Unit 1.1: Harvest
How can we help those who don’t have a good harvest?
Christian Concepts
GOD – CREATION – Fall – People of God – Incarnation – GOSPEL – Salvation – Kingdom of God
The aim of this unit is to:
- develop further pupils understanding that Harvest festivals are a traditional celebration to give thanks to God for the gifts of the harvest.
- increase awareness that the food we eat is harvested and distributed all around the world
- raise awareness and that in the UK our harvest is usually plenty but in some other countries around the world the harvest fails.
- discuss what the response of Christians should be to the need of others.
- to explore the Jewish festival of Sukkot
Christian Values
Service, Justice, Compassion, Generosity
Key Skills
Empathise, Investigate, Enquire
Key Questions
- Why do we celebrate Harvest Festival?
- Where does our food come from?
- Which foods do you enjoy the most?
- How can we help those who do not have a good harvest?
- Why should we help those who do not have a good harvest?
Key Experiences
To explore the answers to the key questions.
To hear about the work of Christian Organisations putting their faith into action.
To build a Jewish Sukkah.
Key Vocabulary
Harvest and Harvest Festival
Link to World Faiths
How do people of Jewish faith celebrate the harvest?
Expectations and Outcomes
To Begin With
Explore
Show the children three different selections of food from your kitchen cupboards………….
• a few items that have, if possible, been sourced locally or are definitely from the UK Eg. Eggs, milk, potatoes, jam
• items that, although you bought them locally, are actually sourced from all around the world. Eg. fruit, rice, tuna, coffee, tea, spices.
• finally, a few items that may have been made and produced in the UK but traditionally come from another part of the world. Eg. Curry sauces, pizza, Edam cheese, noodles
Wow! What an amazing variety of food God has provided for us. He could have just made porridge for us to eat!
Our food is harvested all around the world and the Harvest Festival is all about celebrating God’s good gifts to us.
Have a tasting session and give pupils an opportunity to try something new. Taste several varieties of the same fruit Eg. Apples. Do all apples taste the same? (Be aware of allergies and special dietary requirements)
Talk about favourite foods, unusual foods and food eaten on special occasions.
This maybe an opportunity to ask parents or staff from diverse cultural backgrounds to bring some traditional cooked food into school to share with your class.
Don’t forget to take photos and record children’s comments in your class RE scrapbook
Create
Ask the children to bring into school clean labels from foods they have eaten. Display the labels and pictures of food around a world map. Join the food to the country of origin with string.
Text Impact Connection
Explore and Discover – Lesson Content
Show the children these paintings of traditional harvests in the past. They are easily found via a Google Image search.
A Golden Harvest by Gregory Frank Harris
The Harvest by Camille Pissarro,
The Gathering of the Harvest by Charles Philogene Tschaggeny
What is happening in these paintings? What are the people doing? Why?
How do farmers gather the harvest today? Have a look at pictures of modern farming machinery gathering the harvest around the world and include fishermen harvesting the sea.
Record the children’s comments and ideas in your class scrapbook
Follow on by showing the children this piece of artwork. What do they think is happening here? What are the people doing? How are the people feeling?
Celebrating Rich Harvest Artist: Wang Xiuyun
It is a celebration of the harvest.
Why do people celebrate the harvest?
Why is the harvest so important?
Record the children’s comments and ideas in your class scrapbook and on the Questful map for this unit.
People of all faiths and worldviews celebrate the harvest.
(As you continue through this unit the children will learn how people of Jewish faith celebrate the harvest.)
Keep Thinking
People harvest food around the world and share it? Or do they?
Does everyone have enough to eat?
Discuss
Move on to discuss with the children that harvest time is an opportunity to think about how usually the harvest in the UK is plenty but in other countries the harvest often fails.
The harvest round the world varies greatly. Why?
If the harvest fails what happens to the people?
How can we help the people who live in places where the harvest has failed?
Why has their harvest failed?
Record discussion in your class RE scrapbook and on the Questful map for this unit.
Ask
Why should we help those who do not have a good harvest?
Record discussion in your class RE scrapbook.
Discover
What does the Bible say?
Jesus taught us to love one another. He said “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
In the book of Acts, we read that the first groups of Christians shared everything they had with each other.
”All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another. They would sell their property and possessions, and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed.”
Acts 2:44-45
The Bible tells Christians to love and to share.
Faith in Action
There are Christian people working for many different organisations supporting people living in places where the harvest has failed. These people are putting their faith into action. They are showing how their beliefs impact on the way they live their lives.
Their faith is being expressed through their work helping others.
Each year Christian Aid produces excellent materials to use at Harvest time.
Tearfund, CAFOD and the Blackburn Diocese Harvest Appeal also supply free resources for exploring how the success and failure of the harvest affects people’s lives.
There are many ingenious ways farmers are being helped and taught how to alter their methods of farming. e.g. floating gardens, ducks, worms and kitchen gardens.
There will be lots of ideas, conversations, photos, artwork etc. to record in your class RE scrapbook and on the Questful map for this unit.
(More often than not the harvests around the world are failing due to the devastating effects of climate change. Therefore, links can be made between pupil’s learning in this unit and Unit 1.2 Creation)
As individuals and as a school we can express our beliefs by helping these organisations at harvest time. Introduce this concept to the children and then discuss with them the social action focus for your school and church harvest festival.
Create
As individuals, groups or whole class ask the children to create a poster that celebrates the harvest. The poster should reflect the Christian belief that the harvest is a gift from God and should be shared with everyone.
Complete this unit by exploring the Jewish festival of Sukkot and have fun building a Sukkah shelter.
Dive Deeper
Dive Deeper
Give the children the opportunity to help plan and take part in the school harvest festival service. (Liaison with the headteacher and clergy will be needed.)
The children can write and read prayers, make visual aids, choose songs, read out facts etc.
This will give them an opportunity to reflect on all that we have and give thanks to God for the harvest and all his good gifts to us in a very practical way.
Record with photos and children’s comments, prayers etc. in your class RE scrapbook.
Link to World Faiths
How do people of Jewish faith celebrate the harvest?
Explore the Jewish festival of Sukkot and have fun building a Sukkah shelter
Remember to take photos.
Lesson Content
In accordance with the laws laid out in the Book of Leviticus each year when all the harvest is gathered in, the festival of Sukkot is celebrated.
As well as celebrating the good gifts of the harvest and God’s yearly provision, the festival of Sukkot is a time to remember the Exodus. Moses led the people out of Egypt to freedom. They then lived in makeshift shelters the wilderness for 40 years. During that time God provided for them.
Remembering this event in their history is very important to the Jewish people.
Sukkot Jumpin’ Jerusalem
Story
Tell the story of the people of God being rescued from slavery in Egypt. They crossed the Red Sea and camped in the desert. While they were in the wilderness God fed them with manna and quails.
Lion Storyteller Bible The Great Escape page 32
Exodus Story
Discuss
Talk about remembering important times in our lives and the things we do at times of celebration to remind us of other special times in history. E.g. certain foods, dances, looking at photos, decorations etc.
Create
Build a Sukkah shelter. Indoors or outdoors.
Building a Sukkah
Decorate your Sukkah with real, plastic, paper mâché or salt dough fruits. Use pictures of Jewish symbols, such as the star of David or Menorah and pictures of Jewish families in a Sukkah. Make a roof of leaves and branches, real or paper! Leave spaces so that you can see the sky.
Throughout the week of Sukkot Jewish families gather to chat and eat meals in the Sukkah. Give each child an opportunity to sit in the Sukkah and have a drink and a biscuit.
Think about
Imagine what the festival of Sukkot and building the Sukkah must feel like for the Jewish children. Record in your class RE scrapbook, don’t forget to take photos
If you have time have a look at these two artefacts from the Jewish Museum in London.
Resources for Teachers
Sukkot – Background Information
This is the week long Jewish Harvest Festival which takes place in the Autumn. In English translations of the Bible it is called the Feast of Tabernacles. In Leviticus 23:42 the Jews are commanded to celebrate the feast after the completion of the harvest. They are to live in shelters or booths, as a yearly reminder that their ancestors lived in makeshift shelters in the desert when God brought them out of Egypt. So, as well as a celebration of the harvest it is a reminder of the Exodus.
The booth has to be covered with branches and leaves and decorated with fruits. It must not be completely covered so as to allow a glimpse of the heavens as a reminder of the presence of God, and as a sign of its impermanence.
In warm climates, devout Jews will live in the booth or Sukkah for the whole of the festival. In England, meals will be taken in the Sukkah (assuming it isn’t raining!) but on the first night of the festival they have to go into the Sukkah whatever the weather.
Before the meal a blessing is said:
“Blessed are you O Lord our God … who has commanded us to dwell in the Sukkah.”
If families have enough space, they will build a Sukkah in their garden. Some families may have a shed with a removable roof, when the roof is removed the structure is decorated to become the Sukkah. Children will be involved in hanging fruits and putting up pictures. Most, if not all, synagogues build a Sukkah for the whole community. In Israel, many of the flats are specially designed so that a Sukkah can be put up on the balcony and some Sukkah’s may be built in the street.
In the Synagogue service to celebrate Sukkot, branches of palm, willow (arovot) and myrtle (hadasim) are waved in six directions, North, South, East, West and up and down to show that God rules everywhere. The collection of branches is called a Lulav. During the service people will carry a Lulav in one hand and a yellow lemon-like fruit called an Etrog in the other.
Synagogue members will bring gifts of fruit, cake and drink to take to the Sukkah for all to share.