In the middle of his attempt to rest and find some peace and quiet a crowd surrounds Jesus. Filled with compassion he teaches them and then miraculously feeds all 5000+ of them with only 5 loaves and 2 fish.

This story is a great one to explore. Children can identify with the small boy and his packed lunch. They can wonder at the miracle and be challenged as to how they respond to others around them.

We have written resources to explore this story with children in younger classes (go to this page) and for those in second level classes. (Go to this page).

To tell the story why not use this wonderful powerpoint from Bibleworld Books (Scottish Bible Society).

https://scottishbiblesociety.org/2018/06/jesus-feeds-a-crowd-a-free-resource-for-all-ages/

There are many opportunities to link this RME learning across the curriculum.  There are lots of literacy opportunities as this story could be imagined from any of the characters’ points of view. Your classroom could smell wonderful as you bake some bread. You could link to the subject of ‘rest’ in health and wellbeing and looking outwards you could learn about poverty and charities working to help those needing food provided for them. Could your class help in some way?

We hope you enjoy using our resources. Here’s where to find them:

Feeding of the 5000 for younger children

Feeding of the 5000 for older children