Church Walk Primary School OCC Assembly

This morning Sarah and I along with Lisa Smith went to Church Walk Primary School to do an Operation Christmas Child assembly.  After introducing ourselves (not that we really needed to) we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger.  After this Lisa did her talk about joy based on the movie Inside Out and relating it to the SKY tv ad which features some of the characters.  This led to me talking about what to put into a shoe box and talking about what happens when we collect them.  Sarah then talked about the joy children feel as they open the boxes linking back to what Lisa was saying.  We then showed the Love in a Box film clip before Sarah finished the assembly with a prayer.

Captain Shaw Primary School

This morning Sarah and I travelled over to Captain Shaw Primary School in Bootle to do an Operation Christmas Child assembly.  To start off we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger then Sarah talked a little bit about the movie Inside Out and about the characters in the movie, to remind the children who some of them were we played the Sky tv ad which features them.  She then focused on the different emotions anger, sad, Joy etc and talked about each one of them but said she wanted to mainly focus on Joy as that is a great emotion to have.  The Joy character was very joyful and Sarah explained that we can help to bring joy into a child's life by filling a shoe box with goodies.  I then explained how to do it and what happens to them once they are filled.  To finish with I showed the Love in a Box film clip.  Sarah then continued and encouraged the children to have a go again this year as last she they returned 100%+ as every child did one.  She explained that when we do that we can shine from the inside out cue for a song.  after the song she closed the assembly with a prayer.

BX NT2 Low Furness

This afternoon I was at Low Furness School with the year 5/6  class doing the second lesson of Bible Explorer New Testament.  I couldn't go last week due to having a bad back so I did a big recap of the first weeks stories and hand signs.  The children had remembered them very well which was great.  Today we heard stories form the gospels about the early part of Jesus' ministry like talking to Nicodemus and the women at the well in Samaria.  I also explained about parables and retold the parable of the sower.  The children heard also  about some of the things Jesus did - healing people, calming the storm, feeding the 5000.  We ended the lesson with Peter proclaiming who Jesus is and then once again putting his foot in it during the transfiguration.  Next week we will by the end of the lesson concluded the earthly life of Jesus having covered that story in depth and others along the way.

Croftlands Juniors

This morning Sarah and I went to do our first assembly of the new school year to Croftlands Juniors.  We only had the year 5 and 6 children in as the years 3 and 4 had gone swimming.  We decided to do our harvest assembly so to start we sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord.  We then displayed some clocks with different times on them and asked the children what time it was - now they all could all tell the time but the point was what time of day it was like get up, start school, have lunch, go home.  Sarah talked a little about time then we played the 1 minute game so when they thought 1 minute was up they stood up.  This linked to an apple with a seed in it so I asked what or who tells the seed when to grow, I displayed the cycle seed, small plant, tree, bud, flower, apple , seed etc and explained that God is the one who determined that the apple would produce seed way back in Genesis.  I displayed the following verses for the children to think about - Genesis 1:11Then God said, "Let the earth grow grass, plants that make grain, and fruit trees. The fruit trees will make fruit with seeds in it. And each plant will make its own kind of seed. Let these plants grow on the earth." And it happened. Genesis 8:22 As long as the earth continues, there will always be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night on earth."  Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time. There is a time to be born and a time to die. There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants. I went on to say that at this time of year we start to think about all the good things that God gives to us it is harvest time.  Sarah continued to emphasis this point and said that God provides so much for us and is a great big God that holds us in his hands - cue song.  After the song I closed with a prayer.

St Mary's Catholic Primary School

This morning Lisa Smith and I did an Operation Christmas Child assembly for the children at St Mary's in Ulverston.  We started the assembly by singing God's Love is Bigger than a Burger, then Lisa did a talk about our emotions.  To help get the point over Lisa used the latest Sky Tv ad which has some of the characters from Inside Out the movie in it.  The girl is wanting to use the computer on the internet but it is too slow, the emotions all react in a different way, Worry stresses about it, Anger becomes angry, Sad looks on the dark side and is very sad however Joy looks for the brighter option - in this case Sky broadband.  This was linked to how we can sometimes feel when we face situations, and in some case's can't see how to get through them like bad stuff that happens in the world.  However we can bring Joy to someone by filling a simple shoe box with gifts for a child that might never have been given a gift.  I then explained how to go about it and what to put into a shoe box.  Then told the children what happens to them once we collect them, this does bring a laugh as they see elephants carrying packing cases of shoe boxes.  I then show the Love in a Box film and ask the children to see the Joy on the children's faces as they open their box.  To close Lisa prayed.

Pennington School

Today we did our first assembly of the new school year at Pennington School.  It was an Operation Christmas Child assembly too and Lisa Smith our co worker came along with us too.  After saying hello and singing God's love is bigger than a burger, Lisa introduced the idea of putting items into a shoe box by showing the SKY tv advert which features the characters from the movie Inside Out.  The characters represent a child's different emotions and depending upon how they react to situations will determine how the child reacts.  There is Angry, Joy, Sad, Worry etc.  The one that Lisa wanted to focus on was Joy.  This is the emotion that we feel when something good happens like receiving a present from someone, it is the same with the shoe box when a child in a far off country gets a box filled with goodies joy is what they feel.  After Lisa had finished I then explained what to put into the shoe box and explained what happens to it on it's journey to a child.  We then showed the Love in a Box Video showing the reaction of the children as they opened up their shoe boxes. Lisa then closed the assembly with a prayer.

Penny Bridge Academy

Today we did our first assembly of the new school year at Penny Bridge Academy.  It was also our first Operation Christmas Child assembly of the season and Lisa Smith our co worker came along with us too.  After saying hello and singing God's love is bigger than a burger, Lisa introduced the idea of putting items into a shoe box by showing the SKY tv advert which features the characters from the movie Inside Out.  The characters represent a child's different emotions and depending upon how they react to situations will determine how the child reacts.  There is Angry, Joy, Sad, Worry etc.  The one that Lisa wanted to focus on was Joy.  This is the emotion that we feel when something good happens like receiving a present from someone, it is the same with the shoe box when a child in a far off country gets a box filled with goodies joy is what they feel.  After Lisa had finished I then explained what to put into the shoe box and explained what happens to it on it's journey to a child.  We then sang another song and Sarah closed the assembly with a prayer.