Spring Is Coming Soon!
What does spring mean to us?
by Rebecca Parkinson (revised, originally published in 2010)
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider the start of spring and the wonder of the different seasons.
Preparation and materials
- Have available the following images and the means to display them during the assembly:
- a chick among daffodils, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ab4v9j
- blossom, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ycaa5mdv
- lambs gambolling, available at: https://tinyurl.com/44ttyrhe
Assembly
- Show the images.
Ask the children what connects all of the images.
Listen to a range of responses.
The answer is that they all show things that are associated with spring. - Ask the children if they know when spring officially starts.
Listen to a range of responses.
There isn’t actually one correct answer to this question because politicians, weather forecasters, scientists and historians all disagree about when spring starts. - Many people think of 1 March as the first day of spring. They say that the months of December, January and February mark out winter; March, April and May are the spring months; June, July and August mark out summer; and September, October and November are the autumn months.
- Other people argue that spring begins on 21 March, which is the day of the vernal equinox. An equinox happens twice a year and refers to the time when the Earth’s axis is not tilted either towards or away from the Sun. This means that day and night are of equal length. ‘Vernal’ comes from the Latin word for ‘spring’ and simply refers to the fact that it is the spring equinox rather than the autumnal equinox.
- Although there are arguments as to exactly when all the seasons begin and end, one thing is certain: year after year, the seasons come and go. Even when weather patterns change, the seasons still continue. In spring, the days begin to get longer and warmer, daffodils appear to brighten up the dullness and tiny lambs begin to leap around in the fields. We know for certain that at some point, spring will turn into summer, followed by autumn and winter.
- Even at the start of the Bible, the seasons of the year are mentioned. Genesis 8.22 says, ‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime [spring] and harvest [autumn], cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’
Christians believe that God has promised that the seasons are with us to stay.
Time for reflection
Ask the children what their favourite season is.
- Is it spring, with all the new life springing up?
- Is it summer, with the long days so that we can play outside and go on holiday?
- Is it autumn, with the beautiful colours on the trees and the crunch of the leaves as you walk through them?
- Is it winter, when the days get shorter and the excitement of Christmas fills the air?
Maybe you enjoy all the seasons, with the changes that come with them. Let’s thank God for the variety and beauty of the world we live in.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for the beauty of the world.
Thank you for the changes that we see going on around us all the time.
Thank you that just now, we can see buds and blossom appearing on the trees.
Help us to keep our eyes open so that we notice the world,
And help us not to take beautiful things for granted.
Amen.
Song/music
‘For the beauty of the earth’ (Come and Praise, 11)
