Harvest thanksgiving

A simple assembly to appreciate the harvest of food that God has provided.

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Reception

Aims

To appreciate the harvest of food that God has provided for us.

Preparation and materials

• Gather together the following fruit, vegetables and cereals for the children to hold or images of them and the means to show them during the assembly (if using images, print off enough of them so each child can hold a picture in step 7 below):
• red apple, green grapes, orange, pear, pomegranate
• carrot, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, onion and kale
• picture of field of wheat, barley or oats
• porridge oats, cornflakes, rice.

Assembly

1. Play a guessing game with the children. Give them clues for a fruit or vegetable and ask the children to guess what it is. For example, ‘I am thinking of a vegetable. It is orangey red. It is long and pointy at the end. You can eat it raw, cut into sticks or eat it cooked with any meat dish’ or ‘I am thinking of a fruit. It comes in clusters. It can be green or red. It is juicy and you can make wine with lots of them’ or ‘I am thinking of a cereal crop. You make porridge with this.’ Show them the fruit or vegetable, or image of it, when somebody guesses correctly or after giving them a reasonable chance to guess if they cannot work out what it is.
2. Show the other fruits, vegetables and cereals, or images of them, and the picture of the field with a cereal crop listed above, except for the kale and pomegranate.
   
   Identify each and ask questions – ‘Who likes this fruit?’, ‘When and with what do we eat this?’ and so on.

3. Introduce the kale as a vegetable they are probably unfamiliar with. Kale is like a cabbage and can have green or purple leaves. It is rich in vitamins and calcium.

4. Introduce the pomegranate. The children could perhaps taste this more unfamiliar fruit.
5. Explain that many of these foods grow in our country. We even grow grapes in the south of England. Some foods that we enjoy, however, need warmer weather. They grow in countries far away. Nowadays we can import these because we have fast aeroplanes and boats, as well as fridges and freezers on them, to keep everything fresh. So, we can find all of these on our supermarket shelves.
   
   Ask the children if they can identify which fruits, vegetables and cereals do not grow in the UK?
6. Explain that all of these foods need good soil to grow. They also need sunshine and rain. God provides all this. At harvest time, we remember God’s goodness in providing all these wonderful foods for our tables. We say thank you, Father God, for the harvest.
7. Teach the children the following song, sung to the tune ‘I can sing a rainbow’, giving each child a piece of fruit, a vegetable or cereal, or images of them, to hold in the order they are mentioned in the song. Each child can then take a step forward when his or her item is mentioned.
   
   Crispy red apples and juicy green grapes,
   pomegranates, oranges and pears.
   
   Chorus:
   Thank you for the harvest,
   for the harvest,
   for our harvest food.
   
   Crunchy orange carrots and firm Brussel sprouts,
   cauliflower, onions and kale.
   
   Chorus
    
   Fields of barley and wheat and oats,
   porridge and cornflakes and rice.
   
   Chorus

Time for reflection

Ask the children to close their eyes and picture a big plate. Then ask them which foods they would pick to put on it?

The children could draw and label these when back in class for a wall display, entitled ‘Thank you for the harvest’. 

Prayer

Dear God,
Thank you for this happy time of harvest.
Thank you for all the lovely foods that grow in gardens and on farms.
Thank you, too, for all the lovely foods that are grown in lands far away.
Thank you for providing our daily bread.
Amen.