Speaking Flowers

An assembly from the Culham St Gabriel archive

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider how we feel when flowers appear in spring and what we can say by giving flowers.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a simple bouquet that contains enough flowers for each class to receive one at the end of the assembly. The bouquet should remain hidden from sight until it is needed.

• You will also need four cards, each with one word from the following sentence written on it: ‘Say it with flowers’.

• You will need five children in the ‘Assembly’, Step 1: four to hold up the cards and one to hold up the bouquet. You will need to practise with them before the assembly.

• Have available some quiet music for the start of the assembly.

Assembly

1. Invite four children to come to the front and stand in the correct order so that the sentence ‘Say it with flowers’ will be spelt correctly when they raise their cards. Invite the child who is going to hold up the bouquet to stand at the end of the line. As the quiet music plays, the children should slowly raise their cards in order, one at a time, until the sentence is complete. The fifth child should then move slowly to pick up the bouquet and hold this in the air. After a few seconds, the children should turn over their cards and the music should be turned off.

2. Point out that, at this time of year, flowers are starting to appear in gardens or in the countryside all around us. These flowers may not speak, but they do send out the message that spring is here.

3. Encourage the children to think about occasions when flowers are given and received. Sometimes, they are given on happy occasions, such as a birthday. Sometimes, flowers are given on sad occasions, such as a funeral or when someone is unwell.

4. Ask the children if they can think of anything that flowers can say. Ideas may include ‘Thank you’, ‘Sorry’, ‘Happy birthday’, ‘I love you’ and ‘I’m thinking about you’.

Time for reflection

Ask the children how they feel when they see flowers appearing.

Explain that you are going to read a poem from the Bible about how flowers make us think about the end of winter and the arrival of spring. The reading is from Song of Solomon 2.11-12.

See! The winter is past;
The rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
The season of singing has come,
The cooing of doves is heard in our land.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for the beauty that comes with each season of the year.
Thank you for springtime.
Thank you for the young animals that we see in the fields.
Thank you for the beautiful flowers that begin to appear.
Thank you that they are a reminder that you care for us.
Amen.

Explain that, during the song at the end of the assembly, you would like one child from each class to come forward to receive one flower from the bouquet. Suggest that each class keeps a flower in the classroom so that, throughout the day, they can look at the flower and be reminded of the beauty of the world.

Song/music

‘Think of a world without any flowers’ (Come and Praise, 17)

‘All things bright and beautiful’ (Come and Praise, 3)

Follow-up ideas

English. Write a poem about flowers, for example, an ode to a rose, daffodil or sunflower.

Art and design. Create some artwork that is connected to flowers, for example, a still-life drawing of a single flower from the bouquet, or a painting in the style of artists who have chosen flowers as their subject, such as Van Gogh’s sunflowers or Monet’s water lilies and irises.