Thursday 31 January 2019

Coniston Primary School

This morning I went over to Coniston Primary School.  It was good to see the children again after such a long time.  I started the assembly with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger, saying that there was a word in the song that I wanted to talk about - love.  After the song I asked the children what it was.  I explained that the Bible is full of stories some are long while others are very short, some of them talk about love while some show love.  I then displayed a series of pictures of people from stories in the Bible and talked about how they showed love, we had Moses, David, Ruth, Esther and finally Jesus.  I also displayed the words from John 15:12 which says Love one another as I have loved you - I explained what this means to the children I also pointed out a verse that was on display in the hall from 1 Corinthians 16:14 which says Do everything in love.  I encouraged the children to think about these words and to try to show love in as many ways as they possibly could do by being kind, helping people out, sharing things, giving someone a simple smile.  To finish off we sang Shine then I closed with a prayer.

Wednesday 30 January 2019

OT Mini Lesson 4 Burlington School

This afternoon I have been at Burlington School doing lesson 4 of OT Mini.  We have looked at the first king of Israel and his fall from office, then following on from Saul we looked at David and then Solomon.  I covered a number of events in each of these king's reigns before ending with the dividing of the kingdom into north and south Israel and Judah.  Next week we shall look at the exile of the people and their return and waiting for the Messiah.

Pennington School

On Monday afternoon Sarah and I went to do our Love in the Bible assembly at Pennington School.  It was our first visit of 2019 and was great to see all the children again.  We started with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger before Sarah introduced the theme.  She explained that the Bible is full of stories and a lot of them are about love or show love in some way.  I then displayed a series of pictures and asked the children what the story was from the Bible.  We had David, Moses, Ruth, Esther and then Jesus.  I gave a quick account of the love they had either for the people, a person or God - and in some case's all of the above.  I finished with John 15:12 Love one another as I have loved you.  Jesus used these words to his followers and they are also for us. Sarah then explained what they mean to us today and encouraged the children to do the same show love by being kind, helpful, using nice words etc.  To finish off we sang Shine then Sarah closed with a prayer.

Newton School

On Monday Sarah and I went to do our assembly on love in the Bible at Newton School.  It was great to see all the children again as it seems ages since we last saw them.  After singing God's Love is Bigger than a Burger Sarah introduced the them saying that in the Bible there are loads of stories and some of them are love stories or show love in some way.  I then went on and told a few, as I displayed a picture about the story Sarah asked if anyone knew what the story was going to be.  One little girl got everyone.  I briefly covered Moses, David, Ruth, Esther, then talked about Jesus finishing with Jesus' words in John 15:12 Love one another as I have loved you.  Sarah went on then to explain what those words mean and how we can do just that every day by showing kindness, helping others, saying nice things etc.  To finish off we sang Shine before Sarah finished with a prayer.

Friday 25 January 2019

NT BX Lesson 3 St Pauls Barrow

This afternoon I have been at St Pauls in Barrow with the year 5 and then the year 6 children doing lesson 3 of Bible Explorer.  We looked at the stories and events leading up to the last week of Jesus' life here on earth.  The children got involved as I explained the stories and did the hand signs. Next week the start of the church following the coming of the Holy Spirit.

OT MIni Lesson 3 St Peters

On Thursday afternoon I was once again at St Peters with the year 5/6 class doing OT Mini.  Today we looked at what happened when the people went into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua and how they then divided the land up in to the 12 tribes and settled in to life - but soon the people did wrong and so trouble came by and we heard about 3 of the judges that did great things to restore order and get the people back on track again we had Deborah, Gideon and Samson.  Our final story was Ruth and how she did so much for Naomi her mother in law and then found love again in Boaz.  Next week we will be looking at the first king of Israel.

Flookburgh School

On Thursday morning I was at Flookburgh school doing the assembly.  It was great to see all the children and staff again after such a long time.  I started off by singing God's Love is Bigger than a Burger before introducing the theme for the assembly.  I talked about the many stories in the Bible and that a number of them show love either towards an individual or a group of people as well as the love God shows to us and we show towards him.  I had a few examples of this such as David, Ruth, Esther, Moses and Jesus. I gave a quick talk on each one and explained what they did.  I then displayed the verse Love one another as I have love you from John 15:12, which was Jesus talking to his followers and us as well.  I expanded on this idea as I explained it to the children.  Then to finish off we sang Shine before a short prayer.

Wednesday 23 January 2019

OT Mini Lesson 3 Burlington

This afternoon I was once again in the year 5/6 class at Burlington School doing OT Mini.  Today we covered the books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth as I told the children about the Israelites entering the Promised Land and settled in.  Next we looked at three of the judges that looked over the people firstly there was Deborah who was the only female judge, next we looked at Gideon and then Samson.  To conclude the lesson we had the story of Ruth.  All the children joined in with the hand signs and I had a number of willing volunteers to take on various characters as I told the stories.

Tuesday 22 January 2019

Croftlands Infant School

This morning Sarah and I went to do the first assembly of 2019 at Croftlands Infant School.  It was good to see all the children and staff again after such a long time. We started with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger before Sarah introduced the theme which was love in the Bible.  I explained that there are loads of stories in the Bible and some of them talk about or show love.  I started with Moses moving on to David, Ruth, Esther and finally Jesus.  Some people showed great love for loads of people others to just a couple.  I also explained about God's great love for us in sending us Jesus.  I finished with the words of Jesus from John 15:12 Love one another as I have loved you.  Sarah went on to explain this to the children and asked them for ways they could show love - helping people out, holding doors open, being friendly etc.  To finish we sang Shine before Sarah closed with a short prayer.

Monday 21 January 2019

Croftlands Junior School

This morning I went to do the assembly at Croftlands Junior school - in their new school building!  It was great to see all the children again after such a long time.  I started with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger - as I wanted to talk about love to the children.  I explained that in the Bible there are loads of stories and some of them demonstrate love either towards other people or a single person as well as God's love for us.  I recapped some of them to the children like Moses, David, Ruth, Esther and last of all Jesus.  I displayed John 15:12 at the end which are Jesus' words to his followers Love one another as I have loved you.  I explained what that means for us and talked about ways we can do the same thing - show love in some way help helping other people when they need it.  To close we sang Shine.  After the song I finished off with a prayer.

Friday 18 January 2019

BX NT Lesson 2 St Pauls Barrow

This afternoon I have been with the year 5 and then the year 6 classes at St Pauls in Barrow.  It was the second lesson of NT BX.  This covered the start of Jesus' ministry.  We looked at the story of Nicodemus from John followed by the woman at the well in Samaria, before Jesus went up north back to his own town only to be 'asked to leave'.  Then we had the selection of the 12 disciples and the sermon on the mount.  We covered a couple of miracles such as the feeding the 5000and calming a storm.  I also talked about parables and explained what they were and how they are good stories but they all have a hidden meaning and if you look closer you begin to understand what Jesus is saying.  We finished off with Peter proclaiming that he knows who Jesus is and he gets it - only to put his foot in it again when he sees Jesus transfigured before him and shine out God's glory - he suggests they stay and build houses der!  Next week we move into the last week of Jesus' life and the events leading up to Easter.

Thursday 17 January 2019

OT Mini Lesson 2 St Peters

This afternoon I have once again been at St Peters School with the year 5/6 doing OT Mini.  This week it was the Moses story.  After a quick recap of the events of last week's stories and a run through of the hand signs so far, I started the book of Exodus.  I explained that as the page is turned from Genesis to Exodus 430 years of time goes by.  I cover the birth and early childhood of Moses, then his running away at the age of 40 after killing an Egyptian.  His encounter with God at the burning bush 40 years later and God telling him to go back and speak to Pharaoh.  Talking through the 10 plagues and on to Passover - Moses then leads the people out into the desert.  I cover the giving of the law and building of the tabernacle, the counting of the people and the 12 spies that go and check the land out.  However as the people decided to follow the advice of the 10 spies that lied Moses led the people for a further 40 years in the wilderness.  After this Moses had to repeat the law giving to the new generation of people.  Next week we look at Joshua, the judges and Ruth and cover another 400 or so years.

Wednesday 16 January 2019

OT Mini Lesson 2 Burlington School

This afternoon I was at Burlington School with the year 5/6 class doing lesson 2 of OT Mini.  I did a recap of the story from last week and Joseph down in Egypt along with all his family.  Then did a random recap of the hand signs and key words by asking the children to either show me a hand sign or say a key word, I also did the same so that we covered all 8 from last week.  So we moved on and fast forwarded through 430 years of history as Genesis closes and Exodus opens, I explained that we don't know really what happened during this time.  I explained that Joseph and his family had long since gone and the king didn't know who he was.  I cover the birth story of Moses and his up bringing as much as the Bible tells us, then him running away because he killed someone.  Then his calling at the burning bush and his return to Egypt.  The 10 plagues followed and then the Passover which I went into in a bit more detail.  I cover the Red Sea crossing and the giving of the law and the building of the tabernacle and the role of the priests.  I explained about the many festivals as well.  Moses a some point counted the people before they made the first attempt into the promised land but 10 of the 12 spies lied about what they had seen and the people spent the next 40 years wandering in the wilderness before Moses went over the laws again.  So 5 books covered next week the taking of the land and another 400 + years of history.

Burlington School

This afternoon I went to do the assembly at Burlington School.  To start with we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger as the word love was a key point to the assembly.  I introduced the children to the theme which was Love in the Bible, then displayed several pictures of people from the Bible that showed love in some way either towards one person, a group of people or God as well as saying just how much God loves us.  We had Moses, David, Ruth, Esther, Jesus - I ended with words that Jesus spoke in John 15:12 Love one another as I have loved you.  I explained what Jesus meant by this and then said that we should try to do the same.  I asked for suggestions of how we might show love to others and the children responded in a really positive way from giving the clothes - to making them a cake to giving money so people can have clean water.  I tied this up by saying that when we show love in this way we Shine from the inside out - cue song.  After the song I closed with a prayer.

Tuesday 15 January 2019

Low Furness School

This morning Sarah and I went to do our first assembly of the new year at Low Furness School.  It was great to see all the children again after the Christmas break.  We started by singing God's Love is Bigger than a Burger before talking about the theme for this half term which is Love.  Our assembly was on love in the Bible.  Sarah explained that there are loads of stories in the Bible and loads of examples of love.  I had pictures that represented a few of those stories:- such as Moses, David, Ruth, Esther then on into the New Testament Jesus.  As I displayed the picture I explained what the people did that showed love.  I used the words from John 15: 12 which says Love one another as I have loved you.  Sarah then expanded this idea further with the children.  She talked about showing love and how to do that and she suggested as we are at the start of a new year perhaps it might be a good thing to do.  We finished off with Shine before Sarah closed with a prayer.

Penny Bridge Academy

On Monday afternoon Sarah and I went along to Penny Bridge Academy for the assembly.  We started by talking about love and in particular 'Love in the Bible' I explained that in the Bible there are loads of stories - so many I don't know just how many.  There are long stories that take up pages and short ones that are just half a page long.  I added to this that a lot of these stories show love, so I displayed some pictures and asked the children if they knew the story, the first one was Moses walk through the Red Sea - he demonstrated love by leading the people for 40 years.  We also had David who showed his love in the many poems, songs and psalms that he wrote and he was the best king of God's people.  We had Ruth - which is a whole book and a love story, her love for Naomi is clearly evident.  We had Esther who risked her life before the king to save her own people.  We moved on to Jesus and the love Mary and Joseph had for him, the love Jesus had for others and God's love for us in giving us Jesus.  The last slide was John 15:12 which is Jesus talking to his followers (and us) Love one another as I have loved you.  Sarah then continued and explained that at the start of the new year it would be good if we all followed the words of Jesus and loved one another more.  To finish we sang Shine before Sarah said a prayer.

Church Walk School

On Monday morning Sarah and I went along to Church Walk school to do the first assembly of 2019.  It was great to see all the children and staff after the Christmas break.  After singing God's Love is Bigger than a Burger we introduced the theme of Love in the Bible.  I explained that in the Bible there are loads of stories - so many I don't know just how many.  There are long stories that take up pages and short ones that are just half a page long.  I added to this that a lot of these stories show love, so I displayed some pictures and asked the children if they knew the story, the first one was Moses walk through the Red Sea - he demonstrated love by leading the people for 40 years.  We also had David who showed his love in the many poems, songs and psalms that he wrote and he was the best king of God's people.  We had Ruth - which is a whole book and a love story, her love for Naomi is clearly evident.  We had Esther who risked her life before the king to save her own people.  We moved on to Jesus and the love Mary and Joseph had for him, the love Jesus had for others and God's love for us in giving us Jesus.  The last slide was John 15:12 which is Jesus talking to his followers (and us) Love one another as I have loved you.  Sarah then continued and explained that at the start of the new year it would be good if we all followed the words of Jesus and loved one another more.  To finish we sang Shine before Sarah said a prayer.

Friday 11 January 2019

BX NT Lesson 1 St Pauls Barrow

This afternoon I was at St Pauls in Barrow teaching year 5 and then year 6 during their RE lesson the New Testament Bible Explorer.  I firstly explained a bit about the Bible and how there are some many different ways we can read it by showing them my collect of Bibles.  We then got onto looking at the Bible as if it is a library using my model Bible.  I then explained about the prophets from the Old Testament and how they had talked about a saviour and also why we need one referencing back to Adam and Eve story.  This set me up ready to start  to tell the story of Jesus.  To cover the main events of the Christmas story I used three short video clips, Mary and Josephs story, the shepherds and then the wise men.  I then placed markers in the room which located the places in the New Testament such as Bethlehem, Nazareth, River Jordan.  I covered the families trip to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 and fast forwarded to his baptism by John.  To set up the John story I rewound to explain how and where he fitted in to the story.  I ended with Jesus in the wilderness having been tempted.  Next week we shall hear about his early teaching and the choosing of the disciples. 

OT Mini Lesson 1 St Peters

On Thursday afternoon I was at Ireleth St Peters School with the year 5/6 (Shark) class doing OT Mini with them.  All of us had a great time as I started the children off on the epic journey into the best book in the world - The Bible.  After showing the children some different Bibles and explaining to them that the Bible is a collection of books rather like a library we started the journey with the creation story.  Then we covered Adam and Eve, Noah, onto the mixing of the languages and the start of nations.  To Abraham, Isaac, Jacob before finally finishing with the Joseph story.  The children joined in as characters from the stories, with the hand signs too as well as loads of questions as well.  Next week Moses.

Wednesday 9 January 2019

OT Mini Lesson 1 Burlington School

This afternoon I have been teaching OT Mini to the year 5 and 6 children at Burlington School.  We had a great time as we went through some of the stories and events in the book of Genesis.  We looked at Adam and Eve and the fall when sin entered the world.  Noah story and how afterwards the people spread out to populate the world because they had their language mixed up when they tried to build a glory tower.  We covered the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph to round the book of.  The children happily joined in the hand signs as well as the bits of play acting we did as well.  Next week Moses' story.