Lesson five - pages 10/11 Statue of Jesus

Aim for the book

To explore real and visionary journeys encountered in life.

Learning objectives

• To know that Christians believe God is everywhere and in everything.
• To be able to draw things, near and distant.
• To understand how big the world is and that, although we are so small in comparison, Christians believe everyone is very special to God.

Background

Christians struggle to understand God's purpose for their lives. Occasionally, they might have a moment of insight - a vision. This picture captures the Christian idea that God in some mysterious way watches over the world. In Rio de Janeiro the statue of Jesus dominates everything; every journey people make, in the city or on the sea, is 'observed' by Jesus' statue; whatever one does on one's journey, it is seen by God. Christians believe God created everything and as humans can look down on tiny ants so God looks down on creation as it proceeds on its journey with its myriad of individual journeys.

Bible references

Isaiah 42.5 and 55.9

Key words

• Statue
• Watch
• Blessing
• Love
• Journey
• Cross
• Travel

Activity one - Rio de Janeiro harbour

• You will need
  The picture of the statue of Jesus in the book.
  A map of the world.
  Writing materials.
• Start
  Find South America on the map of the world. Find Brazil in South America. Find Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Set the scene of a busy city in a country so much bigger than ours.
• Develop
  Ask the children what the statue could see if it had real eyes.
  (Sea, islands, buildings, trees, skyscrapers, beach, sky and so on.)
  Christians believe that God made the world. Make two lists of the answers to the questions: 'What do Christians believe God has created'? and 'What have human beings made?'
  Can the pupils say what the difference is between the two lists?
  Why is life so important?
  Why do they think the statue was built:
  where it is;
  as large as it is; and
  in the position it is.
  Explain that Christians believe that God's creation has life; that love is the basis of living; and that God's love created a wonderful world.
• End
  Ask the children, if they want to, to write a thank you prayer to God for creating and loving the world or, alternatively, to write a poem about creation.
  Mount the children's prayers beside the picture in a classroom prayer book.

Activity two - looking down from on high

• You will need
  A copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'The Swing'.
  A copy of a photograph of the world taken from space.
  Drawing materials.
• Start
  Read the poem to the class.
  How do you like to go up in a swing,
  Up in the air so blue?
  Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
  Ever a child can do!
  Up in the air and over the wall,
  Till I can see so wide,
  Rivers and trees and cattle and all
  Over the countryside -
  Till I look down on the garden green,
  Down on the roof so brown -
  Up in the air I go flying again,
  Up in the air and down.
  R.L.Stevenson
• Develop
  If there is a swing on the school site, take the class outside and let two or three of the children have a ride.
  Ask them what they can see. Is it more than when they are on the ground? Do things look different?
  Back in the classroom, ask each child to draw a picture showing when they were at the highest place they have ever been. It may be an aeroplane, a block of flats, the London Eye or a fairground ride.
  Let them tell the group what they could see.
  In what ways do things look different from high up? What is the smallest creature they can think of?
  Show the picture of the earth from space. (It would be good to get other larger definition photographs, if possible, showing recognisable features) What happens as we go higher and higher?
• End
  Explain that even when things look very small from high up they haven't changed and are still the same size. The Bible tells Christians that God loves and takes care of everything and everyone from the tiny ant and the sparrow to the tallest giraffe!

Activity three - getting about

• You will need
  The picture 'the statue of Jesus' from In Journeys.
  Small transport toys: car, bicycle, boat, aeroplane, helicopter, motorbike, train and so on.
  Drawing materials.
• Start
  Look at the picture together.
  Ask the children to name as many different ways of getting about from one place to another.
  As they name a type of transport, produce the relevant toy.
• Develop
  Look at the collection of toys and group them in sets.
  It could be:
  things that go on land;
  things that go on the sea; and
  number of wheels.
  Look for similarities and ways in which they are specially adapted.
  Record the numbers of children who at some time have travelled in each and make a block graph to show which is the most common. This could be done by giving a sticky shape to a child as they name the means of transport and letting them stick it on a graph, so building it up together.
  Why do they think that people who live in Rio de Janeiro own or would like to own a boat?
• End
  Ask the children to draw the way in which they would most like to travel:
  to school;
  on holiday; or
  if they could go wherever they wanted.
  This should show if they have understood the relevance of types of transport.
• Assessment opportunities
  Stand with outstretched arms like the statue and ask the children what it means to them. They should be able to talk about love, power, welcome (as in 'come here').
  Give each child a sheet of paper with a line down the middle. On one half ask them to draw their family. On the other ask them to draw their family again only this time, as a bird would see them if it was flying overhead. This should show a change of size.

Web site links

If children know either their postcode or road name, they can see where they live on this web site. The web site also contains a number of aerial photographs of the local area.

The web site http://www.maporama.com provides an international version of this service.

For more images of Rio de Janeiro (the city featured on these pages of In Journeys) and of Brazil try the following web sites:

http://www.campos-davis.co.uk/page7.html

http://www.gpcook.freeserve.co.uk/22813.html

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~jenskna/pano.html

Activity checklist

Activity one - Rio de Janeiro harbour

The picture of the statue of Jesus in the book.
A map of the world.
Writing materials.

Activity two - looking down from on high

A copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'The Swing'.
A copy of a photograph of the world taken from space.
Drawing materials.

Activity three - getting about

The picture 'the statue of Jesus' from In Journeys.
Small transport toys: car, bicycle, boat, aeroplane, helicopter, motorbike, train and so on.
Drawing materials.

© Jean Harrison