Our RE topic this half term is How do Buddhists live a meaningful life?
In our first lesson, children described happiness and reflected on the happiness and contentment in their own lives. Firstly, we learned about the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) promise.
We then listened to two songs: Don’t Worry be Happy by Bobby McFerrin and Happy by Pharrell Williams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxln1IiyKls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZSe6N_BXs
We thought about how the beat made us feel and the songwriter’s message to the listener.
Finally, we wrote down things that make us feel happy and contented. We wrote these down on leaves to create our own Year 6 happiness tree.
In our second lesson, we described different types of suffering and how it may be overcome. We learned that in Buddhist belief and practice, suffering is not just tragic events caused by natural, accidental or deliberate events; suffering is also about little things that mean life is not quite perfect.
We discussed different examples of suffering and possible causes. We then considered what could be done to potentially overcome the suffering.
Next week, we will explore how Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) searched for the answer to suffering.