This lesson planning page takes you through the lesson materials for EYFS, Branch 1, Learning Focus 3.
Before you begin, make sure you have watched the EYFS Branch 1 Overview videos, which introduce the key themes to draw out across all Learning Focuses within Branch 1.
If you have already seen these videos, feel free to skip on to the next section.
Take a look at the following key information about Learning Focus 3, which includes all the links and documents you need to plan your session:
Branch 1
Creation and Covenant
Learning Focus 3
Catholics believe that…God loves each one of us, and we are each part of a family.
Teaching time
Approximately 2.5 hours
Downloads
Lesson Plan Template
EYFS | B1 | LF3
Assessment Framework
EYFS | B1
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You might like to use our Lesson Plan Template for EYFS Branch 1 Learning Focus 3 to make your own notes/plan as you go along. This template is pre-populated a list of titles of available lesson materials. The rest of the document is left blank for you to complete.
Our families are not perfect – this is important to acknowledge within this Learning Focus. Some children will have very difficult family circumstances, and please be sensitive to this whilst facilitating the activities.
The key message to communicate through this learning focus is that God is love and we can be filled with His love too. God made each member of our families, and gives them to us as a gift to share the love He gives us with each other.
Continue cultivating the sense of awe and wonder in response to God’s Creation begun in Learning Focuses 1 and 2.
The lesson material activities outlined below are designed to invite children into awe and wonder, to create, play and explore through active learning and to develop critical thinking skills. Alongside these activities, you might find the following ‘wondering questions’ to be useful. These are related to the RED Ways of Knowing, and aim to help support your professional assessment of individual pupil progress with the content in Learning Focus 3. The questions should also help you to tailor teaching according to the children in your class.
This programme is designed to help children achieve the RED Ways of Knowing, but is also related to the EYFS Learning Goals. Download the Assessment Framework from the menu above, which displays the Ways of Knowing and Learning Goals. For each Learning Focus, every activity is mapped to the EYFS Learning Goals, to help guide your assessment.
There are 7 activities that you can use as building blocks to create your own sessions. These are explored within this section.
These activities have been planned to utilise the screen, but they all also rely on off-screen facilitation. Lots of ideas are offered throughout so you can choose the best options for your class.
‘Me and My Family’ is within the Hear Knowledge Lens and provides an opportunity for pupils to recall and reread the story of Creation. Remember that you can read the whole Scripture from Genesis 1:1-2:3 or just Genesis 1:31, but ensure you read it from the Bible.
Explain that God is love, and we can be filled with His love too. God made each member of our families, and gives them to us as a gift to share the love He gives us with each other.
From this foundation, click on the question mark and music notes to help pupils digest the learning, through discussion questions about who they live with and their family, and a short song to the tune of Knick Knack Paddy Whack about how God loves and cares for us.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to read, recognise, retell, talk about and explore.
‘Family Life’ is a film which is within the Believe Knowledge Lens. It helps pupils begin to think about how God made people to be together, and family is one of the wonderful gifts that God gives us.
The film helps pupils to think about families of all shapes and sizes, and that no matter what our families are like, God loves us no matter what and wants to be close to each one of us.
Finally, the film explores how our families can help us to better understand how to love God and love others.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to recognise, talk about and explore.
The next activity, ‘Sharing God’s Love’ is also within the Believe Knowledge Lens, and invites pupils to read some stories which talk about families sharing God’s love.
After reading one or both of these stories, discuss with children what special times they enjoy with their families. You might like to ask children to bring in a photo of their family to share with the class.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to read, recognise, retell, talk about and express themselves.
‘Playing Families’ is within the Live Knowledge Lens, inviting pupils to celebrate that families are all different and that every family allows us to practise loving one another in the way that God wants us to.
Invite children to roleplay families preparing and sharing a meal, including:
Children could roleplay this or use small world play. Invite them too to come up with their own roleplay scenarios of how families can show their love for one another.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to recognise, talk about, recall, label and sequence.
‘Family Portrait’ is the last activity within the Live Knowledge Lens for Learning Focus 3, and invites pupils to make a family portrait to celebrate the ways in which their family is a gift from God.
They could use fingerprint portraits, lolly-stick house artworks, family trees, wooden spoon puppets or anything else you can think of.
For pupils working at a deeper level, challenge them to make a gallery card for their drawing, writing down how each member of the family shows love to the others.
For example, ‘Mum picks me up from school’, ‘Dad cooks tea for us’, ‘Granny looks after us when Mum has to work late’, ‘my brother shares his toys with me’ and ‘Luna the dog plays with me and licks me’.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to recall, recognise and label.
‘The Sign of the Cross’ is within the Celebrate Knowledge Lens.
This was first introduced in Learning Focus 1, and this is another chance to consolidate knowledge and prayerfully practise it.
Invite children to recall it, and if you wish, watch the video again.
Please be aware that it won’t be appropriate for some children from other faith backgrounds to make or say the Sign of the Cross, so make sure you facilitate accordingly.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to recall, recognise and sequence.
‘Crafting the Sign of the Cross’ is also within the Celebrate Knowledge Lens.
It helps children to embed learning about the Sign of the Cross, which helps us to remember that we are made by God, we belong to God and we are loved by God.
Invite children to make a cross using lolly sticks or twigs and label it with numbers to help them remember the motions of the Sign of the Cross. If you wish, you could make these into necklaces for children to wear to remind them of how to pray the Sign of the Cross.
As with the previous activity, be aware that it won’t be appropriate for some children from other faith backgrounds to make or say the Sign of the Cross, so make sure you facilitate accordingly.
This activity offers pupils the opportunity to recall, recognise, sequence and match.
God Our Father,
Thank you for the opportunity to explore this content with the children in my care.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, lead and guide me as I prepare this lesson.
Bless me, and each and every child, with an open heart and mind to continue our journey of knowing you more clearly.
I ask this in the name of Jesus, Your Son and our Lord,
Amen
