Daisies

Lessons we can learn from daisies

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider that many people love us and that God loves us very much.

Preparation and materials

• Have available the following images and the means to display them during the assembly:
  
  - a daisy, available at: https://tinyurl.com/lhbaj5s
  - mowing the lawn, available at: https://tinyurl.com/kyvs3l7 and https://tinyurl.com/myxr63k
  - a lawn of daisies, available at: https://tinyurl.com/kvajenq
  - a daisy chain, available at: https://tinyurl.com/klytck8 and https://tinyurl.com/l9urbtg
  - picking the petals off a daisy, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yavtf4jn 

Assembly

1. Show the image of a daisy.

   Ask the children the following questions.
   
   - What is the name of this flower?
   - How many of you have seen a daisy?
   - Where are daisies found?
   - How many of you have daisies in your gardens?

2. Ask the children to describe the flower. They will probably use words such as small, white and yellow, bright, cheerful and so on.

3. Point out that daisies are actually two flowers in one: the bright yellow centre counts as one and the white petals as another!

4. The daisy belongs to one of the largest families of plants, the sunflower family. Daisies are found everywhere on Earth except Antarctica.
   

5. The word ‘daisy’ is thought to come from an old English word that means ‘day’s eye’. Ask the children why they think that the daisy could be called ‘day’s eye’.
   
   The reason for the name is that daisies close their petals in the evening and open them as dawn breaks. Daisies mark the beginning of a new day.

6. Ask the children, ‘Where in the garden do daisies tend to grow?’
   
   The answer is that daisies usually grow on the lawn. Just like grass, they grow very quickly! Even if we walk over daisies, they somehow bounce back. Even if we play football on daisies, they somehow bounce back.

7. Show the images of mowing the lawn and a lawn of daisies.

   Even if we mow the lawn and cut the heads off the daisies, they still quickly grow back. The daisies always seem to bounce back! They are very resilient little plants.

8. Sometimes in life, things can go wrong. We can feel as if we have been hurt and trodden on. At times like these, we need to develop something called resilience. That means the ability to ‘bounce back’, not to let problems weigh us down so much that we become unhappy and sad for long periods of time. When we feel like this, it is always best to talk to someone about the way we feel. Often, adults who care about us will be able to help in some way and show us the best way to overcome our problems and ‘bounce back’!

9. Ask the children if they have ever played games with daisies or used them for anything. One way to use daisies is to make daisy chains.

   Show the image of a daisy chain.

   Ask the children if they have ever made a daisy chain.

10. Another game that people sometimes play with daisies is ‘Loves me, loves me not’.

    Show the image of picking the petals off a daisy.

    In the game of ‘Loves me, loves me not’, players remove a daisy petal one at a time. As they do so, they say ‘loves me’. Then, they remove another petal and say ‘loves me not’. It is a game to determine whether a boy or girl loves the person who is removing the petals. It is just a bit of fun, but people can feel sad if the game works out that the person doesn’t love them. However, players can always use a different daisy to get a different result!

Time for reflection

Ask the children if they think that this game is a good way to decide whether someone loves someone else.

Ask how we can tell whether other people really do love us.

Explain that love is nothing to do with picking the petals off a daisy. We know that people love us because of the way they treat us and their actions.

Ask the children, ‘How do we know that God loves us?’

Point out that we can look at the beautiful world in which we live and see the care and love that has gone into making it for us. Christians believe that God showed how much he loved us by sending Jesus into the world. They believe that God showed his love for us when he asked Jesus, his only Son, to die for us on the cross. Christians celebrate this all year round, but especially at Easter.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for cheerful little daisies.
Thank you that they remind us of the beauty of your creation.
Thank you for the lessons that they teach us.
Please help us when things are hard.
Help us to share our problems with others so that we can ‘bounce back’.
Thank you for all the people who love us.
Thank you that you love us, too.
Please help us to love other people and to show them this by our actions.
Amen.