Lent at Home & School
Monday 1st March 2021
St David
Today is the Feast of St David, the patron saint of Wales.
Could You...
Find Wales on a map.
Maybe you know some things about Wales, or places in Wales, or can ask others about places the know. You could even try drawing your own map with the bit’s that stick out at the top and the bottom.
A Question...
David is special for Welsh people. Which famous person do you think of as being special for you? A singer? An actor? A sports personality?
You can list your top three.
And Finally
Today some Welsh people will wear daffodils or leeks – the national emblems. They are like the badge of the Welsh. What flower, vegetable or other curious item would you have as your emblem?
Tuesday 2nd March 2021
St Chad’s Day
Could You?
St Chad is one of the oldest English Saints, born around the year 620 and travelled a lot around the North of England. He was an abbot of a few monasteries. A monastery is a place where people go to live lives devoted to prayer and work for God. He was also the Bishop of York. He studied at Lindisfarne and started monasteries at Barrow and Lichfield.
Could you find these places on a map of England? They are all North of the big city of Birmingham.
Maybe you could also find some of the other towns you know, in the top half of a map of England, such as where you live or places you have visited.
A Question...
If you could do a day trip – so not too far and done in one day – where would you go, and why?
And Finally
Think about it: What do you think travel would have been like 1400 years ago?
Wednesday 3rd March 2021
Launch of Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 was launched on this day in 1972. It was the first human-made object to be launched and to leave the solar system. It left the solar system.
Could You?
Could you find out about planets and the sun?
Remember the names using the mnemonic (memory tip) “My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets” (the letters match Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn Uranus, Neptune...and we’re including Pluto, but you could just say “..just speeds up naming” if you don’t).
Here is Pioneer 10’s photo of Jupiter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10#/media/File:Pioneer_10_-_p146.jpg
A Question...
If you discovered a new planet, what would you call it?
And Finally
Pioneer 10 finally left the solar system in 1983 and contact was lost with the probe in 2003. What is the furthest distance you have ever travelled?
Thursday 4th March 2021
World Book Day
Could You?
Visit our World Book Day page to enter our World Book Day competition. As well as doing your World Book Day remote learning, could you think about your favourite two books.... yes, you can pick two...and think what it is that make them special, for you?
A Question...
What makes a story particularly good – as in exciting, heart breaking, funny or adventurous?
And Finally
Prepare your costume for tomorrow's Google Meet session. You can also spend your £1 World Book Day Voucher.
Friday 5th March 2021
Anniversary of Last Year’s World Book Day!
Could You?
Why are we talking about last year’s World Book Day? There’s a reason...could you try and remember it? For many of us it was the last big event in school we could celebrate together. After this it was lockdowns and bubbles. So, could you use this opportunity to think and chat about how much has changed since you last dressed up or did something similar for World book Day?
A Question...
Visit our Twitter feed https://twitter.com/DawpoolCofE and scroll back through the Tweets over the last 12 months. Can you find the pictures of everyone dressed up for World Book Day? Can you think of something that happened in each month between last World book Day and this one?
And Finally
Could you make a time line of things that have happened during the past year?
Saturday 6th March 2021
Dentists Day
Dentists Day, observed annually every March 6, and is a day set aside to remind us to say “Thank You” and show appreciation to your dentist.
Could You?
Could you clean your teeth? Could you also take a good look at them and think of all the different ways they mash, cut or grind food such that you can eat it?
A Question...
How do you feel about going to the dentist...and why?
And Finally
You might want to arrange for someone to help you get a message by text or email to your dentist thanking them for all their work, particularly this past year.
Sunday 7th March 2021
Saints Perpetua and Felicity
Today the Church remembers St Perpetua and St Felicity, two martyrs of the Church. Martyrs are people who were killed because of their faith. Perpetua and Felicity were martyred around 203.
Could You?
Remember the names – Perpetual and Felicity. We keep days like this to remember people and learn their story, and also learn from their story.
Perpetua was a rich woman. Felicity was a servant. Perpetua was a Christian and refused to give up her faith, even though warned that the Emperor was having followers of Jesus killed. Perpetua met Felicity in prison, where they were awaiting execution. The two women became friends. They met a grisly end. The two women were martyred by being gored by wild beasts and then beheaded in the arena at their home town.
Together they wrote the earliest Christian book known to have been written by women.
A Question...
Felicity and Perpetua died for what they believed in. What beliefs or opinions are really important to you?
And Finally
A short film from the Catholic Church in which the two martyrs’ story is told – with the story of the water jug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BubQSY1A1-s
Monday 22nd February 2021
Birth of George Washington, who would grow up to be the first president of the United States.
Could You?
How many leaders’ names can you name, from now or from the past?
Do you know the name of the current US President? What about the one before? Or the one before that?
A Question...
What is the best way to decide who should be in charge of a group or a country?
And Finally
Christopher Jackson, who played Washington in the musical “Hamilton”, talks about the fact that Washington was also a slave owner, and how he reflected on that troubling past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXFuKpxyXk8
Tuesday 23rd February 2021
St Polycarp’s day
St Polycarp (69-155 AD) was one of the earliest Church writers and someone who became a martyr.
Could You?
Look up the Gospel of John in a Bible, or find out about something in that Gospel?
Tradition has it that Polycarp knew John – and John knew Jesus. He’s like an early link in the chain of history.
A Question...
Who do you know and chat to in different generations to your own?
And Finally
Today is also Handel's birthday so why not listen to this snippet from the great composer: (1865)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5vfAoPwepg
Wednesday 24th February 2021
The first perforated postage stamp
The first perforated postage stamp – a Penny Red – was introduced on this day in 1854
Could You?
Could you find a postage stamp? Or two? What do they look like? How often do we use them?
A Question...
What are all the different ways in which we send messages and communications to each other?
And Finally
Here’s Ruby talking about Postage Stamps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KJtLOyHTcw
Thursday 25th February 2021
Purim Begins this evening
This evening, after sundown, the Jewish festival of Purim begins.
Could You?
Could you find out about the Story Of Esther? She has her own Book in the Bible, and in chapters 4 and 5 she does what nobody was supposed to do and enters the presence of the king, without being invited.
If you want to use an online Bible, here’s one: https://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/
“If I die, I die” she says, as she sets off on this daring visit.
A Question...
What should people do if they think their rulers are doing the wrong thing?
And Finally
Here’s a telling of the Story of Esther: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGQ3oSJ_xbc
Friday 26th February 2021
Purim
The Feast of Purim (see 25/2) continues today. It’s an exciting day in which the Jewish people celebrate a time when their people were saved from being wiped out.
Could You?
Could you think about the most exciting stories you know? What makes them exciting?
What makes for a good, action packed story?
A Question...
Find out from one another what stoles you think are the most exciting ever told.
And Finally
Here’s a beautiful old painting showing Esther’s uncle persuading her to risk approaching the king:
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133837.html
Here’s one of her in with the king:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sebastiano-ricci-esther-before-ahasuerus
Just look and ask who’s who: who is doing what in these paintings?
Saturday 27th February 2021
George Herbert
The Church of England designates February 27 as a feast day for the priest and poet George Herbert (1593-1633)
Could You?
Could you read this bit of a poem by George Herbert?
It is a prayer that anything he does will be done as a special something for God. “Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for Thee.”
A Question...
“Teach me my God and King” is all about seeing importance in all things – big or small – that we do. Think of some of the boring and seemingly unimportant things we do, and think about why we have to do them: how special are they?
And Finally
Here’s that poem we looked at in full, after a lot of information about George Herbert:
https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/27-february-thanks-george-herbert/
And here is another one, about meeting God, entitled 'Love'
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44367/love-iii
Sunday 28th February
28th February: Today is the last day of the shortest month!
Could You?
Check which months have which number of days? You could use the old rhyme:
“Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
But February's twenty-eight,
The leap year, which comes once in four, Gives February one day more.”
A Question...
What are the two best months of the year and what makes them so good?
And Finally
28 is the second smallest “perfect number“ – this is a number that can be made by adding all its divisors (the numbers by which it can be divided, so 1+2+4+7+14 = 28.
So, what is the smallest perfect number?
Tuesday 16 February 2021
Shrove Tuesday
This isn’t Lent, it’s the eve before.
Traditionally the coming season of Lent was a solemn time so on the day before it began (Ash Wednesday) people would have a party and eat some of the luxury foods.
Could you?
You may be making pancakes and celebrating, but could you also write a menu for the most luxurious best café imaginable. It can have the foods you love (“fish and chips”, “chocolate cake”) but you can also invent some luxury foods (what would a “Chocolate Bar Jelly” be like?)
A Question...
What are your top three luxuries that you either do enjoy, or would if you could have them?
And Finally
Any thoughts on the best pancake ingredients?
Wednesday 17 February 2021
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a season in the Church calendar. Lent includes 40 days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter. Ash Wednesday is so named because Christians sometimes have ash crosses placed on their forehead on this day, as a reminder of the way the world has fallen and isn’t as God would want it to be, and also as a “sorry” for our part in that.
We will share more about the story behind the 40 days on Sunday 21st February
Could You?
Have a think about the word “Sorry” and why we say it and when we say it. Think about what makes it helpful and why it can be good to say “sorry”?
Christians believe we say “sorry” to a God who loves and forgives us. Again, we could think about forgiveness. Why is it good to forgive? How can it help us?
A Question...
Can someone be made to say sorry, or do they have to want to say it? If they are made to, is it worth saying?
And Finally
The word ‘Lent’ may come from the old English word for ‘lengthening’, because during this time the days are getting longer. Can you find out what time the sun sets?
Thursday 18 February 2021
“The Pilgrim's Progress” was published on this day in 1678.
John Bunyan’s classic story wrote about the life of faith as a pilgrimage. It is an allegory in which places and people represent experiences and problems. So, the idea of “Help” is represented by a character called “Help” and someone in despair is depicted in a cage.
Could You?
Find out more about what an allegory is? You could imagine your own.
“Pilgrim’s Progress” is a story about Christian life, but it is an allegory. Things people experience or feel are turned into characters on a journey.
You could try thinking of your life thus far as a journey and imagine the different places it has taken you along the way.
Who knows, some budding Bunyans out there may even turn it into a map!
A Question...
What is the most special journey you have ever made, or could imagine making, and what makes it special?
And Finally
You could think about the word “progress” and your progress. What are some of the things you have learned this school year?
Friday 19 February 2021
Nicolaus Copernicus was born this day in 1473
He would grow up to be a great astronomer who put forward the idea that the Sun is at the centre of our Solar System. Back then, folks thought it was the Earth.
Could You?
Could you think about some of the things you know about the earth we live on and the creation in which we live? In Copernicus’s day his teaching was new and would cause a bit of an uproar, but came to be seen as the truth.
What are some of your favourite facts, things you know and thoughts about our world?
A Question...
When was the last time you changed your mind about something? What was it?
And Finally
Last month’s “Perfect Planet” was all about the Sun.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08xc2x7/a-perfect-planet-series-1-2-the-sun
Saturday 20 February 2021
Edward VI was crowned King of England on this day, at just 9 years of age in 1547
Could You?
Find out who the kings or queens were before and after Edward?
Do you know the names of any other Kings or Queens before or after Edward? can you put them in order?
If you need help, here’s a list:
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/KingsQueensofBritain/
A Question...
Is 9 too young to be put in charge of things? If it is, how old is old enough?
And Finally
This portrait of Edward and others is explained by all the links on this National Portrait Gallery page:
Sunday 21 February 2021
Jesus in the Wilderness
Today, in our churches, we read the story of Jesus in the wilderness – a story really important in Lent.
Could You?
Could you read the story?
Jesus spent his 40 days readying himself for his mission. You can read about it in Luke 4:1-13.
If you want to use an online Bible, here’s one: https://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/
A Question...
Jesus was faced with the temptation between the right and wrong choice: how do we decide what is the right thing to do?
And Finally
Watch a beautiful, short film called “40”, mapping 40 days over 40 slides
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-6a25Yo2wE