me too,” said Jesus. John 14:1 Forgive others the wrongs they have done to you and your Father in heaven will forgive you. Matthew 6:14

In the next slides, Sarah explains how being a Christian affects her everyday life.

Sarah says… ‘I try to read my Bible every day. I use some special Bible reading notes for children. These help me to learn more about Jesus.’

Sarah says… ‘Before we eat our tea, we join hands to say a prayer of thanks to God for everything he gives us.’

Sarah says… ‘Abi, Tim and I love to praise God by singing action songs together. Sometimes we even do songs in sign language!’

‘In the Bible it tells us to give money to the poor. Mum and Dad encourage me to put some of my pocket money into a charity collection box.’ Sarah says…

‘Every Christmas, as we remember Jesus’ birth, we fill a shoebox with toys and gifts to send to children in Eastern Europe.’ Sarah says…

‘Jesus teaches us to look after the sick and lonely. When I know a friend is unwell, I make them a special card to cheer them up’ ‘I believe it is important to show people all over the world that Jesus loves them.’

Ideas for using this resource: 1.Questions: connections Use the opening set of images to allow pupils to raise as many questions as they can. After looking at some of Sarah’s answers, give pupils a Venn diagram. Ask them to put on one side the things that Sarah does that they don’t do, on the other side, things that they do that Sarah doesn’t. In the overlap in the middle, see if there are any things that they do that are similar to Sarah’s everyday life. 2.Having an impact You might ask pupils to take one of the teachings of Jesus and present their own ideas about how things might change if we all followed this advice. They could improvise a scene, or put together a news bulletin, or do a drawing and label it.

3. Face to face Find out if anyone in your school community belongs to a Christian church. Work out some good questions to ask about how and why they follow Jesus at home, at church and in their everyday lives. Invite them in to your class to answer your questions, or the questions to them. 4. Comparing Use the replies to work out how Sarah and her family are similar to and different from the Christian family in your own school community. Sarah attends a Baptist church – Baptists are one part of the Protestant Christian church.