St Peters School

This morning Sarah and I went to do our Christmas assembly for the children of St Peters School.  It was great to see all the children again.  Sarah started by asking if the children had had chocolate before breakfast - loads of hands went up.  So Sarah questioned the children further by asking why? - because it's Christmas came one reply, another it's advent.  She then explained a little about what Advent is and what it means before I did my tear and restore Christmas illusion and as I removed a letter from the word Christmas first the s then a, m, t leaving Chris left I asked the children to suggest what from Christmas began with each letter so we had Santa, snow, stable, advent, angel, manger, Mary etc  Once I went to restore the word a piece fell to the floor - which brought about a laugh however as I revealed the restore word the bit on the floor was picked up and out to read Happy Birthday Jesus which is the reason we have Christmas.  Sarah then explored this theme a bit more with the children before we sang Rejoice with us.  Sarah then finished with a prayer.

St Pius X School

This morning Sarah and I went to do an assembly at St Pius X School in Barrow, it was our first assembly at this school.  It was also the first of our Christmas assemblies so we were both very excited about our visit.  We had such a warm welcome into the school from both the children and the staff.  After being introduced we started our assembly with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger, which got everyone on their feet and warmed up.  As we are now in the season of Advent Sarah asked who had had chocolate for breakfast - some hands went up, she then handed over to me.  I had a slip of paper with the word Christmas on it in red and asked the children what is Christmas.  Then looking at the letters I started to remove them starting with the s, a, m, t and each time asked the children for a word about Christmas that started with each of the letters so we had Santa, stocking, advent, mince pies, Christmas tree etc then looking at what we had left - chris so I asked who is that?  All the things the children said are part of Christmas but if it was only that then we are not left with very much else.  I then decided to try and put Christmas back together except as I did so something fell onto the floor which caused the children to laugh so I carried on and much to their surprise I restored Christmas - and the paper on the floor said Happy Birthday Jesus - that is what Christmas is all about.  We then sang Rejoice with Us this Christmas.  Sarah finished off with a prayer at the end.

Coniston Primary School

This morning I went over to Coniston Primary School for the assembly.  It was great to see all the children again.  We started with God's Love is Bigger than a Burger which had a few children saying yesss as I announced it - think they like that one.  After the song I asked who has a friend - loads of hands went up.  I then explained that I was going to tell a story which has Jesus in it instead of a story Jesus told.  I told them the account of Jesus healing the lame man from Mark 2:1-12 using my square to cross prop as an aid to telling the story - I could bend and move it into different shapes as the story moved on.  After the story I asked the children what makes a good friend and got a few hands up and whatever they said I used to explain what being a friend is all about and encourage them to look out for their friends as well as each other, that way we can Shine from the inside out - cue song.  After the song I finished with a prayer.

St Pauls School

This afternoon Sarah and I went to do the assembly at St Pauls School in Barrow.  Their Christian value for this half term is hope and it fitted in very well with the story I was going to tell.  Sarah started the assembly by asking the children if they had friends - loads of hands went up.  In introducing the story to the children she explained that sometimes we read about stories Jesus told- which she asked if anyone knew what they what were called - parables came the answer and other times we have stories were Jesus does something today's story was one of them and it had four friends in it.  I then told the children the story of the man that Jesus healed in Mark 2:1-12.  The man was lame so couldn't walk so four friends carried him to Jesus - thinking about him he had no hope of ever doing anything because in the time of Jesus people like that had to beg for food and things.  The friends took him to the house and cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down to the feet of Jesus.  When Jesus saw him he healed him and the man got up and ran down the street his hope was restored.  To tell the story I used my square to cross prop and turned and bent it into various shapes for the different parts of the story.  Sarah then asked the children what makes a good friend and she expanded and explained whatever the children told her as she finished off the explanation she link into the song Shine.  After the song Sarah finished the assembly with a prayer.

Pennington School

This afternoon Sarah and I went to do the assembly at Pennington School.  Sarah started the assembly by asking the children who had a friend loads of hands went up.  She then said that the talk I was going to do was about friendship which just happened to be this half terms Christian value. Sarah also pointed out that in the Bible Jesus sometimes told stories which we call parables but today the story was one that Jesus was involved in.  I then told the story of the lame man who was carried by  4 friends on his bed to see Jesus from Mark 2:1-12.  I used my square to cross prop to help tell the story as I reshaped it into various shapes as the story moved on.  Sarah then asked the children about what makes a good friend and each answer she got she expanded on and explained to the children how they could be good friends. One child said it was koinonia which is Christian friendship.  To finish off we sang Shine again linking in to friendship.  Sarah then said a short prayer.

Newton School

This morning Sarah and I went to do the assembly at Newton School.  Sarah started the assembly by asking about friends (not the TV show) and friendship groups as this linked into what I was going to tell a story about.  Sarah also pointed out that in the Bible Jesus sometimes told stories which we call parables but today the story was one that Jesus was involved in.  I then told the story of the lame man who was carried by  4 friends on his bed to see Jesus from Mark 2:1-12.  I used my square to cross prop to help tell the story as I reshaped it into various shapes as the story moved on.  Sarah then asked the children about what makes a good friend and each answer she got she expanded on and explained to the children how they could be good friends.  To finish off we sang Shine again linking in to friendship.  Sarah then said a short prayer.

Flookburgh School

This morning Sarah and I went to Flookburgh School to take the assembly.  We sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger to start the assembly off.  Then Sarah started by asking the children about friends which was to link into what I was going to talk about.  She also pointed out that sometimes we read stories about Jesus and what he did in the Bible and at other times we read stories Jesus told - today was a story about Jesus and what he did.  I then retold the story of the lame man from Mark 2:1-12 who was helped by four of his friends, who took him to see Jesus and he healed him.  As a visual aid I used my square to cross prop and moved it into various shapes as I told the story - getting some laughs along the way.  Sarah then expanded on what the friends did by asking the children what makes a good friend.  To finish off we sang Shine before Sarah said a short prayer.