Seed time: Harvest

To think about seeds in the autumn and to say thank you for the continuation of life.

by Jan Edmunds

Suitable for Key Stage 2

Aims

To think about seeds in the autumn and to say thank you for the continuation of life.

Preparation and materials

• Find pictures or make a collection of seeds, e.g. sycamore, acorn, beech, fir cone, horse chestnut, dandelion, etc.
• Slice a few fruits such as apples, cherries, plum and/or a yellow melon to show their pips and stones. These could be labelled and used for a display for the children to see as they leave the room or to look at later.
• Teachers might like to use the poem for choral speaking or for groups or individuals to read aloud. An OHP would be useful if sharing the poem.

Assembly

1. It is autumn, one of the most beautiful times of the year. Can anyone tell me why?
   
   Autumn is seedtime, when fruit is ripe on the trees. Farmers gather in the ripe crops, giving us and their animals food for the winter. Show your collection of fruit and seeds. Ask the children to name them. Perhaps allow time for discussion.
2. Autumn is the time when plants and trees shed their seeds. Some are carried by the wind. Some are carried by animals. Some are carried by us. Allow time to clarify this point.
   
   Not all seeds manage to grow – many are eaten by birds, by animals and by us, but many do find their way into the earth to grow into new plants.
3. Listen to this poem and see if you can understand its message.
   
   Seeds
   by Jan Edmunds
   
   See the fruits upon the tree
   Lots to eat for you and me.
   Inside each fruit the seeds abound
   Soon they’ll drop upon the ground.
   There to hide all winter through,
   In spring again to grow anew.
   
   Like the seeds we come and go
   We blossom, flourish, mature and grow.
   As with the fruit, time passes by
   We live, we grow and then must die.
   
   Each one of us is like a seed
   And God sees to our every need.
   He sends the sun, he sends the rain
   And like the seeds we’ll live again.
   God knows us each and every one
   What we’ve said and what we’ve done.
   
   The harvest of hedgerow, earth and sea
   God sends these gifts for you and me.
   Millions of seeds new life to give
   Creating our world and the way we live.
4. Time could be used for discussion, the message being that without seeds there would be no re-creation of life.
5. Optional: ‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease’ (Genesis 8.22).

Time for reflection

Prayer
Today we think about the miracle of growing seeds:

how they grow to give us our food and reproduce life.

They need the sunshine and the rain to help them to grow

and soon there are plants of every kind:

flowers, trees, bushes, grass, wheat and vegetables.

Plants that are beautiful to look at and plants that provide our food.

Let us thank God for the harvest and for all these gifts.

Amen.

Song/music

‘The earth is yours’ (Come and Praise, 6)