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Year 3 - Baha'i

Year 3 will discover the Bahá'í Faith, learning about their places of worship, where the faith began and the initial founders of Bahá'í.

Session 1 The Big Question - What is the Baha’i Faith?

How many different religions have you heard of?
We are going to find out about the Baha’i Faith – have any of you heard of it before?

It is the newest world religion which started in 1863.

Let us look at this powerpoint together

Display a 9 pointed star which is one of the Baha’i symbols. 9 is the biggest single digit, often referred to as the number of unity.

TASK - On the post-it note can you write a Question you would like to ask a Baha'i about their religion.

Challenge - draw a 9 pointed star - can you work out the best

Focus Question 2 - Is it possible to really understand God?

Who was the Bab?

Why do I have a picture of a gate?

Discussion - the concept of a gate opening to a new religion.

During this session we are going to find out about The Bab, a Messenger of God whose purpose was to prepare the way for Baha’u’llah, a bit like John the Baptist who prepared people for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Show the ppt on the life of the Bab. http://re.bahai.org.uk/bicentenary/

Look at worksheet accompanying the ppt on the website above. In your table groups – each group can have an enlarged copy of a section of the questions to discuss and feed back to class. Record findings. Children can then make a picture of a gate with “The Bab, 1819 – 1850”, opening to reveal the words “Baha’i Faith” in colourful letters inside. (N.B. the Bab and Baha’u’llah are never depicted in person as Baha’u’llah did not want people to worship His image. Likewise for all the other Messengers of God.)

SESSION 2 - Place of worship

SESSION 3- Blessed is the Spot

Look at the words of the prayer written by Baha'u'llah.

Who would like to read the prayer out to the class?

We are going to listen to the song, Blessed is the Spot - song

BUT first everyone stand up behind your chair, feet together. You are standing on your spot! Take a small step left, you are still on your spot. Now take a tiny step right, you are still on your spot! Let's look at the bigger picture.

Where are we at the present moment?

Where is this? .....

What does this look like?

Next today you have 5 questions to look at and discuss with your table partner.

Please remember to write your name on the back of the sheet. Do NOT write inside the boxes, any notes or answers you make write underneath because next sesion you will be cutting these questions out.

The Garden of Ridvan - pictures can be found here to look at.

There is one new name mentioned today. Who do think this person might be?

Session 4

Todays task is to complete the cutting out and answering the 5 questions based on the Baha'i faith and its history, who were the 3 founders, when was the Baha'i faith established, including the festival at Ridvan that happens every year in April. But for how many days?

Who was the eldest son and what was his name?

The Bab was important, can you remember what happened to him and which religion he was before becoming a Babi?

Your challenge is to try and answer the questions in full answers not only in one word.

You have this!