Crosthwaite School

This afternoon Sarah and I were over at Crosthwaite School for the first assembly of 2014.  It seemed strange saying Happy New Year when we are at the end of the first month of the year!  We started with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger then I told the Joseph story and did all the different shirt changes etc as we have done at other schools this month.  At the end of the story Sarah asked the children about what the brothers were feeling when they saw Joseph - jealous came out.  Then she asked how does that make us feel, sad, angry, annoyed, unhappy came from the children.  She went on to say that it all turned out well for Joseph in the end but we should think about what the brothers did to Joseph and instead of being jealous we should celebrate what our friends have and share with them what w have.  To make the point a little clearer Sarah told the children that we are all special to God no matter what we look like which was the cue to our next song Touch a Finger.  after the song I said a short prayer.

St Peters

Our first assembly of the day has been at St Peters.  Sarah and I drove over there this morning armed with a treasure map and a metal detecting device ready to search for the lost treasure of Blue Beard the local pirate.  So after singing So Many Ways to Praise the Lord I retold the famous story of Blue Beard and his treasure that at one time was hidden on Piel Island until it was move to the main land.  I explained to the children that I had come across a treasure map some years ago while reading a history book that I had bought from a local shop.  I had a few calculations to make and set off pacing the floor until I was in the middle of the children, then with my metal detecting device I located the exact spot when Sarah stopped me.  She started to read from Matthew 13:44-46 about the man who discovered treasure went out sold everything and bought the field.  Then I pointed out that under the school hall there was no treasure, but I explained the parable to the children in that Jesus wants us to follow him and do everything we can to follow him like the man selling what he had to buy the field.  This lead into me talking about the chorus from Be Happy about running the race.  So after I said what I did we sang that song.  Sarah then closed the assembly with a prayer followed by the Lord's Prayer.

Low Furness School

This morning we were at Low Furness school and the theme for the assembly was Going for Goals.  So after singing So Many Ways to Praise the Lord, I told the story of Blue Beard the local pirate.  I told the children that many years ago I found a map in an old book and this set me on the trail of Blue Beards lost treasure.  The map pointed to the location of the treasure and I had calculated and measured that it was somewhere under the school.  With my compass in hand and a metal detecting device I worked my way into the children sitting on the floor turning this way and that until the beep, beep, beep of the metal detector pointed to a spot on the floor.  By now all the children were up and looking at the spot on the floor as I said that I would go and get the pick axe and spade - then Sarah stopped me and read out a bible passage from Matthew 13:44-46.  I needed to explain that there was no treasure but I focused on what Jesus said about the man who found a great treasure and another who found an expensive pearl both men sold all they had to acquire the treasures.  What Jesus was saying is that we should do our best to follow Jesus because our treasure is waiting for us in Heaven.  Sarah then explained this point a little more to the children and I led them in singing Be Happy as that talks about running the race and following Jesus all our lives.  We then closed with a prayer.

Croftlands Infants

This afternoon I went into the infants school at Croftlands to do an assembly for them.  I introduced them to God's love is Bigger than a Burger - some children knew it from holiday club others joined in.  I did the story of Joseph for the children acting as if I was Joseph.  During the story I mentioned jealousy a few times ready from when I asked them at the end what the brothers were.  I then talked a bit about how jealousy is not nice and how we should try to avoid getting jealous in the first place, instead we should celebrate with our friends when they get new things.  I reminded the children that in God's eyes we are all special.  To finish we sang Touch a finger and then I said a prayer.

Croftlands Juniors

This morning I went along to Croftlands Juniors to take the assembly.  It was the first visit of 2014 to the school.  Only the year 5 and 6 children were in the assembly as the rest go off swimming.  I started the assembly with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger then did the jealousy talk which is linked to the Joseph story as we have done in all other schools this month.  The children then responded to my questions about jealousy so I encouraged them to celebrate what other people have rather than becoming jealous, which can lead to anger like it did with the brothers of Joseph.  I also reminded the children that we are all special to God which led us into singing Touch a finger.  I then closed the assembly with a prayer.

Broughton School

This afternoon Sarah and I went over to Broughton school to take an assembly.  This is a new time slot for us so it seemed a little strange at first as we would normally be saying good morning instead of good afternoon.  We started by singing God's Love is Bigger than a Burger before I went onto tell the Joseph story as we have been doing in all our schools this month.  I changed my shirt a few times and settled for the waist coat.  I took on the part of Joseph and referred to the other shirts I had tried as castoff's from my brothers.  I talked about the dreams and how the other brothers got a bit jealous of me which led them to do what they did.  After the story Sarah picked up on the jealousy theme and expanded it a bit with the children saying that it is not nice to be jealous of what other people have because it can lead to all kinds of other unpleasant feelings or even anger.  She linked this idea to Christmas and how after Christmas we can sometimes get jealous when we find out what other people got as presents.  She also told the children that we are all special to God which linked with our final song Touch a finger.  AT the end I closed the assembly with a prayer.

Pennington School

Following our assembly at Church Walk School we went up to Pennington school and did the same assembly for them.  However we started with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger.  I then took on the role of Joseph following a few shirt changes to get into character.  I recalled the story from Josephs point of view and used the waist coat I had decided to wear as a prop during the story.  After the story was over Sarah pulled out a few points from the story to talk about mainly though she talked about being jealous of what other people have.  She linked this with Christmas and how we can sometimes feel a bit jealous after Christmas when we find out what other people got.  Referring to the story she talked about the brothers reaction to Joseph and how they weren't nice to him.  To conclude she told the children that we are all special to God no matter what we have got or what we look like.  This was a link to the next song Touch a finger.  Following the song Sarah closed the assembly with a prayer.

Church Walk Primary School

This morning Sarah and I went along to Church Walk School for the first of our assemblies in 2014.  As we have done in other schools we told the story of Joseph and the jealousy with his brothers.  We didn't start the assembly with a song we just went straight to the story and I as in previous schools told the story from the point of view of Joseph.  Once the story finished Sarah then linked it with the idea of being jealous and talked about how that is not very nice.  She also talked about Christmas and how we can sometimes feel a bit jealous when someone gets something we wanted.  She encouraged the children to celebrate what their friends got and be happy for them because we are all special to God.  This linked with the Touch a finger song which we sang next.  At the end Sarah close the assembly with a prayer.

Leven Valley

Following the assembly at Our Lady's we went down to Leven Valley school.  Sarah started the assembly by wishing everyone a happy new year.  To start the assembly we sang God's love is bigger than a Burger.  I then did a bit of shirt changing as a way into the assembly story.  The story was from Genesis 37 - Joseph's coat.  I settled for a brightly coloured waist coat to tell the story in.  I pretended to be Joseph and told how Jacob had given him the coat and how Joseph was a dreamer.  I also spoke about his capture and about being sold as a slave.  During the story I used the word jealous to describe what the brothers felt about Joseph, Sarah picked up on this word and asked the children questions about it.  The children said jealousy can make you fell cross and angry, sad and annoyed, unhappy.  Sarah used these words to talk about us and about how we shouldn't feel jealousy towards anyone else because it can bring about bad feelings.  She linked in with Christmas and how we can feel a bit jealous when our friends have something we don't have.  But she said no matter we are all special to God.  Which linked very nicely with out next song, Touch a finger, after this I said a prayer and then we sang God can do anything as we had some time left over.

Our Lady's

This morning we were at Our Lady's school for our first assembly of the year.  After saying good morning and happy new year we started by singing God's love is Bigger than a Burger.  We decided to continue our theme of assemblies on jealousy using the example of Joseph and his brothers from Genesis 37.  So I took on the role once again of Joseph and told his story ending it as he went into Egypt and as the brothers returned to their father with the blood stained coat.  Sarah then quizzed the children about the story asking what type of emotion or feeling the brothers had had towards Joseph.  The word jealousy came out very quickly, then exploring the idea a bit more asked what kind of feelings can that lead to, we had anger, sadness, envy and other bad emotions.  Sarah then referred to Christmas and the gifts people get and how sometimes we can become jealous of what others have like new trainers or an Ipad etc.  But God doesn't want us to be like that, he would want us to be happy and to celebrate what people have because we are all special to God - which linked with the song Touch a finger.  At the end I closed the assembly with a prayer.

St Peters

This morning I was over at St Peters school in Ireleth for the first assembly of the New Year.  I started the assembly by singing God's love is Bigger than a Burger.  The theme for the assembly was Joseph the Dreamer so I told the story as if I was Joseph but before I started I changed my shirt a couple of times (I had a tee shirt on underneath) before settling on a brightly coloured waist coat.  This was to represent the coat Jacob gave to Joseph.  I recalled the story about the coat and the dreams and how the brothers became jealous of Joseph which eventually led them to sell him as a slave.  The coat was dipped in goats blood and presented back to Jacob who assumed Joseph was dead.  I stopped the story there and paused a moment to note the stop in the story before I explained about it.  I asked the children what they thought the brothers were and the answer jealous came back.  I then asked them about jealousy and how that makes us feel and the words angry, upset , annoyed came back.  I pointed out that these are not very nice feelings one child had even said that the brothers had bad feelings.  I linked this to Christmas time and how we talk about what we got as presents and how easily we can become jealous of what other people have.  I said they might have a new pair of converse trainers and they just have a new pair of trainers, or they might have an Ipad and you just have a tablet.  I explained that the brothers jealous of Joseph turn into something nasty, they should have been happy for Joseph getting a new coat and we too should celebrate what others have and not be jealous.  I introduced the final song by talking about us being special to God no matter what we look like or have - Touch a finger talks about us all being special, no matter what size or shape we are God loves us the way we are.  After the song I said a prayer to close the assembly.

Low Furness School

This morning Sarah and I did our first assembly of 2014 at Low Furness school.  We started with God's Love is like a Burger.  The theme we had been given was Joseph the Dreamer.  Most if not all the children knew the story as it was the summer play last July.  For our take on it I pretended to be Joseph, but before that I had a bit of a debate on what I was wearing, I changed my shirt a couple of times then fixed on a waist coat that was brightly coloured.  I told the story and explained about the dreams, the coat and the reaction of the brothers and their capture of me and selling into slavery in Egypt.  I used the coat as a prop and explained what the brothers did with the coat after Joseph had been sold.  As I was talking I did mention that the brothers were jealous.  Sarah picked up on this theme as she talked to the children.  She spoke about what normally happens after Christmas when we meet our friends at school and how we all talk about what presents they got and how easy it is to become jealous of what someone else has.  Linking with the story she asked the children what the brothers might have been feeling and asked if they were good feelings - no. Sarah continued and reminded the children what he brothers did with Joseph which was not good at all.  She also told the children at we are all special and that God loves us the way we are.  This led to us singing Touch a finger.  At the end I prayed with the children.

Penny Bridge School

This afternoon we visited Penny Bridge school for the first time in 2014.  We decided to follow the theme idea given to us by another school, so the assembly was on Joseph the Dreamer.  After Sarah and said hello and Happy New Year and things we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger.  I had dressed in a tee shirt and a shirt for the assembly and after the song decided to take off the shirt and swap it for a different one asking the children if they liked the new one, then I changed again and in the end opted for a colourful waist coat.  This was only an intro into the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis.  I told the children that I was going to be Joseph and told 'my story' the coat, about the other brothers, the corn bowing down as well as the sun, moon and all the stars.  Until finally the capture by the brothers and the selling in to Slavery in Egypt and the story they told to Jacob 'my dad'.  Sarah then drew some parts of the story out and asked what the brothers were - jealous, angry, spiteful are the kinds of words that came out from the children.  Sarah linked this with what can happen after Christmas when people share about what they got and - yes jealousy can come out when we see that what other people have is better than what we have.  But Sarah said this can lead us into trouble like it did with the brothers.  She encouraged the children not to feel that way as we are all special to God.  This led into us singing Touch a finger which talks about us being special to God.  I then closed the assembly with a prayer.