Incarnation: How Do Art and Music Convey Christmas?

Transcription

1 Lesson 1 What Makes a Piece of Artwork Sacred? This lesson focuses on images of Jesus as a baby. Pupils should: Suggest reasons for the similar and different beliefs about Jesus which people hold, and explain how religious sources are used to provide answers to questions. (AT1) Ask questions about the meaning and purpose of Christian celebrations and suggest a range of answers. (AT2) Introduction: Introduce the unit to the pupils explaining that art and music are two ways in which people express the Christian festival of Christmas. In this unit we are going to: explore how art and music conveys Christmas explore how they are used to express the meaning of Christmas Main Part of the Lesson: Re-cap with the pupils how Christmas is the Christian festival that celebrates God coming to the world as a human, in the form of Jesus. What do you think Jesus was like as a 10, 13, 15, 20 year old? Do you think He celebrated His birthday in the same way that we celebrate His birthday at Christmas? What do you think Jesus was like? What do we know about Him? How do we know this? Look at a variety of images of Jesus as a child, ensuring a variety of cultures, representations and images are included (not just the traditional image of Jesus as a baby). What do the pictures say about how the artist sees Jesus? Are any of the pictures similar to how you see Jesus? Focus on 1or 2 of the artists shown in the introduction. Why do you think they chose that style? When you are painting, what do you think of before you start? What do you think might influence artists? Would you say it is an artist painting a Christian person or a Christian piece of art? What s the difference? Discuss secular / sacred, explaining the term sacred. Resources: Jesus In Art by Margaret Cooling Born Among Us -Methodist Publishing The Christ We Share - Methodist Publishing Trip to The National Gallery or other local art gallery is an option. Famous Paintings such as: The Nativity - Federico Barrocci Concert of Angels and Nativity - Grunewald Adoration of the Kings - Giuseppe Chiari Sensitivities:

2 Activity: Pupils of other faiths may not Pupils to select a famous piece of artwork depicting Jesus as a baby. Why be able to look at religious do you think the artist has portrayed Him in this way? What does this tell images. us about the importance of Christ s birth? What does the symbol of light portray? Plenary: Compare and contrast their findings. Discuss the relevance of the titles that the artists have chosen. What makes the piece of art sacred? How might this piece of art help people understand more about Christmas? Muslim pupils are not permitted to represent humans or animals artistically.

3 Lesson 2 How Is Christmas Represented In Art Today? Pupils should: Identify and express Christian beliefs about Christmas in a range of art styles and suggest what they mean (AT1) Ask questions about the meaning and purpose of Christmas and suggest a range of answers. (AT2) Introduction: Explain about the history of Christmas cards and why the Victorians started sending them. Main Part of the Lesson: Place Christmas cards on tables and ask pupils to walk around the classroom looking at the cards. When back at their group tables, ask them to sort the cards on the tables into any categories they choose. Generate discussions based on their sorting: traditional / modern / snow scenes / Christmas trees / sacred / secular etc. What did they notice about the cards? Think about the colours / patterns used? Was there a theme that was more evident than another? What do they think the different designs of each card show and mean? Focus on Biblical Christmas cards by showing further images of them. Discuss these. What do they think the different designs of each card show and mean? What are the Christian beliefs that each card is representing? Prior to this lesson, ask children to bring in a Christmas card they have. This lesson focuses on the representation of Christmas through art. Resources: A selection of Christmas cards Art materials paint, chalks, pastels etc. Sensitivities: Children of other faiths may not be able to look at religious images. Where else will you see representations of Christmas? e.g. advertisements, Christmas brochures, catalogues, Christmas decorations, etc. Why are certain colours, patterns, smells always associated with Christmas? Are these religious or not? So what is the meaning and purpose of Christmas that is being communicated by each Christmas card / artwork? Do some cards / artwork portray an inaccurate picture of Christmas?

4 What makes Christmas special? Talk about ideas with their partner and come up with suggestions to feed back to the class. From their ideas, what do the pupils think should be included in today s art that will make it properly and accurately represent Christmas? Pupils could make up a checklist with their ideas. Activity: Select 4-6 Biblical images shown on Christmas Cards. Children to work on re-creating an image in their own design for display. Card can be reproduced as a class Christmas card to give to people associated with the class. Plenary: Reflect on lesson whilst listening to reflective music and looking at pupils artistic designs of Christmas. Think about the message that each design is conveying about Christmas.

5 Lesson 3 What Would Be the Main Beliefs of the Nativity Narrative to Feature in a New Christmas Carol for Church? Pupils should: Identify, express and explain Christian beliefs about Christmas in the style of a Christmas Carol. (AT1) From Christmas Carols, ask questions about the meaning of Christmas and suggest answers from them and (other) Christians. (AT2) Introduction: Discuss pupils findings from their most popular Christmas Carol research at home. Listen to some of these Carols and talk about why pupils think that they were the most popular? Pupils could draw a representation of what the Christmas Carol makes them think of as they are listening e.g. draw as you hear What are the words of each Christmas Carol saying? What Christian beliefs are they expressing? How did they make you feel? Is it the tune, the words, the meaning etc. that appeals to you (or to those who voted for them). Ask pupils to vote for their favourite Christmas Carol from a prepopulated list (may need to listen to some of these in advance) or the list could be constructed from pupils suggestions in the lesson. Why is the particular Christmas Carol that each pupil voted for their favourite? Discuss in greater detail the format of Christmas Carols and their content. What are they trying to tell people? What is the main meaning of Carols? From the Christmas Carols being looked at today, what questions might someone who doesn t know anything about the meaning of Christmas have? How would the pupils answer these questions? How might a Christian answer these questions? (if the pupil is not a Christian.) Pupils could do this in pairs with one asking the questions and the other answering. This lesson focuses on Christmas Carols. In advance, pupils to ask parents / carers, grandparents etc their favourite Christmas Carol information needed for this lesson. Cross curricular link: Maths Voting for favourite Christmas Carol and recording results in a graph. The Christmas Carols chosen could be the ones to be sung at the school s Christmas Carol Service. The pupils compositions of Christmas Carols could also be shared at the school s Carol Service, at a Christmas Carol Concert and / or on the school and parish church websites.

6 Why were Christmas Carols sung and why do we still sing them today? Resources: Why do many people who don t go to Church and who may say / feel that Information from research they are not a Christian still like singing them? How have Christmas Carols activity at home. stood the test of time? Do you think people will still be singing the same carols in 30, 40, 50 years time/when you are grown up? Main Activity: Pupils to compose their own verse to an existing Christmas Carol / write their own text for a Christmas Carol. If there s time, or otherwise later, pupils could also compose the music for their Christmas Carol. Pupils need to think carefully about the core Christian beliefs of Christmas that should be included in a Christmas Carol and ensure that they include these in their carol. (This could all be done individually or in a group, it also can be differentiated according to abilities in class.) Variety of Christmas Carols to listen to / and watch. Various websites such as: Worship Workshop website: Songs of Praise website: Plenary: Everyone listen to each other s new Christmas Carols and assess whether each person / group successfully understood and conveyed the Christmas meaning through their writing. End the session listening to a reflective Christmas Carol.

7 Lesson 4 The Nativity Narrative Whose Story Is It To Tell? Pupils should: Consider how the Nativity Narrative is expressed in a variety of forms, using a wide religious vocabulary to discuss reasons for the similarities and differences. (AT1) Ask questions about the meaning and purpose of Christmas and suggest answers about what they mean to the pupil and to Christians. Introduction: Recap on the Nativity narrative. Ask children to retell story and remind each other of main characters, their roles and representations and of what Christmas is really about. Can do this with talk partners, recording ideas on white boards. Main Activity: Discuss with the pupils who is the story of the Nativity for? Whose story is it to tell? Link with how it would have been told orally at first, then through writing and the different forms in which it is told today. Watch a selection of examples of ways in which the Nativity narrative is retold e.g. On Angel Wings DVD, through other cartoons of The Nativity, through animation e.g. The Miracle Maker DVD, through sand picture(s) e.g. on Let s Celebrate website, through acting such as Jesus of Nazareth DVD, etc. Discuss the different forms and styles used, considering similarities and differences. Use technology to tell the Nativity narrative in a stimulating, interesting and engaging style for a particular audience. Pupils to choose their audience that they are creating their work for, i.e. their peers, a younger class in the school, the whole school, parents / carers, the school s website, the local church etc. Pupils need to consider the medium through which they will tell the story, how they will tell the story and the style, e.g. PowerPoint, acting, mime, cartoon, animation, puppets, art, sand picture(s,) video / film, reflective, interactive with questions, with answers, etc? Assumption is that pupils have good knowledge of narrative from previous learning in earlier years, through being in school at Christmas time and that it is being covered during this Half Term in Collective Worship etc. The task of this lesson may require more time than a traditional single session of RE, but its cross-curricular nature and the fact that the school is likely to be engaging in lots of other Christmas work and activities during these weeks should mean that it is a worthwhile and valuable piece of learning to be carried out in some of this additional time. Resources:

8 What is the desired effect that they want to have on their audience White boards and pens; through their retelling of the story, how do they want their presentation PowerPoint facilities; to affect the people who watch it? What is the central Christian belief of Christmas and how are the pupils Examples of the retelling of the going to convey this across to their audience? Nativity story in various forms, Pupils could draw upon their artwork and / or Christmas Carols that they e.g.: produced earlier in this unit. On Angel Wings by Michael Pupils can create one of the following options or suggest different ways of Morpurgo book and DVD, producing similar results: The Miracle Maker DVD, Film themselves in character for one aspect of the Nativity story, Let s Celebrate Christmas: without dialogue, (focus on acting) and add music to the scene. Use the Barnabas clips (see attached web link) to add dialogue to Jesus of Nazareth DVD, etc. scenes available. Produce a PowerPoint presentation on the Nativity narrative. Plenary: Groups to share their work with the rest of the class. Draw from the pupils the idea that people reflect on the Nativity Narrative in different ways and have differing opinions on the importance of various parts. All pupils to consider how each presentation conveys Christmas and accurately presents the core belief of it as a Christian festival. How does each presentation affect the pupil? Many other different examples can be found on the internet via the videos button on Google. Barnabas in Schools clips e.g. /downloads/ Other materials as required by pupils to create their presentations.