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����tv Teach > School Radio > Assemblies and Collective Worship
KS1 audio: Something to Think About / KS2 audio: Together

Join Ben Faulks for a programme all about the celebration of Shavuot and what it represents for Jewish people; rules and why we need them; treating others as individuals.

Before the programme

• Look together at the focus image. Talk together about what children think it is and why it might be special.
• What stories do they know of that are ‘special’ in some way? What makes them special?
• What rules do you know? Why do we need rules? – at school? In life?
• Ben starts the programme thinking about what it might be like to have a robot that could do things for him. What can robots do? How are they different from people?

Programme content:

1. Welcome and introduction: Ben is thinking about what it might be like to have a robot that could help with jobs around the house.
2. Vox pops: children tell us what they think some of the differences between robots and humans are.
3. Song: ‘Every colour under the sun’ (Come and Praise: Beginning, no. 31). Encourage the children to join in with as much as they can.
4. Story: The best present. An adaptation by Rachel Boxer of the bible story of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses. Read by Rebekah Germain. The Jewish people were being treated like machines by their cruel Egyptian masters, making bricks from straw that they’d often had to find for themselves. But at last, thanks to God’s intervention, the time has come for the Israelites to leave Egypt and start the long journey back to their homeland. One day, Moses is told by God that he has something important to give to the Jewish people… something that will become their most precious possession.
5. Vox Pops: we meet some Jewish children who tell us about the two-day celebration of Shavuot.
6. Reflection: on freedom from slavery, God’s rules, and learning from the story about how to treat others as we would want to be treated. Ensure everyone is listening carefully.
7. Opportunity for prayer: children can turn their thoughts into their own prayer of thanks, or use the optional prayer from these Notes.

After the programme:

Talk about the story

• How do you think Moses felt to be told that God wanted to speak to him?
• Why do you think God gave the Jewish people these ten rules? Which rules do you think are the most important and why? Should there be more than ten?
• This story is part of a long story about how the Jewish people escaped from slavery to their cruel Egyptian masters. Do you know any other things that happened to them as a part of this story? Find out together.
• This story is connected with the Jewish festival of weeks, or Shavuot. What other festivals or celebrations do you know that have special stories associated with them?
• The Torah – the book of God’s laws – is the most precious thing that Jewish people have. Why do you think this is? Do you have anything that is very precious to you?

Follow-up activities:

• Look at more pictures of the Torah in its special ‘house’ called the ‘ark’ within a synagogue, or visit for real if you can! Find out why the scrolls are all dressed up and what each part of the ‘clothing’ symbolises.
• Talk together about what you have learned from the programme about the festival of Shavuot. What part of it would you most like to celebrate?
• Make a replica Torah using 2 lengths of dowelling and a long strip of paper. Write the 10 Commandments on the paper strip and roll up like a scroll.
• At the start of the programme, Ben is imagining what it would be like to have a robot to do some chores for him. If you had a robot, what would you want it to do for you? Write a story about it.
• Write instructions to program a Bee-bot or similar device. Give different groups different challenges / obstacle course to negotiate.