The Island

transcript

The Island

Year 3 and 4

Autumn 2007 onwards

Learning objectives

• To think about things that are the same about different religions.

• To think about how you would feel and react in different situations.

• To think about why people do what they do.

The story begins with a cruise around the world. Some of you are rich people who go on cruises every winter to get away from the cold. Some of you are not rich, but you won a ticket for the cruise in a competition in a newspaper.

Everyone is waving and cheering and is very excited. At the last minute a limousine pulls up on the quay and a beautiful young bride steps out of the car with her husband. She runs up the gangplank and the ship sets off!

On the first Saturday night there is a fancy dress party. You are beginning to get to know the other passengers and have a wonderful evening.

In the middle of the night you are woken up by a terrible crunching, crashing sound. The ship begins to tip to one side. You are terrified and leap out of bed, but the captain says that there is no danger and that everyone should go back to bed until morning.

In the morning you wake up to find that the ship has run around on a coral reef which wasn’t on any map. The captain tells you that the computers aren’t working and that there is no signal on the ship’s radio. There is no way of communicating with the outside world.

The captain takes a party of crew out to look around the island. You all wait nervously on the broken ship, wondering what is going to happen.When he gets back, he reports that there is good news and bad news. The good news is that there is a stream with fresh water, lots of fruit trees, fish in the sea to eat and no dangerous animals. The bad news is that the island is small and there are no people anywhere.He tells everybody to get off the ship and take anything which could be useful for making shelters on the island – we could be here for a few days.

What are we worried about?

You have been on the island for two weeks now. People are starting to get irritable and argumentative. The captain calls a meeting. He says that, as we are going to be here for longer than he though, we need to set up some rules for how to get on with each other and live safely on the island.

Where do we have rules in our lives?

Our rulesIn groups, can you think of 10 rules which would

make life on the island safer and easier?

We will then vote on the rules to decide on the 10 more popular rules for living on the island.

Compare to rules in religions

Nine months later

(Talk about how time has passed. Discuss what could be the useful things you have taken from the ship and how they could be used. Good DT link. Mention that things such as jewellery and best dresses were also taken, because they will be used for special ceremonies later.)

(Set the scene by talking about the bride being very worried encourage the children to work out what the problem may be, talk about childbirth and its dangers where there is no medical help. Tell the children that the bride is in the hut all day with some of the older women in the group. They don’t know what is happening.)

In the middle of the night, the baby is born. Will it be alive?

Will the mother be alive?

Can you think of a name for the baby? It will have to be suitable for a boy or a girl, as we don’t know which it will be. We will vote on the most popular name.

The baby is alive! The mother is alive! How can you all

celebrate?• Work in small groups

• Make a list of ideas to put to the class. Remember to say why you have chosen each idea.

• Special food

• Special clothes

• Special words

• Special gifts

• Some of our ideas as an example:

• The ceremony:

• Fire a firework into the sky to start the ceremony so that everyone knows

• Give the baby gifts because I had some when I was born

• Party because I like parties

• Bowl of water from the stream and the captain or the baby’s mother and father puts some on the baby’s head. We will use water because that makes us think of cleanliness.

• Carve the baby’s name on a tree

• Choose an adult to be responsible for the baby if its parents die. Maybe the whole community could be responsible?

(Lots of cross-curricular opportunities: art, DT cooking, ICT research on local plants,

shells, etc)

(Compare to birth ceremonies in different religions)

Thirty years later

The baby has grown up and more babies have been born. The first baby is now the leader of the community. Some of the people are beginning to get old.

(Talk about ageing and death, then introduce a character who will die. What will you do with the body? How will you make sure that you remember that person?)

What have you, the islanders, invented?

Find out about rituals and ceremonies to do with death in various religions. What do they do that is the same? What do

they do that is different?

There are now many children on the island. Some of the adults are beginning to worry that, when the old people have died, the children will not know about the landing on the island or where they came from.

What could you, the islanders, do about this?

In this book they wrote all the information that would teach the islanders about their history and how to live safely on the island.

How could you make sure that the book doesn’t get damaged or lost?

What could you put in the book?

• The story of the shipwreck and what happened afterwards

• The names and families of the first people on the island – family trees

• Jobs done by the first settlers• The rules they wrote when they first arrived• Details of the ceremonies for new babies

and people dying

What have you, the islanders, invented?

Compare to different religions.

Christianity

• What is in the Bible?• The Holy Bible is a collection of books. These are arranged in the Old

Testament (before Jesus Christ) and New Testament. • The Old Testament has three parts

*History:about creation and the history of the Jewish people* Wisdom literature, which includes prayers, great wisdom, and some prophesy.

• The New Testament consists of 3 sections:* The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell about Jesus’ life and teaching.* Acts records the history of the early church * The Letters contain importantteaching for those who follow Jesus Christ.* Revelation is a book of prophesy that tells about what is going to happen, as well as sending some warning messages to Christians now.

Which of the things from our list are recorded in these parts of

the Bible?

• Exodus 20:2–17

• Leviticus 11

• Matthew 1:2

Islam: What’s in the Koran?

• The Bible and the Koran tell a lot of the same stories, though the Koran tells the stories in somewhat different words. For Muslims, the Koran is the words of God, passed by the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammed, written down so they will not be forgotten.

• Like the Torah and the Bible, the Koran told believers how to be good. The Koran says that people should not drink wine or beer, for instance or eat meat from pigs. Also, the Koran told people about their rights.

• The Koran includes the stories of Nuh and Musa.

Two hundred years later

(A good place for a discussion about who would make up the community. Could introduce smaller communities which have split off and do things

differently – compare to different kinds of Christianity, Judaism

and Islam.)

Every year, on June 16th, everyone holds a big party, where they listen to the story of the arrival on the island.

There is special food and decorations.

The story.

This is told on this special day by the leader of the community.

The children often act out different roles, and give each

other presents.

What does this day remind you of?

When children are 14 there is a special ceremony

• Children have to go to special lessons beforehand – learn about history and rules

• Happens at weekly meeting of all the islanders• Child must stand up in front of everyone• Recite the story of the shipwreck• Leader pours bowl of water over child’s head and says,

“You have come up out of the sea and are now a true Islander, with responsibility to keep our rules and look after the whole community.”

• Party afterwards

What does this day remind you of?

The Island

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