Mr Men

by Revd Sophie Jelley

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To help children think about their own feelings and those of others in a helpful way.

Preparation and materials

• Have available some images of the following Mr Men characters that are large enough for volunteers to hold up and the children will be able to see them well – Mr Jelly, Mr Happy, Mr Grumpy, Mr Noisy, Mr Forgetful.
• You will also need a candle and matches.

Assembly

1. Talk to the children about how they are feeling today, depending on the time of the week and which term it is – on a Monday morning as opposed to a Friday afternoon or that it’s spring term rather than autumn, for example.
   
   
2. Explain that feelings are funny things! We are amazing creations because we can feel happy one moment and sad the next. We can be excited and we can be a little bit scared. We can be giggly in the playground and then quiet and thoughtful in the classroom after play. We are amazing and Christians believe God made us that way.
   
   
3. Tell the children that you have brought a special quiz to assembly to help everyone think about their feelings and about what God thinks about our feelings, too.
   
   
4. Choose five volunteers to come and hold up the pictures of the Mr Men characters. Ask them to each hold their Mr Men character high in the air once theirs has been chosen.
   
   
5. Ask the children to think which one of the Mr Men characters they would feel like in answer to each of the questions you ask them.
   
   Year 4 – you have been asked to go and represent the school at a special event in the neighbouring town. You will have to speak on your own in front of lots of people. How do you feel? 
   
   Mr Jelly
   
   Year 1 – your mum (or other carer) comes in on a Saturday morning and says that your school report is so good she has decided that the whole family is going on a day trip to your favourite attraction. How do you feel? 
   
   Mr Happy
   
   Reception and Year 1 – it is very early in the morning and you decide that you have had enough sleep, so you run into your mum’s room and jump on her even though it is only 5 a.m. How do you think she feels after you’ve done that? 
   
   Mr Grumpy
   
   Years 3 to 6 and maybe some teaching staff – you are at a very noisy party and trying to speak to a friend, but, in order to do that, you have to shout. All of a sudden, the loud music stops, but you are still speaking at the top of your voice. How do you feel? 
   
   Mr Noisy
   
   Parents or adults in the room – you get to school/your place of work and you notice that one person is carrying flowers and another is holding a present. You remember that today is your friend’s birthday. Oops! How do you feel? 
   
   Mr Forgetful
   
   
6. So, here we have five different Mr Men in a row. We can all feel like these characters at different times in our lives – however old we are and whether we are boys or girls. The important thing is what we do with these feelings.
   
   
7. God’s special book – the Bible – has this to say in Psalm 139, verses 2 and 15 (The Message):
   
   I'm an open book to you; 
   even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. 
   You know when I leave and when I get back; 
   I'm never out of your sight.
   You know me inside and out, 
   you know every bone in my body; 
   You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, 
   how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
   
   
8. Christians believe that God knows how we feel all the time and, because he is a loving God, he cares about how we feel, too. So, if we are feeling like Mr Happy, that is great and we might want to say, ‘Thank you, God’, but, if we are feeling like Mr Grumpy, we might want to say, ‘Help me, God’, so we are not tempted to be mean or hurtful towards someone else. It may be that we sometimes feel unsure or afraid, but Christians believe that God is always with us and will never leave us, however we may feel.
   
   
9. Thank the volunteers and ask them to put the pictures down and sit down with the other children.

Time for reflection

There will be lots of different feelings going on inside all of us every day at school. We may need to speak to someone we trust about them and there are people here at school who can help you if you do. We are also going to take a moment to remember that God is with us and we can talk to him about our feelings any time we like.

Light the candle.

Let us now hold a moment of quiet inside so we can think about our feelings and the feelings of those around us at this time.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that you made us so we can have lots of different feelings. 
Please help us to know that you are with us however we are feeling. 
Help us remember that you care. 
Help us to think of others, especially when they are hurt or sad. 
We pray that this school will always be a place that helps people to feel good. 
Amen.

Song/music

‘If I were a butterfly’ (Hymns Old and New (Kevin Mayhew), 342, 2008 edition)