'Boy-friendly' ideas.

[Racingsnake]

Calling all teachers/parents of boys/creative people out there.

I work part time in a primary school, mainly covering ppa teaching RE. (Obviously that's what no-one else wants to do!)

This means that I don't have the same class all day and haven;t built up much of a relationship with some classes.

My nightmare class is 31 year 5/6 mixed-age pupils, mostly boys, nearly all with some kind of emotional issue. They are easily bored and hate writing.

I recently got them to design a stained glass window about the life of a saint. Great success. Class teacher also did advantages/disadvantages of a topic as snakes and ladders. Brilliant! I now need lots more ideas like these - how can I adapt art/games etc for use in RE?

(Before anyone says anything, I value the girls just as much as the boys. In this class, they are just easier to manage.)

[keepingitRia]

there is a lego website - the Brick Testament? DS1 is quite keen on that, it may help you in some way but isn't exactly answering your question, sorry.
Good luck.

cartoon strips?

HTH

[Seeline]

Role play of some sort - either acting out a story or using modern day scenarios
Designing a newspaper for biblical times - covering specific stories if necessary

What sort of topics are you needing to cover?

[Littlefish]

Anything that involves designing, building, costing things out etc.

Heraldic shields to show family/personal interests and character traits

Designing and building shelters for the homeless (build out of newspaper and sellotape - charge £1.00 per piece of paper and 50p per piece of sellotape - which shelter is the most cost-effective?

Planning Aid packages for different war/famine zones?

Any of these on the right track, or are they too much PHSE and not enough RE. Sorry, I don't know the KS2 curriculum.

[Racingsnake]

Thank you for these ideas (takes rapid notes). Off to look for the lego site and love the idea of cost-effective shelters for a Thinking Skills type project one day. Newspaper would fascinate me but fear it would involve writing.

My next topic with them (famous Christians) is St Aldelm then looking at hymns etc and are they a good way of spreading Jesus' ideas, then Martin Luther King and/or Mother Theresa. Thought MLK might go down better. Then look how local church is putting J's ideas into practice.

I think we would be much better off if we could look at PSHE style topics as suggested by littlefish.

[keepingitRia]

re hymns racingsnake. At our church family service one week we sang a hymn that contained the line "he even gave the cat it's furry bottom" (which TBH I found a bit ) but that might appeal to the age group, comparing modern with traditional? Also vicar said something about how he would love to do a service just using "pop" songs.

could you compare the local church with The Vicar of Dibley?

my DS ismore into religion than I am TBH so I have no practical suggestions, but his secondary teacher uses the brick testament. They also had to write a postcard home as if they had been at the scene of John the Baptist baptising Jesus. (DS is very anti-writing, but I think he got into the swing of that because it was brief)

[Racingsnake]

Found the brick testament

[Littlefish]

Drawing comic strips is always good.

Speech bubbles from a frozen point in a story.

Hot seating different characters for different viewpoints.

[scrappydappydoo]

I don't know much about educating boys but I will say be very careful about using the brick testament most of it is brill but there are quite a few scenes with lego characters doing some very unbiblical things in them - not suitable for primary eyes.. By all means use it just scructinise everything.

[Racingsnake]

I was looking at it today. I would say that they are doing very biblical things! But you are qite right, it would need careful scrutiny.

[scrappydappydoo]

• its more the characters in the background you have to watch - especially if you are teaching boys..

[Racingsnake]

Ah. Must have another look!