Big Questions Semester 2 Teacher's manual

Christian education for the last year of primary school

TEACHER’S MANUAL Semester 2

Contents For the teacher

What you will find in each lesson

Curriculum stance

Training and support

Five circles of learning

Big Questions icons Lesson 1 What is a Christian?

Lesson 2 Jesus—what was he really like?

Lesson 3 Jesus—just an ordinary man?

Lesson 4 Jesus—dead or alive?

Lesson 5 How can people talk to God? Lesson 6 How can people hear from God? Lesson 7 How does the Bible fit together?

Lesson 8 Can people really change?

Lesson 9 Are some people too bad for God to forgive?

Lesson 10 Can anything stop the spread of the gospel?

Lesson 11 What is the Church today?

Lesson 12 What is the Church doing today?

Lesson 13 How does God want us to live?

Dealing with anger Lesson 14 How does God want us to live?

Dealing with relationships Lesson 15 How does God want us to live?

Helping those in need Lesson 16 How does God want us to live?

Dealing with stress Lesson 17 How does God want us to live?

Looking after God’s world

Lesson 18 Do you have a question?

Lesson 19 What does the future hold?

Who holds the future?

4 7 7 8 9

Various passages Luke 1–6; Mark 5 Luke 6–20 Luke 22–24 Various passages Various passages Various passages Acts 2:1–41; Luke 22:54–62 Acts 9:1–22 Acts 16:11–34 John 10:11–16; Romans 12:4–5; John 15:1–7; 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 Matthew 28:18-20; various passages Matthew 21:12–13; Ephesians 4:26

92 102 108

John 13:1–17

116

Matthew 5:16; Ephesians 5:1–2; James 2:14–17 Psalms 34, 55 and 62; Matthew 11:28

124

Genesis 1:31, 3:17–19; Psalm 19:1–4; Mark 4:35–41; Colossians 1:15–17; 2 Peter 3:13 Various passages John 10:27–28; Hebrews 12:1–2; Jude 24–25

138

Teaching Ideas

Help with classroom management

Helpful teaching techniques

Teaching Key verses

Is your class different?

Teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

Learning theory undergirding Big Questions

Using appropriate language in the (S)RE/RI class

What the Bible says about living as God’s friends

10 18 24 30 36 44 54 66 76 84

132

148 154

162 164 168 171 172 173 175 176

SEMESTER 2 • 3

5 How

Various passages

an people talk c to God?

Lesson aims • To encourage students to develop a clearer understanding of prayer as a part of a Christian’s relationship with God. • To help students know how to pray.

Lesson outcomes Students will: • discuss what part communication plays in a relationship • list and describe different kinds of prayer • examine some of David’s prayers • have an opportunity to pray.

Bible background This lesson is designed to help students learn what it looks like to pray. In Semester 1, Lessons 7–8 we explored God’s character and his care for us. (It might be helpful to revise that briefly.)

On the basis of what Christians know about God from the Bible, they understand that they are welcomed by him and are assured that he loves to hear them pray. In this lesson we encourage the students to understand that God’s people can come to God honestly, openly and in a relationship of respectful and warm friendship. We want students to know that the Bible says that they can talk to God in their own way.

Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8b (NIV)

In this lesson we examine various kinds of prayer—praise, thanks, confession, intercession and petition—however we have avoided these technical terms and tried to use simple explanations.

Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Philippians 4:6 (CEV)

There is opportunity for students to express themselves in prayer in their student magazines. Be sure to emphasise that this is not compulsory; it is a voluntary task.

Key verses

3 6 • BIG QUESTIONS TEACHER’S MANUAL

5 You will need

Teaching tips

ÆÆ Two copies of scripts from page 43 for INTRO ÆÆ CEV Bibles or PowerPoint presentation of David’s prayers ÆÆ Big Questions Semester 2 Student magazine for each student ÆÆ Materials for Extension Activities

If questions come up about unanswered prayer and students have been deeply disappointed with God’s seeming lack of response to their prayers, you may want to talk to individual students while others are completing activities.

Remember to always talk to students in full view of other students and the classroom teacher. Allow students to express their disappointment, respond with empathy, but give a sense of God’s faithfulness in your life even at times when you did not understand why things turned out as they did.

Lesson summary zzINTRO Talking and relationships zzCORE Communicating with God Big Questions Semester 2 Student magazine Types of prayer David’s prayers

Teacher’s prayer Heavenly Father, thank you for the privilege of prayer. I am sorry I sometimes ignore your invitation and command to pray. Help me to pray and to treasure the relationship I have with you. Amen.

zzPULLING IT TOGETHER Praying right now Concluding prayer zzOTHER RESOURCES PowerPoint presentation for Lesson 5 (see page 6 for more information)

SEMESTER 2 • 37

5 INTRO

CORE

TALKING AND RELATIONSHIPS

COMMUNICATING WITH GOD

Use one of the scripts on page 43.

Some people feel that God hasn’t got time for them, or that he’s not interested, or that they don’t really know what to say to him.

Alternatively, ask two students to improvise their own version. Give them the scenario of two people, one of whom wants to get a conversation going and the other one who keeps ignoring, not answering or not caring.

• What was wrong with these conversations?

• Were they good friends? How could you tell?

Good friends talk to each other. They take time to listen to each other; they care about each other.

You can tell a lot about a relationship by the way people talk to each other.

• Can you think of some examples of relationships where the way people talk reveals a lot? (Accept examples. Share some from current events or people known to the students.)

• What can we tell from the way people talk to God? (Accept responses.)

When Christians have a relationship with God, through faith in Jesus, part of that relationship involves talking to him. Prayer is talking to God. • Christians believe that God really does want to hear from them. Do you agree? Why/why not? Bible icon BIG QUESTIONS Activity Books icon STUDENT MAGAZINE Distribute the Big Semester 2 Visual Aid Questions icon Student magazines and ask the students to turn to page 8. Read with them the verse at the top CD icon of the page (Psalm 62:8 NIV).

Ask themMusic to write icontheir response to the question: What does this verse say about how to pray?

Word icon

After the students have written their responses, share your own& reflection Maths Logic icon on this question. You might talk about different times when you have poured out your heart to God—when you were Body icon worried, or afraid, or in danger; or at times when you were happy, thankful or concerned Space & Vision icon for a friend. Express how you come to God using your own words, and are open with God Interpersonal icon about your deepest feelings and fears.

Self icon Nature icon Bible Exploration icon

LESSON 5 POWERPOINT SLIDES 1.

How can I talk to God?

2.

Psalm 62:8b (NIV)

3.

Philippians 4:6 (CEV)

4–7. David’s prayers from Psalms: 86:1–4; 109:1–5; 118:1; 117

3 8 • BIG QUESTIONS TEACHER’S MANUAL

5 TYPES OF PRAYER

DAVID’S PRAYERS

The Bible tell us that God wants his people to express themselves freely to God, with their own words and in any and every situation.

King David, from the Old Testament, wrote many examples of prayers.

Christians over the years have used different kinds of prayer. Five of these kinds of prayer are explained in the magazine.

Allow students time to add the missing words on page 8. Discuss each kind of prayer briefly as follows: • What sorts of things can people praise God for? (e.g. his greatness, his love, his creative power, and so on.)

• What could people thank God for? (e.g. physical blessings, relationships, health, forgiveness, and so on.)

• When might someone need to confess something to God? (Allow students to suggest both actions and attitudes, both things done wrong and good not done when the opportunity arises.)

How can we know that God forgives people?

(Read 1 John 1:9 and discuss this promise.)

• When would it be good to pray for others?

(Consider both close relationships and local and global needs.)

• What sorts of things might people pray about for themselves (the missing word here is ‘ourselves’)? (Read Matthew 10:30–31 to reassure students of God’s intimate knowledge and care for his people.)

Invite students to read and discuss one or more of the examples printed on page 9 of their magazines.

• Psalm 86:1–4 How was David feeling?

What did he ask for?

• Psalm 109:1–5 What had happened to David?

How was he feeling?

• Psalm 118:1 What kind of prayer is this?

• Psalm 117 What kind of prayer is this?

Why is David praising God? We can see from these examples that David talked to God at different times and about all sorts of things that were happening in his life.

No matter how he was feeling, or what was happening, he talked to God about it.

God wants his people to be like this. He wants them to be honest and talk to him.

SEMESTER 2 • 39

5 PULLING IT TOGETHER PRAYING RIGHT NOW Invite students to complete the rest of the magazine page by writing a prayer to God. Remind them that God doesn’t care about spelling or punctuation; he wants honest prayers.

Allow students quiet time to write their prayers to God. Those who finish quickly could complete any unfinished work on previous pages or work on a copy of the Mega Find-aword puzzle on page 65.

Collect the magazines ready for the next lesson. Read the comments during the week, responding if appropriate.

I’m going to pray now. If you would like to pray too, please join me. If you would rather not, that’s OK. Please just sit quietly so we don’t get distracted.

CONCLUDING PRAYER God, it’s really good to know that you want people to be honest with you when they pray. Help us to understand what prayer is and that we can talk to you anytime. Amen.

4 0 • BIG QUESTIONS TEACHER’S MANUAL

OPTIONAL: If you have time at the end of the lesson you could explore the Lord’s Prayer with your students. It is printed on page 36 of the Big Questions Semester 2 Student magazine.

Read it together; discuss the different kinds of prayer—praise, confession, asking for help and so on. Help the students appreciate the simplicity of this prayer but also the deep relationship with God that it reflects.

Activity Books icon Visual Aid icon CD icon

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Music icon TALKING TO GOD THE FATHER

Word icon Bible icon

Read Matthew 6:6 with students and Maths &Books Logic icon Activity iconus about prayer. discuss what this teaches Jesus encourages his followers to simply Body icon Visual Aid to icon and privately talk their heavenly Father, who loves them. Prayer doesn’t have to be Space & Visionlanguage icon showy, use or be in a CD particular icon particular place.

Interpersonal icon Music icon Bible icon QUESTIONS ABOUT PRAYER Self icon Word icon Activity Books icon iconquestions to the students.

Pose theNature following Maths & Logic icon Visual Aidtoicon Encourage them talk about these questions and suggest own answers.

You could ask Bibletheir Exploration icon Body icon students to write their responses.

CD icon Why doesn’t always SpaceGod & Vision iconanswer the way people want?

Music icon

Bible icon Activity Books icon

5

Visualyou Aidcould icon show some images Alternatively associated with prayer. You may have posters, CD or images which you can make into a icon PowerPoint presentation.

Music icon Allow students to create their own image reflecting on what prayer means. They may like to add words, or a simple sentence such as: Word icon Prayer is …

Maths & Logic icon THE PRAYER HAND

Body icon

This simple reminder help us pray was Space & Visionto icon developed by navigators. (See navlink.org/ prayer-hand, viewed June Interpersonal icon 2017.)

The Prayer Hand

Self icon Nature icon Bible Exploration icon

Interpersonal icon Can anyone pray?

Word icon

Is it different if someone prays in a church icon building?Self Can a person pray anywhere?

Maths & Logic icon

How would a person know if God is listening?

Nature icon Body icon

Bible Exploration icon DRAWING / DESIGN

Bible icon

Space & Vision icon

Give students a blankicon piece of paper and some Interpersonal equipment such as coloured pencils, felt pens, and so on.

Self icon

Discuss the different kinds of imagery people have used to describe Nature icon prayer, such as: Prayer is taking hold of God’s outstretched Bible Exploration icon hand. Anon Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre? Corrie Ten Boom To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Martin Luther Short prayers are long enough. Charles Spurgeon

Activity Books icon Visual touches Aid icon all four fingers, so praise As the thumb should permeate a person’s whole prayer life.

CD icon MUSIC AND QUIETNESS

Music icon

If suitable for your class play some quiet Word icon reflective music, perhaps by a Christian musician such as Bach, and invite students to Maths & Logic icon pray silently according to their own needs and expressing their own concerns and questions to Body icon could be written or drawn as God. Their prayers part of this quiet reflection.

Space & Vision icon Interpersonal icon Self icon Nature icon

Bible Exploration icon SEMESTER 2 • 41

5 DAILY BIBLE READINGS AND QUESTIONS Explore some further Bible teaching about prayer.

DAY ONE: 1 John 5:14–15, knowing what to pray for

• What do these verses teach us about God?

• How can people know what God’s will is, and therefore what to pray for?

• List five things people can know for certain are God’s will, and therefore that can definitely be prayed for.

DAY FOUR: Luke 18:9–14, humility before God

DAY TWO: James 4:1–3, motives in prayer • What were the wrong attitudes and actions of the people in these verses?

• What do you think are the right motives to have when asking God for something?

DAY THREE: Luke 11:5–10, persevering in prayer

• Describe the two different attitudes of these men as they prayed.

• Why did God accept the tax collector?

• Why is it encouraging to know this?

DAY FIVE: 2 Corinthians 12:8–10, sometimes God says no, and yes • What was Paul’s prayer?

• What was God’s answer?

• How can Paul say he is both weak and strong at the same time?

• What attitude is Jesus saying people should have when they pray?

Teacher reflections zzWhat worked well?

zzWhat do I need to follow up?

zzWhat will I pray about?

4 2 • BIG QUESTIONS TEACHER’S MANUAL

Kids’ questions

SCRIPTS ■ VERSIO

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■ VERSIO

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© 2008 The purchaser of this manual is entitled to photocopy this page for classroom purposes.

SEMESTER 2 • 43