This week, Year 4 had the privilege of visiting the Wintershall Traveling Crib at the wonderful Lambeth Palace.
Once we arrived at Lambeth Palace, we were welcomed by the Wintershall Education Team and our guide for the day, took us to the Advent circle to start our workshop which gave us the opportunity to dig deeper into the Christmas story. Our hosts explained how the day would work and also told us about our special purple pilgrim bags for our journey and that at every stop, we would be given a special present to place into it.
Firstly, we walked over to the chapel and met Elizabeth who was very keen to share with us about her message from an angel that she would have a son and have to call him John. She gave us a lovely feather for our bags. Next on our journey was meeting Martha, who was looking after some donkeys which were being prepared to help travel back for the census. We even got to stroke the donkeys whilst Martha shared her worries about everyone having enough space to stay whilst the census was taking place. She gave us some lovely wooden carvings of a donkey to place in our pilgrims bags.
Thirdly, our guide took us to a tent in which we met a woman called Mary who described her experience of the Angel Gabriel coming to her and informing her that she would have a baby. She asked us for any tips and advice for looking after a baby as many of us have younger siblings so we shared our best advice. As a thanks, Mary gave us a wooden carving of a crib to add to our pilgrim bags.
Next as we walked on the path with our guide, we were stopped by a shepherd who told us how he saw a star in the sky and he even took us to see his sheep. He then explained all about working with sheep and why their wool is special. We even got to take some to add to our pilgrim bags.
Our last stop was to visit the Wise Man as he described how he was studying the stars and saw that the prophecy had come true that the saviour would be born soon. He shared the gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh and we got to take a small jewel with us as a present.
We then finished with a whole group reflection with the aims of thinking how we could spread this message throughout Advent before it was time to head back to school.
Thank you so much to the SVPA for funding this trip and Wintershall for inviting us to such a special journey to Bethlehem!
Year 4, what was your favourite part of the Wintershall Travelling Crib?
It was so fun we pet real sheep and donkeys. We also got 5 gifts. A wooden donkey and crib, sheep fur, gem and a booklet.