Three Faiths Trip
This week the Year 4 children had their annual Three Faiths trip. On Tuesday, the whole of Year 4 were able to go and visit 3 different places of worship in one day.
Children visited the Sinai Synagogue, Leeds Minster and The Lingfield Mosque. We had a fantastic day. The children had different activities at each place of worship, they were respectful, curious and really showed off their knowledge and understanding of Judaism which has been our focus during the autumn term.
Here are some comments from the children about their day:
First we visited the Synagogue. When we arrived, the lady explained that the Synagogue was called the Sinai Synagogue. This is after the mountain from the story of Moses and the commandments.
When we inside we sat in the main room, we learnt about the commandments, there are 613 commandments that Jewish people try to follow. She showed us the Tallit, a prayer shawl. Jewish people will say a prayer that is written on the inside of the shawl before they put it on. The shawl has tassels which remind the Jewish people about the commandments.
We also found out that usually Jewish children start to learn Hebrew aged 5. When you are 13, you have a special celebration and you have the opportunity to read from the Torah.
We saw the Ark which is where the Torahs are kept. The Ark has a light above it which is always lit.
We had 3 activities to complete at the Synagogue; we looked at the Torah in more detail with the Yad. We also had to hunt for different items and finally we had a go at writing in Hebrew.
Next, we arrived at Leeds Minster. The first thing we saw was a huge picture of Dr Hook. He was a man who rebuilt the Minster and there is a statue of him in Leeds city centre.
We had 3 different activities whilst we were here. We learnt about prayer and why prayer is important to some people. We were able to light a candle and think about something that was special to us. Our next activity was to look at the Bible which is the special book of Christians. It is split into two sections. The Old Testament and the New Testament. Richard showed us a Bible that he had found in the archives. He believed that it was the oldest Bible in the Minster. It was quite big and very delicate. We also got to have a look around the Minster buildings. There were lots of really interesting things there, like the Leeds cross which dates back to Anglo Saxon times and the tomb of a soldier that was found upside down!
Finally, we arrived at the Mosque. When we arrived we had to take our shoes off. This is a sign of respect but also to keep the Mosque clean because the people pray on the carpets and put their nose and forehead on the carpet when they pray.
Next, we were shown the wash room, called the Wudhu. This is where Muslims go to clean before they pray to God.
After that, we went in to the prayer room. We were able to have a look around at all the different things that were in there. We saw a Minbar and the Mihrab.
We were set a challenge; this was where we had to guess what items were and how they were used by people of Muslim faith. That was really interesting.
Finally, before we left, we were able to hear the call to prayer and watch the afternoon worship. That was really interesting and was really different to how I had seen anyone pray before.
We had a great time on the trip and we were taught so many new and interesting things. The next year 4’s will love it!
Comments written by Alfie, Phoebe, Amber, Alice, Kate, Amelie, Zak, Sam, Alex and William.
Mrs House
