Burlington School

This morning following the assembly at St Peters School we drove over to Burlington School to do an assembly.  This is our first visit to the school following the transition assembly and lesson we did there for the year 6 children in the summer term. We decided as it is getting close to harvest time to do our harvest assembly, so we started by singing Creator God as we have done for the last few assemblies. Then Sarah did the talk today, she started by talking about time and we displayed some clocks with times on them one was set at 8 o'clock, one at 9 another at 12 and one at 3:15.  Each time she asked the children what happened at that time during the day. She then introduced the 1 minute game so I got the stop watch ready and told the children that they needed to stay seated and then stand when they thought a minute had gone by.  A number of the children did manage it some stood just before and others just after.  Sarah explained that a minute seems to take for ever to pass, she then displayed a picture of some apples one of which was cut open and reminded the children that an apple has a seed inside it and that seed when planted can grow into a tree which in turn will grow apples on them.  She then showed the life cycle of an apple from seed to fruit and explained that it is God who makes them grow and referred to three bible verses to help the children to understand -

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 Peters School

This morning Sarah and I went to St Peters School.  The drive to the school was awesome as the views over the mountains was stunning, the sun light was just catching them it is hard to describe them.  Anyway back to the blog - We decided as it is getting close to harvest time to do our harvest assembly, so we started by singing Creator God as we have done for the last few assemblies. Then Sarah did the talk today, she started by talking about time and we displayed some clocks with times on them one was set at 8 o'clock, one at 9 another at 12 and one at 3:15.  Each time she asked the children what happened at that time during the day. She then introduced the 1 minute game so I got the stop watch ready and told the children that they needed to stay seated and then stand when they thought a minute had gone by.  A number of the children did manage it some stood just before and others just after.  Sarah explained that a minute seems to take for ever to pass, she then displayed a picture of some apples one of which was cut open and reminded the children that an apple has a seed inside it and that seed when planted can grow into a tree which in turn will grow apples on them.  She then showed the life cycle of an apple from seed to fruit and explained that it is God who makes them grow and referred to three bible verses to help the children to understand -

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.

Crosthwaite School

This afternoon Sarah and I went over to Crosthwaite School.  It was great to see all the children and staff again. We started the assembly by singing Creator God.  I then displayed some clocks with times on them one was set at 8 o'clock, one at 9 another at 12 and one at 3:15.  I displayed them one at a time and asked the children what time it was - they said the time so I asked again - the answer I was looking for was breakfast time, school time, lunch time, home time etc.  This led on to me talking about time I asked who gets you up in the morning apart from your parents - alarm clock was what I was looking for.  We then played the 1 minute game so I got the stop watch ready and told the children that they needed to stay seated and then stand when they thought a minute had gone by.  A number of the children did manage it some stood just before and others just after.  I then displayed a picture of some apples one of which was cut open.  I reminded the children that an apple has a seed inside it and that seed when planted can grow into a tree which in turn will grow apples on them.  So I asked the children who tells the seed to start to grow - does it need an alarm clock that says wake up it is time to grow - no!  I then showed the life cycle of an apple from seed to fruit.  I explained that it is God who makes them grow and referred to three bible verses to help the children to understand -

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 Sarah closed with a prayer.

Low Furness School

This morning Sarah and I went to Low Furness School for the assembly.  The theme was Love in the Bible, so to start we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger then I talked to the children.  I had prepared a series of slides starting with a love heart and a bible introducing the theme, the other slides had pictures from bible stories like crossing the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Ruth, Esther then on to pictures of Jesus the final one was Jesus on the cross.  For each picture I talked a little about how God showed his love in that particular story.  I finished with the verse we had in the last assembly from John 15 v12 Love one another as I have loved you.  Sarah added to what I had said and talked a little about harvest as next week the school has it's harvest service explaining that God shows us his love by providing for us.  To finish we sang I Love You and Sarah closed with a prayer.

Vicarage Park School

Today we made our first visit of the new school year to Vicarage Park School in Kendal.  It was great to see all the children and staff again - it seems so long since we last saw them.  The theme was Harvest so we thought it would be good to start of by singing Creator God.  I then displayed some clocks with times on them one was set at 8 o'clock, one at 9 another at 12 and one at 3.  I displayed them one at a time and asked the children what time it was - they said the time so I asked again - the answer I was looking for was breakfast time, school time, lunch time, home time etc.  This led on to me talking about time I asked who gets you up in the morning apart from your parents - alarm clock was what I was looking for.  We then played the 1 minute game so I got the stop watch ready and told the children that they needed to stay seated and then stand when they thought a minute had gone by.  A number of the children did manage it some stood just before and others just after.  I then displayed a picture of some apples one of which was cut open.  I reminded the children that an apple has a seed inside it and that seed when planted can grow into a tree which in turn will grow apples on them.  So I asked the children who tells the seed to start to grow - does it need an alarm clock that says wake up it is time to grow - no!  I then showed the life cycle of an apple from seed to fruit.  I explained that it is God who makes them grow and referred to three bible verses to help the children to understand -

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 Sarah closed with a prayer.

BX NT1 Low Furness School

This afternoon I was in Low Furness School with the year 5/6 class doing New Testament Bible Explorer.  Last year I was in doing Old Testament so the year 6 children knew what to expect, the year 5 children will do Old Testament next year.  You can't do New Testament without referring back to the Old Testament as it points to events in it.  To day we looked at some passages that foretold the birth of Jesus and explained that the people had been waiting a long time for a person, a special person to come along and save them, that person was Jesus.  During the time of the prophets they talked of a Messiah, a saviour and that is was Christ means.  It does seem very strange doing Christmas stories in September but that is where the New Testament begins.  We covered the story of Jesus' birth and the visit of the shepherds and the wise men, the family going into Egypt as Herod the Great was killing all the two year old boys.  I explained about the families move back up north to Nazareth and mentioned that Jesus would have no doubt helped Joseph out in his work.  I also did the story of Jesus at 12 in the temple and showed some pictures of the model temple in Jerusalem.  I then went back in time to talk about John and how he was announced and what he did as an adult in baptising people in the Jordan.  I explained also that Jesus came to him to be baptised too and that this was the start of his ministry.  I also covered the events afterwards as Jesus went off into the desert for 40 days and nights and that after the devil tried to tempt him, I explained Jesus' respond to each and told the children that everything Jesus said had come from the Old Testament.  I left the story telling there to be continued next week.  I had some time left over so I talked about the different types of Bible that you can get which interested some of the children.  I even took out the scrolls that I have from Israel and showed them to the children too.  I finished off by answering questions.

Broughton School

This morning I went over to Broughton School to take the assembly.  It was great to see all the staff and children again following the summer break.  To start with we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger and then I told one of Aesop's stories about parts of the body not working together. The hands, feet, eyes, mouth etc grew tired of feeding the stomach so they decided to stop.  They had thought the stomach to be lazy while they did all the hard work.  Then they suddenly started to realise that they couldn't do what they did before until finally the stomach spoke up telling them that they all need to work together and that they needed him just as much as he needed them.  They then and have ever since worked together.  I then talked to the children asking them if they came to school and there was no teachers then how would they learn and if the teaches had no one to teach what would they do?  I explained that like the parts of the body we all need each other.  I continued by displaying the verse from John 15:12 Jesus is speaking to the people and says Love one another as I have love you.  I then asked if the children liked jigsaw puzzles and loads of hands went up, I displayed a few pieces of a jigsaw and said that each piece is different in some way but each one is needed to make the picture work I reminded them of the verse and said that in school we should try to do as Jesus said.  I gave them a few ideas as to how they could show love to each other, helping to open a door, picking up things from the floor, looking out for the little ones in the school etc.  I concluded by saying when we do that we Shine from the inside out - cue for a song.  After the song I closed with a prayer.