Lesson eleven - pages 22/23 Bread and wine

AIM for the book

To bring to life the story of Jesus by exploring the way we use our senses.

Learning objectives

• To know that special occasions can be celebrated in different ways.
• To be able to say what is eaten and drunk at Holy Communion.
• To understand that Christians have a special meal to remember Jesus.

Background

Christians around the world partake in the sharing of bread and wine as a central act of their worship. Practice varies between different Christian groups and different names are used, for example the Eucharist (meaning 'thanksgiving'), the Mass, Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper. It is, however, the celebration practised by virtually every Christian group when they give thanks for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. John's Gospel uses the following words to describe Jesus: 'I am the Vine; I am the Bread of Life.' These, and the emphasis on 'I am', capture the meaning of God's response to Moses when he makes a request for God's name and is told 'I am that i am'. (Exodus 3.14)

Bible reference

1 Corinthians 11.23-6

Ways of using the picture

• Explore with the children how they remember special times and events.
• Engage the children in discussion about food, its importance and preparation. What foods do they eat on special occasions? How do they prepare for very special days like birthdays?
• Explain to the children that when Christians eat bread and drink wine together they remember the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Key words

• Holy Communion
• Bread
• Wine
• Thanksgiving
• Remembering

Activity one - Holy Communion

• You will need
  A lidded box containing:

• Small cloth (perhaps a white serviette).
• Wine glass.
• Plate.
• Pitta bread.
• Bottle of red grape juice.
• Plastic beaker for each child.

• Start
  Ask if anyone can guess what might be inside the box. After a few suggestions, open the lid and take out the cloth. Smooth it out as you place it on the table. Take out the plate and place it on the cloth, and then do the same with the glass. Again ask for ideas about what this might mean.

• Develop
  Develop by simply retelling the story of the Last Supper (the first Holy Communion). Place the bread on the plate and pour some grape juice into the glass as you do so. Make the following points:
  The night before he died, Jesus shared a special meal with his friends.
  During the meal, he shared some bread and wine with them.
  He told his friends to continue doing this as a way of remembering him.
  Christians still share bread and wine together to remember Jesus.

• End
  Give each child a piece of bread and a beaker of juice. Have the children draw pictures of the bread and wine and display with the caption: 'Christians remember Jesus with bread and wine'. (These could be done as 'stained glass windows' using tissue paper or cellophane.)
  (If your school has links with a local church, ask one of the clergy to come and lead this activity for you. He or she could bring the plate and cup used for Holy Communion, and might even bring any special robes worn during the service.)

Activity two - writing 'thank you' prayers

• You will need
  Pictures of different foods or meals.
  Writing materials.

• Start
  Look at the pictures together. Talk about the children's favourite foods. Do some foods or meals remind them of special occasions?

• Develop
  Develop the idea by explaining that Holy Communion is a special meal that helps Christians remember Jesus. When they eat a small piece of bread and drink a sip of wine together, they give thanks to God for Jesus' life.

• End
  Help the children to write thank you prayers for food and meals. Use a structure that includes the child's memories as well as their favourite food or meal, such as:

  Thank you, God, for favourite food. It reminds me of a memory of a special time or person. Thank you for giving me good things to eat. Amen.

  Create a book of the prayers, illustrated by the children.

Activity three - special times display

• You will need
  A selection of ways to remember people and events - postcards, birthday cards, Easter eggs, Christmas cards, photographs, calendars and so on.
  Ribbon.
  Card for captions.
  Display board.
  A simple church year calendar.

• Start
  Talk about birthdays. Ask the children about the different ways in which their birthdays are remembered. Show the cards. You might like to talk about what the words and pictures say. Show some of the other items and ask the children what special occasions they remind us of. Create captions for the items.

• Develop
  Show and explain the church year calendar. Christians use time and colour to help remember special events:

• Advent is the time for getting ready for Jesus' birthday. Its colour is purple.
• Christmas is when Christians celebrate Jesus' birthday. Its colour is white or gold.
• Lent is the time for getting ready for Easter. Its colour is purple.
  Easter is when Christians remember that Jesus died and rose again. Its colour is white or gold.
• Pentecost is when Christians celebrate God sending his Holy Spirit. Its colour is red.
• In between the special times, the colour is green to remind Christians that they need to keep growing closer to God.

• End
  Create a display using the cards and other items entitled 'We remember special times'. Use captions created by the children, and use the ribbon to link these with the items. Create a second display entitled 'Christians remember special times'. Enlarge the church year calendar and add captions linked to it with ribbons.

Activity checklist

Activity one - Holy Communion

A lidded box containing:
Small cloth (perhaps a white serviette).
Wine glass.
Plate.
Pitta bread.
Bottle of red grape juice.
Plastic beaker for each child.

Activity two - writing 'thank you' prayers

Pictures of different foods or meals.
Writing materials.

Activity three - special times display

A selection of ways to remember people and events - postcards, birthday cards, Easter eggs, Christmas cards, photographs, calendars and so on.
Ribbon.
Card for captions.
Display board.
A simple church year calendar.

Web site links

There are several sites with delicious bready recipes for the children to try out.

Try out Botham Bakery's Guide to Bread and find out how bread is made, learn about its history or try out some yeasty recipes.

Alternative sites include http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/bread/ and http://www.breaking-bread.com/

© Mary Hawes