Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Ross.

I'm really excited to be working with you today.

I know we're gonna have a fantastic lesson.

We're gonna work really hard and we're gonna do a brilliant job.

Today's lesson is called The Idea of Pilgrimage, and it's part of a series of work around pilgrimage, why some people visit Jerusalem, Makkah and Karbala.

By the end of today's lesson, we're going to be learning a lot of things, but I would like to think that by the end we will understand that pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place.

Let's have a look at some keywords we're going to be using during our lesson.

Don't worry, we'll keep going over these so you'll learn them really well and we'll be able to use them in our writing on tasks.

Our keywords today are pilgrimage, which is a journey to a sacred place.

A pilgrim who is someone who goes on a journey to a holy place.

And sacred, a place that is holy and maybe dedicated to God.

So as I said before, don't worry, we'll be going through those words over and over again.

Look out for them in the text 'Cause they'll be highlighted for you.

Our lesson's going to be in two parts today.

The first part is called, What is a sacred lace? And the second part is, What is a pilgrimage? And we're going to start with What is a sacred place? Well, what is a sacred place? Here we have Lucas and Laura who are talking about special places they like to visit.

Laura says, "I love going to the football match with my dad.

We get the bus to the ground with other fans.

It's fun being part of a crowd all cheering our team together." Lucas says, "I love visiting my grandma's house in Devon.

When we get there, we have a big meal as a family and then play hide and seek in the garden." I wonder what special places do you like to visit? You might want to pause the video and have a talk to the person next to you about what you find is a special place and where you like to visit.

Laura and Lucas are talking about what they do at their special places.

Laura says, "At the football ground it can be special 'Cause at the football match you all sit together, you all wear the colours of your team and you sing chants and celebrate when your team scored." Lucas said, "A family home might be special 'Cause it's a place where people come together to eat and celebrate together." I wonder what you do in your special places? Let's have a think about that.

What similar activities often happen at special places? Do people celebrate? Do people write? Do people sing? I wonder if you can find two things that people do at their special places.

Pause the video, have a talk and a think and come up with two things that you think people do at special places.

Yes, they celebrate together and they sometimes sing together too.

Not sure if I'll be celebrating in their special place with writing all the time.

Here is church.

It's a Christian Church.

And Sophia says, "I think my church is a sacred place.

My brother was baptised there." Christians have a sacred place called a church.

Andeep says, "My sister was married at a gurdwara.

It's a sacred place for Sikhs." So a gurdwara is a sacred place for Sikhs.

What do you think then is a sacred place? Well, let's have a think about the word sacred.

Sacred is a word that comes from Latin and the word looks like that.

The first part of the word sacr, is the root word, which just means that something is holy or to dedicate.

So a sacred place is a holy place that's dedicated to God.

Churches and gurdwaras are sacred places 'Cause they're holy to Christians and Sikhs.

Wonder what other sacred places you can think of? That you might have already studied in different things.

So which of these do you think is a definition of sacred? Is it A, a special place? Is it B, a beautiful place? Or is it C, a holy place dedicated to God? Pause the video and talk to the person next to you.

Yes, it's a holy place dedicated to God, remember sacred means holy or dedicated.

Sometimes sacred places can be bigger than a place like a church or a mosque or a gurdwara.

Places like cities can be sacred too.

The city of Jerusalem is a sacred place for Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

And here is a picture of Jerusalem.

I wonder, looking at that picture, can you find some sacred places for Christians and Muslims and Jews in the photograph? Pause the video and have a look at carefully at the picture.

What can you spot in the picture that shows that there are sacred places in Jerusalem for Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

Well, you might be able to spot, there's a tower there.

There are many churches and other sacred places for Christians in Jerusalem.

You might know that the western wall is a sacred place for Jews.

You can see in the middle of the picture there, the dome of the rock and which is a mosque in Jerusalem.

That's a sacred place for Muslims. What other things did you spot? You might want to pause the video again and tell someone next to you what you have seen.

Let's do a quick check.

Is this true or false? A larger place like a city can be sacred.

Is that true or false? What's your reason why? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Decide which is true or false.

Yes, it's true.

Jerusalem is an example of a sacred city with many sacred places within it.

I wonder if you can think of other cities that might be sacred to? Let's think about a task for this part of the lesson.

I've got a table here and on the table is some key sentences.

I want you to decide which of these sentences are true or false.

Maybe have a think about why you think they're true or false.

So let's have a look at what it says.

Special places are the same as sacred places.

Is that true or false? Sacred means holy or dedicated to God.

True or false? The city of Jerusalem is a sacred place for Sikhs.

True or false? And sacred places can be places of worship, but can also include larger places like cities.

Decide whether that's true or false.

So have a look at the statements, decide whether they're true or false.

Pause the video, have a conversation, fill in the table and think about why you think they're true or false.

Well, hopefully you had a really good talk to someone and you've decided which of the statements are true and which are false.

Let's have a look at the answers here.

Special places are the same as sacred places.

That's false.

A sacred place is usually somewhere that's dedicated to God like a church or a mosque or a gurdwara or a synagogue.

They're not the same as special places like a football ground or your grandma's house.

Sacred means holy or dedicated to God.

Yes, that's true.

Remember when we looked at that Latin word, sacr, holy or dedicated.

The city of Jerusalem is a sacred place for Sikhs.

Not sure about that.

I think it's false.

We didn't say that before.

We said Jerusalem is a sacred place for Muslims, Christians and Jews.

And lastly, sacred places can be places of worship, but they can also include larger places like cities.

Yes, that's true.

So a church, a gurdwara, it's a sacred place.

A city is a bigger place, but it can still be sacred.

Well done.

We've managed to get through the first part of our lesson really well.

I hope you've already learned what a sacred place is all about.

We're going to move on to our second part of our lesson now, which is, what is pilgrimage? Hmm.

Big word, that pilgrimage.

I wonder what it means? Laura and Lucas have to travel to their special places.

Laura says, "We get the bus to the ground with other fans.

We're excited and we love to sing and chant." And Lucas says, "It's a long way to my grandma's house.

So we play 'I Spy,' on the car journey." I wonder what journeys you've made to special places.

I wonder if you can start making a link between journeys and pilgrimage.

Pause the video and have a think about what journeys you've made to your special places.

Well, here we have a picture of some Shi'a Muslims making the pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq.

I wonder looking at that picture there, can you think what a pilgrimage is? What does the word mean? Well, a pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place and people who go on a pilgrimage are called pilgrims. Have you heard of any other pilgrimages? you might have learned about these in other lessons.

Pause the video, have a little think.

Talk to somebody and think about, have you heard of other pilgrimage places? So let's do a quick checkup.

What is our pilgrimage? Is it a holy place or a place dedicated to God? Is it a journey to a sacred place? Or is it someone who goes on a pilgrimage? Pause the video again.

Have a chat.

Which of that is the correct answer? Yes, it's a journey to a sacred place.

So if that's a pilgrimage, what's a pilgrim? Is a pilgrim a holy building or place dedicated to God? Is it a journey to a sacred place? Or is it someone who goes on a pilgrimage? Again, pause the video.

Have a think about that one and decide what Is a pilgrim? Yes, you're right.

A pilgrim is someone who goes on a pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage is not just any journey, an ordinary journey like driving to the shops.

A pilgrimage might take place at certain times of the year.

A pilgrimage might include certain actions like walking barefoot or praying.

A pilgrimage might help deepen understanding of a person's faith.

So let's check that.

Which two of these statements are true about pilgrimage? Is it A, a pilgrimage might happen at certain times of the year? Is it B, pilgrims might want to deepen their faith? Or is it C a pilgrimage is just like an ordinary journey.

Pause the video and have a think.

Yes, a pilgrimage might happen at certain times of the year and pilgrims might want to go on pilgrimage to deepen their faith.

Pilgrimage makes a big difference to people's lives.

The children asked two adults how they have been affected by their pilgrimage.

A Muslim said, "My experience on Hajj was awesome.

I felt enriched with a deeper understanding and a stronger connection with Allah.

I felt satisfied that I had completed a pillar of Islam." Ooh, I wonder what difference that made to that person's life.

They said they felt enriched and they had a deeper understanding and a deeper connection.

I wonder what the Christian person said? The Christian said, "A pilgrimage is a really important way that Christians can show devotion to God.

Showing devotion means sacrificing your time, money, and effort.

I feel I have a bigger spiritual commitment to God 'Cause of my pilgrimage journey." Again, they've got something in common there.

They said they've got a bigger spiritual connection or commitment to God because of pilgrimage.

Well, let's have a think about this statement.

Is this true or false? A pilgrimage makes no difference to someone's life.

Is that true? Is it false? And what do you think is it why? Pause the video and see what you think it is.

Is it true or false? Yes, it's false.

Most pilgrims gain a deeper or bigger spiritual connection to God and a pilgrim might feel enriched by this experience.

People have been making pilgrimages for hundreds of years.

This drawing is from the Middle Ages.

It would've been a long and dangerous journey and it's Christians on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Why don't you pause the video here.

Have a look at that picture and tell me what you notice.

This photograph shows Muslim pilgrims making the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1925.

So it's a bit grainy.

It's a bit black and white this picture, but it's a very old picture.

Aisha says, "This photograph was taken a long time ago.

Makkah has been a sacred city for a long time." I wonder what those last two slides tell us about when pilgrimages have happened? Let's check upon that one.

Is this true or false? Pilgrims have been making pilgrimages for a long time.

So is it true and false? And gimme a reason why.

So pause the video and have a think about that.

Yes, you're right.

It's true.

There's evidence that pilgrims have been visiting places like Jerusalem and Makkah for hundreds of years.

So let's just think now then about how pilgrims get ready for their pilgrimages.

And they do that in lots of different ways.

Aisha said, "My mom spent ages getting ready for her pilgrimage by praying, reading the Koran, and packing special clothes.

She even went to the gym because you have to be fit to go on Hajj.

She was looking forward to praying with so many other people." What did Aisha say there? She prayed more.

She read the Koran and she packed special clothes and got fit.

Well, Sophia says, "My aunt Fiona is getting ready for pilgrimage to Jerusalem by praying, reading her Bible, and practising walking a long way.

She's looking forward to travelling with other pilgrims and stopping for prayers along the way." Again, I wonder how Aunt Fiona got ready.

Oh, she read the Bible.

She prayed more and she practised walking.

Lots of things that are similar there.

Let's see if you can help Alex out by thinking about all the things we've learned about what is pilgrimage.

Alex and his family are going on a pilgrimage.

Alex says, "Help me write a message to my younger cousin to explain what a pilgrimage is, and how we should prepare for it." So what I'd like you to do is write three or four sentences and think about how you would help Alex send a message to his cousin.

You will need to put in what a pilgrimage actually is, and how people get ready for it.

So think about what we said from Aisha and Sophia about how their families got ready to go on pilgrimage.

So pause the video, talk to the person next to you and write me three or four sentences and see how you're getting on.

I hope you did a really good job there.

And you've written me three or four sentences about what is pilgrimage and what we need to do to get ready for it.

Well the things that Alex might have said to his younger cousin.

I want to see if you've written the same things.

You might have said.

A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place.

You might have even defined for me what a sacred place means that it's holy or dedicated to God.

To get ready for pilgrimage, you might have said things like, you need to pray more.

Read your holy book, plan your journey and get ready by getting fit and packing special clothes.

I wonder what you wrote down.

Perhaps you want to share with the person next to you and then you might want to send it on to Alex so he can send it to his younger cousin to tell them how to prepare for pilgrimage.

Well, today we've learned a lot about pilgrimage, haven't we? And we've learned a lot about what that word means and what sacred means.

And we've learned that many people visit places that are special to them.

Christians, Muslims and Jews may visit sacred places associated with their worldview or faith.

And that pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place.

Well done.

You've done a fantastic job this lesson.

And I'm sure you've learned so much about pilgrimage.

Thank you for learning with me.

See you soon.

Bye.