Lesson two - pages 4/5 Road junction

Aim for the book

To explore real and visionary journeys encountered in life.

Learning objectives

• To know that Christians believe that God controls our road of life.
• To be able to sequence a list of objects.
• To understand beginnings and endings.

Background

Christians see life as a journey or pilgrimage. Although they meet obstacles along the way they have a sense of purpose and direction. Just like families travelling together in the car they tell stories, recount past journeys and look forward to arriving at their destinations. There are many well-known biblical journeys. For example, after the Israelites escaped from Egypt, they travelled across the wilderness to reach the Promised Land.

Bible references

Judges 18.6, Isaiah 49.11

Key words

• Journey
• Purpose
• Direction
• Preparations
• Traffic
• Travel
• Road

Activity one - the travelling family

• You will need
  A road atlas.
  A small cut-out paper suitcase for each child.
  Pens or crayons for drawing.
• Start
  Show the road atlas and ask what it is. When does their family use one? Who usually reads it and gives directions?
• Develop
  Tell your own story about a family getting ready to go on holiday. It might be like this:
  Dad takes the car to the garage to fill it up with petrol, checks the oil and water and cleans the car. He takes his work things out of the boot so there is plenty of space for the luggage.
  Mum is busy finishing the washing and ironing so that the clothes are clean and smart. She gets them all together ready to pack in the suitcases.
  Dad then helps to pack.
  The children are each allowed to take a bag with their own special things. John takes a cuddly mouse, a cricket bat, a ball and his computer games. Maddy takes her favourite teddy, her Barbie doll and some books. These are things they could not bear to be without.
  When the cases are ready, Mum does a last tidy up whilst Dad checks that the doors and windows are locked
  At last they are ready to leave. Have they forgotten anything?
  Ask the children what it is like for them if they get the chance to go on holiday?
  Who does the packing in their house?
  What might the family in the story have forgotten?
• End
  Explain to the children how important is it to make preparations for a journey. What might happen if we were not prepared? In the Christian Bible God prepares travellers for long journeys.
  Give each child a cut-out shape of an empty suitcase. Ask them to draw in it the special things that they would take on holiday.
  Play the memory game 'I went on holiday and in my case I packed ...' This sentence is said by child after child, each one adding something to the list, which has to be remembered and repeated each time.

Activity two - a busy road

• You will need
  A collection of toy vehicles.
  Drawing materials.
• Start
  Arrange the toys bumper to bumper, two or three abreast to simulate a traffic jam. At the front put a car that has broken down with a police car alongside it.
  Ask the children what is causing the traffic jam.
  Can they think of other things that cause traffic to be held up? They are sure to mention accidents, so play this out with the cars and emergency vehicles.
• Develop
  The children will want to tell about when they were in an accident or long queue.
  From this try to establish the busiest times of day - the morning and afternoon rush hours.
  Explain how careful they must be at these times.
  Revise the Green Cross Code:
  At the kerb, halt.
  Look right, look left and look right again.
  If the road is clear, walk carefully across.
  It might be useful to practise this if you have time and space.
  Talk about the journey of a day.
  Wake up, dress and wash, have breakfast, come to school by car, or bus, or on foot; literacy hour, playtime, numeracy hour, dinner time, afternoon activities, going home, playing, mealtime, bedtime.
  Each day we have a similar journey and so does everyone in every school.
• End
  Do Christians believe God knows what they are doing? They believe God looks after everyone.
  Christians believe that he guided Joseph, Mary and Jesus to safety in Egypt. The Bible says that many years before God also brought the Israelites to a special country called the Promised Land.
  Christians believe that God is always near, guiding and caring for people.
  Each child could draw either a traffic jam or a road showing their daily journey.

Activity three - journey's end

• You will need
  The picture 'Road Junction' from the book In Journeys.
  Writing materials.
  Sets of card for assessment activity.
• Start
  Ask the children if they like travelling. What sort of car journeys do they make?
  Think about why they travel. Where do they go?
  Answers will probably include - to the shops, on holiday, to visit friends, to visit the family (grandparents), for a day out somewhere special, like the zoo.
• Develop
  Explain that a journey always ends somewhere and that the driver has to know where he is going, plan the route and follow all the directions in order to arrive safely.
  Look at the picture.
  What time of day is it?
  Point out the white car on the bridge at the bottom of the picture.
  Ask them to imagine that they are driving that car. Where are they going? It can be anywhere at all that they would like to go.
  Each child can write about their journey and explain why they wanted to go there.
• End
  When the writing is finished, let the children share with the class where they wanted to go.
• Assessment opportunities
  Play the memory game several times. Identify which children have difficulty in remembering a sequence.
  Make a set of cards with words relevant to a journey's purpose and end for the children to match. They could include:
  zebra - zoo;
  Granny - family;
  eggs - shop;
  tooth - dentist;
  case - holiday;
  friend - school.
  This will show if the children can understand word associations.

Web site links

http://www.wijnbergh.demon.nl/divpags/pag2fs.htm

Michiel Wijnbergh's photography of traffic is stunning. This site from the Netherlands also explores other environmental issues such as landscapes, recycling and agriculture through dramatic pictures.

Activity checklist

Activity one - the travelling family

A road atlas.
A small cut-out paper suitcase for each child.
Pens or crayons for drawing.

Activity two - a busy road

A collection of toy vehicles.
Drawing materials.

Activity three - journey's end

The picture 'Road Junction' from the book In Journeys.
Writing materials.
Sets of card for assessment activity.

© Jean Harrison