RE SCHEME OF WORK KEY STAGE 1 MIDTERM PLANNING

Year 1/2:

Term:

Year:

What do Muslims learn from stories about Muhammad?

Key Concepts: Allah, Muhammad, community

Learning Objective: To discover what Muslims believe about Muhammad and Allah from the stories that they tell; to learn that Muslims believe in one God, Allah; to make a link between the stories and way many Muslims live.

Brief Background Knowledge for teachers:

Story telling is an important part of Islam and while the Qur’an contains many stories that will be largely familiar to Jews and Christians, most of the stories about Muhammad are found in the Hadith and other writings. Many of the stories about Muhammad are used by Muslim parents for teaching their children about Muslim beliefs. The most important belief for Muslims is that there is one God, Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger. They believe that Muhammad is the last prophet. There are several simple stories about Muhammad that reveal Allah’s care for nature, for all living creatures and the need for harmonious living. The stories also reveal the wisdom of Muhammad and show how he follows Allah. Much Muslim teaching about how to live is extrapolated from these stories. Remember when telling stories about Muhammad do not use any figure or drawing to represent Muhammad or Allah; do not allow children to act out the part of Muhammad or in written work, write from Muhammad’s point of view. Many of the resources on Islamic stories that are available are written by Muslims for Muslim children. Check that you are happy with the content of any materials before you use them. There is no reason not to use such material as long as you make it clear to the pupils that this is the aim of the resource.

Expected learning:

Pupils can retell several of the stories they have encountered. The can say what these stories tell Muslims about Muhammad and Allah and they can describe simply some lifestyle choices that Muslims might make as a consequence of reading these stories. They know that in Muslim belief, Allah is God and that Muhammad is his messenger.

Developing:

Pupils can recognise some of the stories about Muhammad and identify a message that each contains. They will know that Muslims worship Allah and that Muhammad is a messenger.

Excelling

Pupils can make clear links between the stories and the messages that they contain for Muslims. They will be able to explain some simple Muslim beliefs about the characters of Allah and suggest reasons why Muslims believe that Muhammad is a Prophet and Messenger from Allah.

Engage:

• Encourage pupils to tell some simple stories that they know and like; discuss what they like about the stories and why. Ask them if there are any messages hidden in the story.

• Ask pupils to think about their favourite characters in any stories, films or TV programmes. Find out what they like about the characters and make a list of the characteristics of their characters.

Enquire & Explore:

• Read and watch or listen to a range of Muslim stories (see the resource list for suggestions). The creative story telling process (a bit like Godly Play) is a good way to present a story, but remember not to use any figures, pictures or actors to portray Muhammad.

• The children can have some time to respond to the stories – in art or writing.

• Allow the pupils to identify the messages they think the stories contain.

• Think about and discuss what Muslims learn from each of the stories and compare that to the messages the children take from them.

• Find out who Muhammad is and what he was teaching about Allah.

Evaluate:

• Find out how the stories encourage Muslims to behave, and look for evidence of this behaviour in the lives of Muslims.

• What do Muslims believe about Muhammad and Allah because of these stories?

• Do the children think Muhammad did the right thing in each of these stories?

Reflect & Communicate:

• Which of the stories do the children like best and why?

• What do they think of the characters in the stories?

• Do they think any of the messages are just for Muslims or are they important for all people?

Evaluation:

• What went well?

• Even better if: