Silent Messages
AGE: Primary |
THEME: Silent Messages |
AIM: |
| To provide opportunities for reflecting on the unspoken messages we send each day and how these can affect people. |
PREPARATION: |
You will need:
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INTRODUCTION: |
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Begin the act of worship by singing any cheerful song/hymn of your choice. Towards the end of the song/hymn arrange for someone to enter the assembled area with a letter addressed to the Collective Worship leader. After the song/hymn is completed, ask everyone to sit down quietly as the leader apologises for needing to read the letter marked 'Urgent'. The leader should read the message silently and then announce that it contains an important message, reading it aloud: 'Dear ...I thought you should know that the following people ...(read out the names) have a birthday today.' |
DEVELOPMENT: |
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Explain that you are glad to have received the message and invite the named birthday people to the front. Sing Happy Birthday.
Suggest to the children that messages are very important - they tell us things we need to know. Ask children to suggest other ways of sending messages (answers may include email, texting, answer-machine, morse code). Remind the children that messages do not always have to be written and that they can sometimes be said or even sung - as for example in the singing of Happy Birthday - sending our good wishes through a song. Ask the children if they think there can ever be such a thing as a silent message? Some may suggest sign language. Agree that this is one very special way of sending a silent message but suggest that sometimes we can send silent messages through our actions. Invite the volunteers to provide examples of sending a silent message. Include: Shrugging of the shouldersAsk each volunteer to send the message silently and then ask the children what message is being conveyed. Are they all good messages? |
PRAYER AND REFLECTION: |
Ask the children to be quiet and in a few moments of silence share the thought that every day we all send messages, sometimes without thinking. Sometimes the message we send can make people feel happy and cheerful but sometimes we send the wrong message and we can make people feel sad Ask the children to sit quietly and listen to the words of a short prayer. Pause after each line.
When people come to our school, help us to send a message of welcomeAt the end of the Act of Worship ask the children to lead out quietly. The leader should say the words: 'What kind of messages will you send today?' |
LINKS WITH OTHER AREAS OF THE CURRICULUM: |
| RE/ART: Explore what Jesus meant when he suggested that we 'Consider the lilies of the field...' (Matthew 6:28) The flowers are sending a silent message - 'don't worry!'. Paint images to match the following messages - for example: Cheer Up |