Exploring Celebrations

Edited by Joyce Mackley

Rating:

Exploring Celebrations, edited by Joyce Mackley, is a very good resource for any primary classroom, both class teachers and RE Co-ordinators alike.   The focus of this issue is on celebrations of religious festivals in Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.  It talks about the importance of the festivals and the beliefs of the different faiths.  This is a useful resource for the teaching of religious education, as it not only lays out easy to follow ideas and activities to support lessons in Foundation Stage,  KS1 and KS2 classes, it also gives child friendly I can statements to help with the levelling of children’s work.  There are many creative activities and some of these can be linked to other areas of the curriculum. There are many good ideas for the teacher who finds teaching Religious Education daunting. 

The layout of the text is very clear as it is in boxed sections.  There are also some links to QCA RE units of work.    It is encouraging to see the many useful starting points to the festivals and celebrations including using cards to promote discussions.

This is a very worthwhile book which makes references to many websites and resources. For subscribers to RE Today, there are additional resources and classroom materials.

Reviewer: Angela Hedges, Class teacher, ICT Subject Leader, Charlton Manor Primary School, London

Review posted on: 27 June 2008

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