What is taught must be in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus; (If your school is outside of Cambridgeshire: the S.C.A.A Model 2 syllabus has been included to help in matching this lesson plan with your local Agreed Syllabus).
Cambs Agreed Syllabus:
WR (Writings)
Enable pupils to:
become familiar in an appropriate context with some of the Bible's contents, and be able to look up references.
Pupils should consider this:
What books or stories have you read, or heard, which made you think?
How did they do this?
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S.C.A.A. Model syllabuses:
KEY TEACHINGS / FOCUS:
BIBLE
Some Christians read the Bible every day, & find it helpful for their every day lives.
AT1 Read a variety of stories from the Bible.
AT2 Compare the experiences of people in biblical stories with their own experiences & feelings.
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RESOURCES:
Road Atlas, with an index giving grid references. (Make sure you know how the grid refs work!)
Any book which has page numbers.
Bibles for each child, or a number of Bibles for the looking up references game. All these references are in the New Testament.
To perform the 'Gang of Boys sketch', these characters need to be found:
A boy, a girl friend, bad boy 1, bad boy 2 & bad boy 3.
Print off the 'Gang of Boys sketch'!
STARTER:
We need to find where the village of ................ is. (Teachers note: Look in the index of a Road Atlas for a town or village which you haven't heard of.)
We need to find it on this map. (Teachers note: By using the grid reference).
Q. How easy would it have been to find this place without the grid reference?
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(Teachers note: Find a good sentence in a story book, then hold the book up).
I need a volunteer to find a sentence in this book.
The sentence is ........................................... You want to know what page it is on?!!
OK it's on page .............
Q. What was the easiest thing to find & why? Discuss.
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Q. How could it be made easier to find that sentence? Discuss.
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MAIN TEACHING:
The Bible has got an easy system for finding a certain sentence.
The Bible is split into two sections: the Old Testament which is the first part of the Bible, & the New Testament which is the second part.
It is then divided into different books, which are divided into chapters.
Then each chapter is divided into verses, so that a certain sentence can be found quickly.
But how quickly? We are going to have a game now, to see who is the quickest.
We will be only looking at the New Testament part.
But first we need to give an example:
Mark is the second book of the New Testament. If the sentence we wanted to find was in chapter 4 & in the 40th verse, then we would say:
Book of Mark, chapter 4, verse 40.
This is written as: Mark 4:40
So let's look that up.
1) Find the 'Contents' at the front. This will tell you where the book is.
Q. What page does the book of Mark start on?
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2) Find the big numbers which show the chapter numbers. Then find chapter 4.
3) Find the little numbers which are the verse numbers. Now find verse 40.
Q. What does that verse say?
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("He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"")
Some books have the same name, but are written as 1 & 2. For example: 1 Timothy & 2 Timothy. (These are actually 2 different letters written by Paul to Timothy).
So let's see who is the fastest:
[1] We are going to look up a verse about food & clothing: 1 Timothy 6:8
Q. Who was the first to find it?
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Q. What does it say?
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"But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." (NIV)
It is talking about being content with what we've got.
[2] What is hostile to God? Romans 8:7 will tell us.
Q. Who was the first to find it?
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Q. What does it say?
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"the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." (NIV)
A 'bad' mind is hostile towards God, it is at war with God.
[3] How do we please God? Hebrews 11:6 will tell us.
Q. Who was the first to find it?
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Q. What does it say?
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"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (NIV)
Faith pleases God.
You now know how to find your way round the Bible, by using the book names, chapters & verses.
We will now compare the experiences of people in the Bible, with our own experiences & feelings.
So we are going to act out a sketch now, to show a situation that could happen to us:
The Gang of Boys sketch.
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Q. How would you have felt if you had been the girl or boy? Discuss.
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There is a story like that in the Bible.
Let's see where they are similar:
A man called Abram started off on a long journey with his wife Sarai & all his possessions & he had many servants.
They were walking the 750 miles to a country called Canaan, because God had told him:
"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation....." Genesis 12:2 (NIV)
They made steady progress & they finally walked into the land of Canaan. Other people were living there, so Abram didn't settle in that place, he kept travelling south.
The weather had been extremely hot & there had been no rain for months, so all the crops were dying in the fields & the rivers had dried up. So they kept walking until they got to Egypt, which had plenty of food & water.
As Abram walked along the street, he noticed that the Egyptian men were giving his beautiful wife , Sarai, the look over, & he suddenly felt afraid. He thought that the Egyptians would attack & kill him so that they could steal his wife Sarai. So he took the cowards way & told everyone that Sarai was his sister, so that if she was taken, then he wouldn't get killed!
Soon Pharoah, the king of Egypt, got to hear about this new, 'unattached' beautiful woman from another country. Abram's fears seemed to be coming true! Pharoah sent his officials to get Sarai & bring her to his palace. Pharoah treated Abram well by giving him lots of presents.
But during that evening, everyone at Pharoah's palace became very ill. This made Pharoah wonder why & he spent time thinking over the situation. He decided that this illness had come upon his household, because he had taken Sarai! So he asked around & he discovered that Sarai was really Abram's wife! Pharoah was furious & he told his officials to bring Abram to him.
Abram sheepishly approached Pharoah who sat upon his royal throne.
Pharoah roared: "What have you done to me?! Why didn't you tell me she was your wife!"
But before Abram could answer Pharoah said:
"Here is your wife. Now take her & go! I don't want to see you ever again! Take all that you own & get out of Egypt now!"
Abram felt guilty that he had decived Pharoah. He was sorry for putting Sarai into a dangerous situation & he felt bad that he hadn't told the truth, & that he hadn't trusted God. But he was thankful that he had got Sarai back & he still had all of his possessions with him.
Q. What was similar about this story & the sketch we did?
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Both the boy & Abram were thinking more about themselves than their girlfriend / wife.
Q. What was different in the story to the sketch?
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In the sketch the 3 boys were seen as being bad, & they turned out to be bad. But Abram discovered that this Pharoah was much more fair than he had anticipated.
The boy didn't say sorry to his girlfriend for leaving her in a difficult situation, whereas Abram did.
Q. Why is it good to look at stories like this?
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We will are about to see what happened to Abram next, but first, to set the scene:
Imagine you are at your friends birthday party. Your friend is passing round his / her favourite pudding which has been cut into portions, but unfortunately there is only one piece left. Your friend hasn't had a piece yet, so you stop to think about what you should do:
It's your friends birthday & you know that it is their favourite pudding, but you want it.
So you take the last piece & your friend doesn't have any.
Q. Was this the right thing to do? Discuss.
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Q. What were the different options?
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Abram travelled away from Egypt & settled in Canaan.
With Abram was his nephew, who was called Lot & he had many possessions, animals & servants.
They settled together by a water supply in a green valley.
But there were so many people & animals that Abram's servants & Lot's servants began to quarrel with each other. So Abram, being the older man & the leader of this whole group said to Lot, his nephew:
"Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left." Genesis 13:9 (NIV)
He had every right to choose first, but he didn't. He was a very humble man.
Q. What is a humble person & does that mean that they are weak? Discuss.
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Abram was very kind & generous, this does not show weakness.
Q. If you had been Lot, how would you have answered Abram at this moment?
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Q. How do you think Lot actually answered Abram?
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Lot looked around him, & he saw the wonderful green plain of the river Jordan to the east. So he chose the best part of the land!
He gathered all his family, animals & servants, & set off towards the east.
Abram must have felt hurt by Lot's selfish attitude, but he trusted that God would put things right, & sure enough we can see further on in the story how things got turned around, how Lot suffered for his selfishness & Abram ended up the better for it.
PLENARY:
Some Christians read the Bible every day & they find it helpful for their everyday lives.
Q. Why is it good to look at the sort of stories that we've seen today?
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Either take a short time to discuss these things, or leave it with them.
(Teachers note: There is a worksheet to accompany this lesson plan).