Age 9-11- A Prayer of Thanks before Space- Lesson 1 of 2

This is a religious education (R.E.) lesson in a unit based on travelling to Mars. It is the first of two lessons where we write a thank you prayer. We start by comparing religions (Christianity, Islam and Hinduism) and their differences in prayer. We then look at reasons to pray before focusing on a prayer of thanks, grouping ideas into categories. In this lesson, we say thank you for parents/carers, food & drink and animals (the world, friends and health are covered in the next lesson).

The unit’s context revolves around a mission to Mars. Pre-lesson preparation is provided with two animations from an astronaut’s first-person point of view as he or she travels to Mars, making the lesson come alive. In this lesson we have been given a picture of our loved ones before our space mission which inspires our prayer.

This lesson runs alongside a Maths unit where children create their own diary on Mars to document mathematical findings and a Literacy unit where they write their own non-chronological report on Mars.

This unit is aimed at children at an age 9-11 level (Year 5 & 6 in England and Wales). PowerPoints provide structure, modelling, examples and explanation. There is also support with religion and prayer information.

There is a lesson plan which includes:

• suggested links to curriculums;
• notes to provide background information;
• optional pre lesson preparation;
• starter, main, groups and plenary sections with suggested timings (please change depending on your class);
• sections of the lesson are linked to Blooms taxonomy;
• talk time suggestions;
• PowerPoint presentations to support teaching;
• differentiated group activities with extra ideas for early finishers;
• consideration of, and reference to, different learning styles;
• pictures and actions provided for key terms; and
• independent activities that are planned to aim to allow the teacher to support or extend an assessment group within the lesson

Plans and PowerPoints are detailed and thorough to provide teaching structure, if needed, for the whole, or parts, of the lesson. An alternative streamlined PowerPoint is also provided.

Thankyou,

Team Teaching Alive

P.S.- See PowerPoints for any copyright info and disclaimers.
P.P.S.- PowerPoints and PDFs are read only but there is no problem with any requests for changes (within reason).