This Animal Stories KS1 RE planning pack introduces your Year 1/2 children to popular religions of the world including: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism. Each lesson focuses on a particular story from each religion and encourages children to think carefully about different beliefs and what each story teaches. This set of five KS1 RE lessons encourages children to learn about religion and from religion, linking to their own experiences.

Each lesson comes complete with detailed KS1 RE planning, slides to engage children and support teaching input, differentiated worksheets and a range of printable resources. These include challenge cards, teacher notes on enquiry-based learning and instructions on how to build a bug hotel! All the hard work is done for you and ready to download at the click of a button!

You might also like our Amazing Animals Topic Bundle –with ready-to-teach schemes of work across a range of subjects to fully immerse your class in their Animals topic.

Lesson 1

Jonah and the Whale

This Jonah and the Whale lesson gives your Year 1/2 children the opportunity to discuss what they already know about different religions before reading the Christian story ‘Jonah and the Whale'. Children will need to listen carefully to the story and consider what they think the story aims to teach Christians. They will then be able to retell the story by making their own concertina booklet.

All printable resources needed for this Jonah and the Whale lesson are included in the download as well as a detailed lesson plan, slides and differentiated activities.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Scene cards
Book templates

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Lesson 2

Siddhartha and the Swan

In this lesson, your KS1 children will be introduced to Buddhism and the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as Buddha, before reading the story of Siddhartha and the Swan. Children will discuss how Siddhartha showed kindness to the swan and take a moment to think about their own experiences and behaviours.

Differentiated worksheets, slides and a detailed plan are included in this KS1 RE lesson pack and encourage children to think about how they can be kind in different settings.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Scenario cards
Differentiated worksheets
Story sheet

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Lesson 3

The Prophet and the Ants

Moving on to another animal story, this lesson focuses on the Islamic story ‘The Prophet and the Ants’. Your KS1 children will be encouraged to make links with other religious stories and what they teach people. After becoming familiar with the story, children will think carefully about how they can help care for animals and different creatures.

This KS1 RE lesson pack comes with lesson slides, a detailed lesson plan, differentiated activity ideas as well as printable resources to support and extend your class's learning about Islamic beliefs.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Animal Prompt cards
Differentiated worksheets
Building a Bug Hotel instructions

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Lesson 4

Noah's Ark

In this themed KS1 Noah's Ark lesson plan, children will be encouraged to make links to different religions, considering stories that appear in more than one holy book. Children will then read the story ‘Noah’s Ark’ and discover the Jewish origins of the story, discussing why it was important to God that two of each animal were saved from the flood. Finally, children will make their own flip booklets re-telling the story.

This pack contains a detailed Noah's Ark lesson plan, slides with an illustrated version of the Noah's Ark story and differentiated activity ideas.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Noah's Ark sheet
Differentiated activities
Challenge cards

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Lesson 5

The Donkey and the Tiger Skin

In this final lesson, your Year 1/2 children will recap what they have learnt about different religious beliefs so far. Children will then be introduced to the Sikh story, ‘The Donkey and the Tiger Skin’ and will be challenged to think about what these religious stories have in common before sequencing the story independently.

Alternatively, the children can reflect on their learning by participating in a philosophy session, creating a community of enquiry and encouraging children to share their views. This lesson pack can be downloaded with a click of a button and includes a detailed plan, teacher notes, slides and differentiated worksheets.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Story wheel
Differentiated worksheets
Sequencing pictures
Teacher notes

View Lesson 5