As part of our learning in RE, year 4 visited one of the most important places of worship in the whole of the UK – Westminster Abbey! Our visit tied in brilliantly with our history and English topics too! We learnt that the original abbey was built by the last Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor. It took over 20 years to build, but then Henry III decided he could do better and tore down the original abbey, leaving only one room which remains today. Henry III’s abbey took about 300 years to build and was only finished when Henry VIII was on the throne! This is the Abbey which still stands today.
We also saw the memorial plaque of two authors we have studied – C S Lewis and Lewis Carroll, who wrote ‘The Jabberwocky’, a brilliant nonsense poem which we are currently learning off by heart and will soon be recording in the studio! Some of us were able to recite the poem in its entirety (very impressive – see below!)
It was a fantastic day. We had a brilliant tour from some very knowledgeable guides – and a very atmospheric lunch in the cloisters (which we thought looked like Hogwarts!) afterwards. Well done year 4!
Jabberwocky
BY LEWIS CARROLL
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.