Growing and Changing - Children
(gifts of the individual, potential)
AGE: Infants and Juniors |
THEME: Growing and Changing - Children |
PREPARATION: |
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You will need the poem 'The End', from Now We Are Six, by A. A. Milne. A copy can be found on the web at www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=34452&poem=416302 |
SUGGESTED INTRODUCTION: |
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Read the poem 'The End', from Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne:
Make a large number line display starting at 0 and ending at the age of the eldest child present with one number at the top of each piece of paper. Beneath each number make lists of things children can do at each age. You might want to start with one example for each page e.g. 0-breathe, 1-walk, 2-feed self, 3-start playschool, 4-start school, 5-ride a bike, 6-swim, 7-start junior school. Call this an achievement timeline. Encourage sensitivity to answers suggested by other children and explain that children develop and are able to do things at different ages but that we are gathering some ideas. Focus on how amazing it is that there are all these things that children can do when they are so young! Particularly if we think of how little children/babies can do when they are born. No wonder Jesus cared so much about children. It's very easy to think adults aren't impressed with what children can do, or that they are too busy with their own lives to notice what children can do with theirs. But let us remember how Jesus felt when his friends tried to stop children seeing him, saying he was too busy. Read from Matthew 19 about Jesus and the children. |
PRAYER: |
| Dear God, we thank you for all the wonderful things we can already do and for those things we are learning how to do. Help us to keep trying when we find things hard and help us to live our lives in a way that will make you and our families proud of us and happy with us. Amen. |
FURTHER IDEAS TO DEVELOP IN WORSHIP OR THROUGH THE WEEK: |
Encourage children to think about the most amazing thing that they can do and how special it is that someone of their age can do that. Share some examples from the Bible of amazing things that children did:
Remind children of the 'achievement timeline' from the introductory assembly. Childhood is a time of real change. Encourage children to make their own individual timelines based on past, present and future. In each of the first two sections record a special achievement of theirs, recently and when they were younger. Then think of one thing they hope to do in the future and consider how that reflects the sort of person they want to be. |
SONGS: |
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'There are hundreds of sparrows', No. 15 The Complete Come and Praise, BBC. 'Lord, I love to stamp and shout', No. 5 Someone's Singing Lord, A & C Black Ltd. |