Placement student Ijabo tells us about Palace Explorers and how much the children enjoyed meeting Queen Elizabeth I.
Every Tuesday morning during term time, the palace’s education department runs a ‘Palace Explorers’ session, where every session is a different theme. I helped with the "A Banquet for Elizabeth" session.
At the start of the session, one of the children was incredibly shy, but once they saw the warm-up and how entertaining the other child found it, they soon joined in. The children were shown a doll of Queen Elizabeth I and were enthralled by her, by asking questions; we also showed them Tudor outfits and the status of the individual wearing each piece of clothing. They even got to try on the hats, which they really enjoyed.
The children were encouraged to help set up the table with the doll version of Queen Elizabeth at the head of the table and place all the foods that the Tudors would eat on the plate once they had identified what each item was. They also had to place the items where they thought would be fit for a Queen. They then had the banquet at the palace; this is significant because Queen Elizabeth I, had actually visited Fulham Palace for a banquet in 1601. As soon as the banquet was over, they helped tidy up the clothes, plates, and equipment out of their own volition, which was extremely helpful and considerate of them to do.
Then they were tasked with making a Tudor rose out of plasticine and sticks, which they enjoyed, using all the different coloured plasticine and receiving help from their parents to help make the petals. They even went to show their Tudor rose to the doll Queen Elizabeth I, which was funny to witness.
Towards the end of the session, we had them sit on the bug-themed carpet and read them a story about a squirrel. We had their attention in the first half of the book, but they made their own story that incorporated the Tudor roses they had made, and by then it was the end of the session. They all said their goodbyes to the Queen Elizabeth I doll and left!
This session was run by our learning producer, Eleni and learning placement, Heather Ogilby.
