Key Stage 1

The main aims of this stage are for children to be able to:

• explore a range of religious stories
• explore a range of celebrations, worship and rituals
• identify the importance, for some people, of belonging to a religion and the difference it makes to their lives
• explore how religious beliefs can be expressed through the arts
• identify and describe religious symbols and artefacts, and begin to use a range of religious words.

Following the suggestions under each heading below will help you understand the topic yourself. To aid you in preparing classes on Jainism, we have provided a series of lesson plans on various Jain themes, which you can adapt to the needs of your class. There are also teachers' notes to help you use the Learn Jainism books in your classes.

You can download them from the bottom of the page. You will need Adobe Reader to use PDFs.

Explore religious stories

• Read page 13 of Discover Jainism, the section on 'The Dreams of Mother Trishala'
• Read the book Jain Tales
• See the JAINpedia website:
  • 'Are there any holy books in Jainism?' in the Jainism FAQs
  • the section on 'Sacred writings'
• See more religious short stories on the e-Jainism website
• Download Lesson Plan 3: Jain Scriptures, Symbols & Myths.

Explore celebrations, worship and rituals

• Read pages 14 to 21 of Discover Jainism, the sections:
  • 'Holy Days and Festivals'
  • 'Pilgrimages'
  • 'Temples'
  • 'Worship'
• See the BBC page on some Jain holy days
• Read sections on the JAINpedia website:
  • 'How do Jains pray?' in the Jainism FAQs
  • 'Do Jains have festivals?' in the Jainism FAQs
  • Festivals, including articles on the individual festivals
• Download Lesson Plan 4: Jain Worship, Jain Sects and Jain Festivals.

Identify the importance of religion for some people

• Download Lesson Plan 5: Jain Beliefs: Karma and Reincarnation
• See 'Your RE' Pupil Book available from Pearson Education Limited.

Explore artistic expression of religion

• Read pages 18 to 19 of Discover Jainism, the section on temples. The architecture of temples is a form of religious art.
• See on the JAINpedia website:
  • Manuscripts section, in which painted manuscripts depict stories, rituals, practices, astronomy and so on
  • the article on Temples
• Download Lesson Plan 3: Jain Scriptures, Symbols & Myths.

Downloadable resources