To begin our new topic ‘Galilee to Jerusalem’, we have been looking at the story of the ‘Visitors from the East’ (Matthew 2: 1-12) where the Magi were sent by Herod to worship the baby Jesus and reveal his location. The Magi followed Jesus’s star which led them to his birthplace and the opportunity to bestow their gifts of frankincense, myrrh and gold upon him. After being warned not to return to Herod in a dream, they returned to their country by another route.
After reading the Bible story together, we organised the narrative into 6 key events: 1) Herod sends the Magi to Bethlehem 2) The Magi see Jesus’s star on the way 3) The Magi arrive at Jesus’s location 4) They worship Jesus 5) They offer their gifts to Jesus 6) They are warned in a dream not to return to Herod. We formed small groups and allocated roles to each other to create a freeze frame demonstrating each event. We spent time thinking about how the characters would be feeling and we tried to demonstrate those feelings in each freeze frame.
For example, when Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem, we decided they must have felt honoured for being given such an important job. When they saw the star, they would have felt overjoyed knowing that they had divine guidance and certainty that they were going in the right direction. On arrival and worshipping Jesus, they might have felt nervous or overwhelmed knowing that there in front of them was the King of the Jews, the messiah prophesized by Isaiah. After the dream, we decided that they would likely feel anger or fear upon hearing of Herod’s ill-intentions.
As each group performed the freeze frames, the rest of the class suggested thoughts that might have been going through the minds of the Magi. For example, “Oh my goodness! Am I really going to be one of the first people to meet the son of God?!” Those thoughts and feelings were recorded into speech bubbles and turned into a wonderful display (thanks to Ms Cimmino!) and furthermore applied to a diary entry from the perspective of the Magi. There were lots of wonderful thoughts and feelings suggested, well done Year 3!
