It was a wet, windy winter afternoon when Anna and Jenny intrepidly set out on their bikes to run a Christingle story bag lesson with 80 key stage 1 children at New Earswick Primary School. But what a fantastic afternoon they had!

In the hall, the children listened to, and used props to act out the story of three wise men who saw a bright new light come into the world - the star that showed Jesus had been born, and Jesus himself, who grew up to shine God's light into the world. They then learnt about what a Christingle is and what it means, and used it to help them remember the story. Next, the children separated into their classes in the hall, and each was given a plate with an orange, some red tape, four cocktail sticks, some dried fruit and a birthday candle to make their own Christingles to take home. We finished off by singing the Christingle song together. Whilst most schools decorated a giant class Christingle in their lessons, New Earswick chose to buy all the oranges to allow their children to make individual ones, providing a reason to talk about learning with their families.

It has been an absolute joy to do the Christingle story bag lesson in four schools this half term, although demand has outstripped supply, so that two schools are borrowing the bag to use themselves, and others have missed out this time. It has been so exciting to work with KS1 outside of It's Your programmes, and there is already interest in the up coming story bags for the rest of the academic year. Watch this space for a story all about Zacchaeus in the new year.