Year 2 Festivals: How do they celebrate the natural world? worksheet

“Harvest festival in the UK” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 2 religious education unit “Festivals: How do they celebrate the natural world?”, for children aged 6 to 7, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 7 to 12 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Harvest festival in the UK

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 2 · Religious education · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can say what harvest festival is about and how Christians celebrate it.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which season comes after summer? Circle the right answer.
AutumnWinterSpring
2.
Which word fits the empty box in the chain? Circle the right answer.
PlantStoneCloud
3.
Summer leaves are green. Which colour do autumn leaves often turn? Circle the right answer.
BrownBluePink

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ali's class asks what harvest means. Their teacher draws three boxes to help them think.

Watch me

Harvest starts when the crops are ripe.

Farmers gather the crops in.

Then the food is shared with others.

Now you

1.
Circle the word that fits the empty box.
given to a food bankhidden in a boxpainted gold
2.
Circle the word that fits the empty box.
gather inpaint overforget

C Your turn8 min

Look at the harvest table picture. Then do each task.

A church altar with a harvest display of tins, loaves, apples and wheat

1.
Join each word to what it means.
HarvestThanksgivingSteward
someone who looks after the Earthgathering in ripe cropssaying a big thank you
2.
Join each action to the reason for it.
Tins given to a food bankFruit and flowers on the altarPrayers of thanksgiving
to say thank you to Godto help families who need foodto show what grew this year
3.
Write each card in the right column.
Drawing a fire engineSinging thank you songsPlaying football in the parkBringing tins to church
Part of harvest festival Not part of harvest festival
4.
Put these steps in order. Number them 1, 2 and 3.
1. Food is given to a food bank
2. People bring tins and fruit to church
3. Prayers and songs say thank you to God

Say it out loud: What do the words, pairs and steps have in common? Tell your grown-up one link you spotted.

D Spot the mistake3 min

A wooden crate of tins and bags of rice beside a plain doorway

Kit says: “Harvest is only about collecting food, so the church only needs tins.”

1.
Why is Kit wrong? Write one or two sentences.

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Many Christians want to look after the world. Make up one way a family could do this at harvest time. Write it down.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Harvest festival in the UK · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. Autumn

2. Plant

3. Brown

B

1. given to a food bank If your child picks 'hidden in a box', ask what the food is for. At harvest, the food is shared with people who need it.

2. gather in If your child picks 'paint over', ask what happens to crops when they are ripe. Farmers gather them in.

C

1. Harvest → gathering in ripe crops; Thanksgiving → saying a big thank you; Steward → someone who looks after the Earth If your child joins Harvest to 'saying a big thank you', they are mixing up two words. Read each meaning aloud and ask which one describes gathering crops.

2. Tins given to a food bank → to help families who need food; Fruit and flowers on the altar → to show what grew this year; Prayers of thanksgiving → to say thank you to God

3. Part of harvest festival: Bringing tins to church, Singing thank you songs · Not part of harvest festival: Playing football in the park, Drawing a fire engine If your child puts 'Singing thank you songs' in the wrong column, ask who the songs are for. Harvest songs thank God for the food.

4. 1 People bring tins and fruit to church · 2 Prayers and songs say thank you to God · 3 Food is given to a food bank

D

1. Look for: Harvest covers more than gathering food: thanks, caring for the natural world, and sharing with people who need it. If your child only repeats 'it is about food', ask what the thank you prayers and songs are for. Then ask who gets the food.

E

1. Look for: A realistic action that looks after the Earth or shares food, such as planting a tree, tidying a park or sharing food.

Words to use

Say“Harvest is about more than food. What else do the people in the church do?”

Instead of“Harvest is just a pretty display of fruit and vegetables, isn't it?”

After the sheet

Over tea, ask everyone to name one food they ate today and say who grew it. Then talk about who might be thanked for it.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Harvest around the world(with a plan)
The Sukkot Garden Shelter(with a plan)
The Festival of Trees(with a plan)
The Story of Holi(with a plan)
Colour and joy at Holi(with a plan)

Every Year 2 religious education worksheet

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