Thought for the Week - Spring 2023
What is special about you?
This week the worship council members took charge of the thought for the week. They all focused on 'The things that make me different are the things that make me.' Please enjoy looking at what ideas and activities the Worship council members came up with!
Year 1
Today, our worship was run by our class Worship Councillor, Morgan. Morgan linked our thought for the week, “The things that make me different are the things that make me”, to her being deaf. Morgan doesn’t see being deaf as a disability, it is her identify which has enabled her to learn new skills and new ways of interacting with others. She spoke to the class about what it is like to be deaf, and how her hearing aids support her. The class were very interested and asked lots of thoughtful questions.
We then played a lip-reading game, where the adults wrote a short sentence on the back of a whiteboard, then said it using ‘lip speaking’ and the children tried to work out what we were saying. It was very tricky!
Finally, we enjoyed completing a word search which Morgan had found for us with words relating to being deaf such as ‘lip read’, ‘hearing’ and ‘interpreter’.
Year 2
In Flamingos class the children had a circle time to think about what made them special compared to the other people.
Year 2
In Kingfisher's class the children discussed as a class how we are all different including how we look, what we enjoy doing, what our favourite food is etc. We then talked about how we all have different fingerprints and created a fingerprint tree to show that we are all unique but come together as a class to celebrate everyone's differences and support one another.
Year 3
Puffin class decided to do a piece of drama about the creation story. We spoke about how God created the world and how would say 'let there be sea', 'let there be light'. We had so much fun performing these to one another.
Year 2
Year 5
What makes you special?
Everyone wrote down something special about themselves and put it into the bag. Someone picked one out and read it aloud, then we had to guess who it might be…
We guessed some straight away but also learnt something new about some of our classmates!
Well done to Gemma for organising our class worship.
Year 5
Year 6
Grace talked about the importance of being 'you' and that we are all unique with different knowledge and skills to share with the world. We then created gingerbread people with images to represent who we are and then hung these around the willow tree. Grace drew our collective worship to a close with a final prayer, giving thanks for the fact that we are all different.
In 6S the children talked to the class about what made them different and they made a list.
They then talked about the importance of being different and why they should be happy to be different.
Our Worship council member then asked the class to talk about their different feelings about Easter and add these thoughts to their gingerbread person.
‘It’s not fair!’
Have you ever said that?
When and why?
Why do we sometimes have to
treat people differently in
order to treat them fairly?
This week the children in year R have been learning about what "Fair Trade" means. We shared a powerpoint that helped them to think about where their food comes from. In our Harvest project they had learnt that different types of food are grown in different countries depending on the weather and climate.
In the video we watched during worship they were asked to imagine how it must feel for the farmers who work hard to grow the food to sell it for only a small amount of money.
They learnt to spot the fair trade logo on items we can buy in the shops.
"It means they get a fair price."
"That's not fair for the farmers. I would arrest the rich man."
"You need to look out for the picture when you go shopping."
Think of something you can do with love for another person – now do it!
Last week for Worship Robins focused on Mother's Day. We started by finding out more about Jesus's family and that he celebrated Jewish customs and holidays with his family. We then thought about the special celebrations the children have with their family. They thought of birthdays, Christmas and Valentine's day.
Birthdays: "You give them a present" "You light candles and then they blow them out." "You have a birthday cake".
Valentine's Day: "I went to Grandad's and had a nice meal" "I made a card for my mummy because I love her" "I made a card for my friend" "My Daddy gave my Mummy flowers".
Christmas: "We decorate a Christmas Tree." "We give food to Santa" "We put up lights" "It was Jesus's birthday."
We then thought about another special day that was coming up for one of their family members - Mothering Sunday! The children learnt songs about Mother's Day ready for our Mother's day service in church. They also painted pictures of their mothers.
We thought about why we loved our mothers.
"I love my Mummy because she gives my huggles me when I am scared or frightened."
"I love my Mummy because she cooks me a nice roast dinner."
"I love my Mummy because I just love her."
"I love my Mummy because she is kind to me."
"I love my Mummy because she tucks me up n bed nicely and gives me a teddy."
Who gives you strength?
In Peacocks class in year 1 the children read the story of Griff and Mr Never-give-up's Perserverance challenge.
They then discussed when they have needed perseverance in their own lives.
They then wrote a prayer together to God asking him to help them to keep persevering through difficult times.
Why is listening so important?
In Flamingos class in year 1 the children heard the story of when Samuel listened to God.
They then thought about who they go to for advice.
Did you ever have to try lots of times before something was possible? Who encouraged
you? How have you encouraged others?
Year 3MJ thought about the meaning behind an old Japanese proverb – ‘fall down seven times, get up eight’ which is our thought of week. We shared ideas what this meant to us and discussed that some people find some things easy to do, while others always find them difficult. When things do get difficult it is easy to want to try to avoid them, to want to give up, perhaps not bother, pretend we don't even care about them.
We also looked at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness in our Good News Bible and about the many times when Jesus was faced with hardships but he persevered and overcame them.
To challenge our own perseverance we had a go at seeing how well we did at getting a beanbag into a hoop, as you can see, we all had a good go and with a lot of gumption and persistence did really well!
What can you do to show that you ‘live’ what you believe?
Year 5 really enjoyed exploring this week's thought for the week! They played the game 'two truths and a false' to see if they could spot the truths.
This week year 1 discussed the painting 'The flight into Egypt' by Vittore Carpaccio, and looked for hope in the painting. Then we wrote a prayer to God praying for refugees running from war.
What would you like to achieve – today? This week? This month? This year?
This week Year 6 learnt about Geraint Thomas who finished second to last when he first entered the Tour de France in 2007. Instead of giving up he persevered and in 2013, he helped his team mate while riding with a fractured pelvis. After many years of training, he eventually won the Tour de France in 2018. He didn't give up resulting in the most prestigious prize in the cycling world. We reflected on what really matters to us and what we want to achieve. We then designed our own yellow jerseys to reflect our future goals.
In year 6 the children have focused on when they have had to keep on going - please look through the PowerPoint for the children's quotes about this week's thought for the week.
How do you treat other people? Does your view of them affect the way you act towards them?
This week in year 2 the children did their handprint to show no matter our size, we are all important and should be respected.
If you were taking a gift to Jesus, a gift that was a symbol to show you knew what his life on earth would be like, what gift would you take?
In year 2 the children thought about and then had a class discussion about what gift we could take to Jesus that was a symbol to show we knew what his life on earth would be like? We thought about gifts that would not cost a lot of or any money at all. We then drew a picture of the gift that we would give to Jesus and labelled it.
