Summer's ending

To give an awareness of the season and the end of summer (SEAL theme 1: New beginnings).

by Jan Edmunds

Suitable for Key Stage 2

Aims

To give an awareness of the season and the end of summer (SEAL theme 1: New beginnings).

Preparation and materials

• This is suitable for a class presentation. There are 20 narrators.
• You will need 20 pieces of A4 card, one for each narrator.
• On the sides facing the audience, the cards can be decorated with relevant pictures. On the reverse side of each card, write the narrator’s words. On 9 of the cards, also write the letters SEPTEMBER, one letter on each card. The letters should be large and clear.
• Some rehearsals will be necessary to establish order and placing.

Assembly

September is here

Narrator  1  Good morning, everyone, September is here. It’s a month of change.

Narrator  2  This is the month that begins the new school year.

Narrator  3  Our holidays have ended.

Narrator  4  Some of us have changed schools.

Narrator  5  We have moved into a new class.

Narrator  6  We have a new teacher.

Narrator  7  We will learn new things, have new books and lessons.

Narrator  8  Yes, September is here. Let’s look and see what this month brings.

Narrator  9  S is for the summertime that’s ending, the signs begin to show.

Narrator 10  E is for the evenings that get darker as shorter now they grow.

Narrator 11  P is for the pears and apples, cherries, too, that hang upon the bough.

Narrator 12  T is for time, time to pick and gather them for they are ready now.

Narrator 13  E is for everywhere in fields and woods where colours glow, yellow, red and gold.

Narrator 14  M is for the mornings getting cooler. We begin to feel the cold.

Narrator 15  B is for the birds that gather to leave our shores.

Narrator 16  E is for everything that’s ripened to be placed in winter stores.

Narrator 17  R is the reminder that autumn’s almost here. The year again is passing and winter’s drawing near.

(Narrators 9 to 17 turn their cards round, one after the other, beginning with S, to show the word SEPTEMBER.)

Time for reflection

Prayer

Narrator 18  Lord God, we give you thanks for the summer,
for the sunshine and the rain that has helped the plants to grow.

Narrator 19  Help us to appreciate the beauty of autumn
as the leaves begin to change,
as berries decorate the bushes
and as shiny chestnuts lie scattered on the ground.

Narrator 20  For all the beauty of autumn, we thank you, God.
Amen.

Song/music

‘For the beauty of the earth’ (Come and Praise, 11)