Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr Hutchinson.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to our RE lesson, which is all about Sikhism.

You've already learned so much about the faith, from its origins, to how it developed through the 10 Gurus, that light was passed on to the eternal Guru, the Guru Granth Sahib.

You learnt about the place of worship, so much, so much, but today we're going to take it up to the modern day.

We're going to talk about what it's like to be a Sikh now, and how Sikhs express their faith today.

I think it's the fifth largest religion in the world, Sikhism and we're going to ask how Sikhs express their faith today.

Now, just like with any other religion, within Sikhism, huge diversity, huge difference of opinion on all sorts of matters in terms of how people might express their faith and also some commonalities and some things that are very similar.

And so we're going to explore some of those today.

To begin with, we'll look at what, something that many, many, many Sikhs do and other people as well, which is celebrating the festival of Vaisakhi.

We're then going to have a look at, we'll get a watch of a video diary from an 11-year-old girl called Simran, who is a Sikh living in Britain.

Then we will think a little bit about how religion can form part of somebody's identity and be a part of their identity.

And we'll finish with our end of lesson quiz.

So that's what we've got planned for today.

It's going to be a great lesson, stick with it, make sure you've got everything that you need, organise your pen, your paper, you're going to need to make some notes today, so you'll need a notebook or some paper to do that.

Make sure your distractions are out the way so that you can just focus on understanding more of this important religion.

Celebrating Vaisakhi.

So, we're going to watch a video now and this video is going to show some of the Vaisakhi celebrations in Vancouver which is a city in Canada.

Now Vaisakhi is a very important festival in the Sikh calendar.

First celebrated of course in 1699, we learned all about that, when we learnt about how the first Khalsa were initiated and how each year since, that festival is celebrated.

It's a harvest celebration, so it's the same time that all of the food from the fields are sort of a harvested and brought in and harvest celebrations are common in all sorts of religions and non-religions because when the farmers have got all their food in, there's plenty of food and so there'll be a celebration, to eat some of that food together.

So Vaisakhi holds religious significance, in terms of the starting of the Khalsa and also it has that connection with a harvest festival.

And we're going to watch now how it's celebrated with a big parade in Vancouver and all the different people getting involved.

Watch carefully because I'm going to have a question for you at the end of this, to do with this video.

On behalf of the Vancouver Police Department, we're proud to be here, happy Vaisakhi Vancouver.

Happy Vaisakhi from the Vancouver Police Department.

Huge crowds out here.

We've got dozens and dozens of VPD members and volunteers and our civilian members out here.

Having fun with the crowd and just enjoy the celebrations.

Celebrations are open to everyone in the community.

It's an amazing event.

The excitement here is incredible.

Everyone's very happy and very welcoming.

The main significance is the birth of the Khalsa in 1699 when the Khalsa unified and synthesise into standing up for the values that Sikhism is going for today, service to the community, service to humanity, help one another, stand up for what's right, human rights.

And also it's related to a festival of harvest but it has a very important significance on both fronts culturally, literary and religiously.

The harvest festival in Punjab.

So every year around this time in India, they harvest and there's a festival for the harvest.

And at the same time that the birth of the Khalsa.

Vaisakhi is all about inclusion, celebration of life, celebrating the community spirit.

Happy Vaisakhi.

Happy Vaisakhi for Vancouver, all Canada Happy Vaisakhi.

Happy Vaisakhi On behalf of the Vancouver Police Department, I wish everyone a happy Vaisakhi.

Happy Vaisakhi Vancouver.

Happy Vaisakhi.

You can see that flag flying to show that the festival of Vaisakhi is taking place.

And I love watching that video and seeing all of the different ways that members of the Sikh faith express themselves through their clothing.

And you might have noticed some of the five Ks, including in the turbine that was worn but other Sikhs expressing their faith in different ways and not necessarily holding to some of those practises.

And so it's great to sort see that different diversity within the faith.

I've got a question for you to see if you were paying close attention and it's this.

One of these statements isn't true.

Okay, one is not true.

Word parades are held on Vaisakhi.

Two, Vaisakhi is a harvest festival and lots of food is shared.

Three or C, sorry.

Only Sikhs can join in with the Vaisakhi celebrations.

And D, Vaisakhi celebrates the birthday of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.

If you were paying close attention, you'll know which of those is wrong which of those statement is incorrect, is not true.

You need to use all of your knowledge as well as that video.

Point now to the statement, that's not true.

Well then if you said D, that's not true.

Vaisakhi is not celebrating the birthday of Guru Nanak.

It's celebrating instead the initiation of the Khalsa.

So it's celebrating that first festival where the Khalsa was formed.

So let's take a bit of a closer look of a day in the life of a 11-year-old Sikh, called Simran who's living in the UK now and has kindly made a video diary to show us what a day in the life is like.

As you watch this video, what I'd like you to do is this.

I'd like you to have a piece of paper or your book open with your pen ready and I want you to make notes.

Making great notes is actually a really difficult skill.

But it's something that's really important.

It's something that you need to get better and better at.

So as you learn things, even if a teacher hasn't told you to write something down, you're just noting down the important points which will log them in your brain.

So as you do this, some top tips, you should use bullet points to list the different things, to break up the different facts that you learn.

You can just jot notes.

You don't need to write in full sentences when you're making notes, you can just drop key words.

And you need to include any sort of key names or key vocabulary, unusual words or words specific to this particular thing that you're watching.

So, as an example, I might have written down when I started watching this video, I just put a bullet point about 11-years-old because Simran says that she's 11 years old.

And I also wrote that she enjoys books.

So she talks a little bit about the books and why she likes them.

I don't need to write long sentences and explain everything about it.

I've just jotted down the key point which is she enjoys books.

So let's move fiddly now.

What you need to do is, the video is actually on the worksheet.

So you need to pause this, wait inside all of these instructions first.

So you're going to need to pause this video.

Then you're going to need to click next on the website which will take you to the worksheet.

Once you see the worksheet, you'll see the video they're embedded in the worksheets.

You can just click play and the video will start playing.

And then after it's finished, come back to this video and click play again, 'cause this video will be paused and we'll continue with our lesson because you would have seen the video.

So pause this video, click next to the worksheet, play the BBC teach video and then come back to this video, off you go.

Welcome back, well done, video watch, seeing what life was like for Simran.

Well, as you were watching, I'm sure you've got some great notes.

You might have noticed that I've got this sort of jigsaw puzzle because for Simran there were sort of different things that were important to Simran.

She expressed herself and built an identity.

Part of that was her faith.

And part of that was other things as well, that might have been in common with you.

So what I'd like you to do now is sketch out this jigsaw.

So draw jigsaw at different jigsaw pieces.

I've got four pieces.

You might put more pieces and that's fine.

But in each of the jigsaw pieces, what I'd like you to write is something that's really important to Simran.

Okay, so draw the jigsaw pieces and in each one write, in fact I'll show you the first one that I've done.

So I've written that books are really important.

That's one part of Simran's identity that she loves books.

That's what she talked about.

So for each part of Simran's identity, draw a jigsaw piece and write it in.

So pause the video and do that now.

Awesome work, well done.

So I wrote that books were important.

She also talked about how her faith, Sikhism was an important part of her identity.

So that's one of the jigsaw pieces.

She spoke about how her family was really important and her brother, her pets, as well as her parents.

And she spoke about making music and using that musical instrument to make music.

And that was an important part of Simran's identity.

If we zoom in to just Sikhism, we can actually.

So this is the fun thing about identity, all of us are these beautiful jigsaw puzzles of all sorts of different things that are important to us and build up our identity.

And we often connect with people who have similar jigsaw pieces to us but sometimes we connect with people who have different jigsaw pieces because that adds something new to us and we might want to add something new to them.

And so if we zone into just Sikhism that jigsaw puzzle, we can actually, that becomes a jigsaw puzzle as well.

So what elements of Sikhism, if we break that down, what parts of Sikhism are really important to Simran? When she was speaking about her faith, how did that really become important to her? So I wrote for example, she talked about Sikhism being kind of like a brotherhood or sisterhood that when she met another Sikh, she was treated as if they were brothers and sisters, all part of one family that was really important to her.

What other parts of Sikhism did Simran say were really important to her.

So draw another jigsaw and this time zone in on just the Sikhism part of Simran's identity.

So there's going to be some different ideas here and that's fine.

So I'm going to show you what I put and you can tick it if you've got something similar, if you've got something different, it's still a good idea, give yourself a tick as well.

I can't put everything down in this jigsaw.

I wrote that she said that helping others was a really important part of something that she said that she felt blessed to be able to help others and see other people helping others within the Sikh community.

She said that the Sikhs working an honest life was really important.

This is often given as one of the sorts of golden rules of Sikhism.

So thinking about God all the time, helping other people and knowing that everybody is equal but also working that honest life.

And so, as I say, that idea of a quality of everybody being equal, very important to Sikhism and as a part of Simran's identity.

So part of her religious identity and it's become part of her overall identity.

So as you were doing that, you might have been thinking, well, what does my jigsaw puzzle look like? I've seen how Sikhism is an important part of Simran's identity and how she expresses her faith today in different ways.

But what about you? What would your jigsaw puzzle look like? What are the important things that are part of your identity? So now what I'd like you to do is draw another jigsaw puzzle all about you.

And I'd like you to add in there, the different parts that make up your identity, what's important to you, how do they impact on your life? That should be a question, whoops.

Grammar is important part of my identity.

So I should have had a question mark there.

Pause a video, draw your own jigsaw puzzle.

And it could be as many pieces as you want and add in all the different things that are important to you and your identity.

Super work, I wonder what you put, I'd be really interested to sort of see the rich tapestry, the beautifully complex identity that you have with all the different things that are important to you and influence you and affect how you behave and think and act.

If you'd like to, you can share your jigsaw puzzle and you would do that by asking your parent or carer to take a photo of your work.

And then so you make sure it's neat.

Make sure it's accurate.

Make sure it looks beautiful because it's going to be shared on social media.

So ask your parent or carer to take a photo, put it on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

And if they tag in @OakNational, #LearnWithOak then we'll be able to see it.

I'll be able to see it.

And everybody else will be able to see it.

There's thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of followers on those accounts.

So lots of people will be able to see your lovely work and you deserve them to see it because you're working really hard and you've got some interesting ideas.

The only thing left for you to do is complete your end of unit quiz, end of lesson quiz, sorry.

So please make sure that you do that.

Well done for working so hard in today's lesson.

Over the next few lessons, we are going to be writing an essay.

That's our last thing we need to do.

We're going to write a nice, big, long piece of writing to bring together everything that we've learned, give you a chance to fit all those pieces together and think really hard about everything that you know about Sikhism now.

Because it's a lot because you've worked really hard and you've learned so much.

An we're going to bring it all together into an essay.

And there's going to be some really interesting lessons where you can have a big piece of writing and feel really proud of everything that you've learned.

So I can't wait for you to join me for those lessons.

Make sure that you log back on to watch them.

You can share any work with us by asking your parent or carer to sharing it.

It's the end of our lesson today, well done for working so hard.

I will see you next time for our essay lessons.