Harvest Medals

The harvest of hard work!

by Kirstine Davis

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider different types of harvest, including achievements gained through hard work.

Preparation and materials

• Have available an award for an achievement, such as a medal or trophy. This could be your own, or it could belong to a child or another staff member.
  
  
• You will need details of the training required to gain this award. For example, a calendar showing the hours of work put into the training or a training programme.
  
  
• You will also need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Harvest Medals) and the means to display them.

Assembly

1. Ask the children to name the seasons of the year. Ask them what season it is now. Ask the children to describe what happens in autumn.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
2. Explain that in autumn, the leaves change colour and eventually fall off the trees, the crops are harvested and the land is ploughed, ready for next year’s crops to be planted.
   
   
3. Ask the children if they can think of other things that fall off the trees as well as the leaves. Point out that fruit such as apples and pears might fall off trees or be harvested; also, conkers, acorns and different types of seeds fall to the ground.
   
   
4. Show Slide 1.
   
   Ask the children to identify the fruit (apple) and ask them where it came from (an apple tree).
   
   Show Slide 2.
   
   
5. Show Slide 3.
   
   Ask the children to identify the fruit (plum) and ask them where it came from (a plum tree).
   
   Show Slide 4.
   
   
6. Show Slide 5.
   
   Ask the children to identify the fruit (peanut) and ask them where it came from (a peanut plant). Many children will not know that peanuts grow underground.
   
   Show Slide 6.
   
   
7. Explain that apples, plums and peanuts are the harvest – the result of all the hidden activities that have been going on inside the plants. The activity has produced the harvest of the fruit.
   
   
8. Show the medal or trophy.
   
   Ask the children if they can think how this trophy or medal relates to the idea of harvest.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
9. Explain that for the trophy or medal to be won, lots of hard work was necessary. Go through the process of training that is appropriate to the medal being shown. For example, ‘I got this medal because I ran in a really hard race that was 26 miles long. That is a long way! Do you like running? You know, it takes a lot of effort to prepare for a race like that. I didn’t just wake up the day before and think: I am going to run a big race tomorrow. I had to train very hard.
   
   Show the training programme or calendar.
   
   ‘Can you see when I started running? February! Let’s use our fingers to help the Reception children count the months: February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September. Eight months! Do you know, sometimes, I didn’t want to go for a run. Sometimes, I just wanted to sit in the park and eat lots of ice creams. Sometimes, it was a bit wet and miserable and I didn’t want to go out. It wasn’t easy!’
   
   (If you are using the school football team’s trophy, adapt this step so that some of the team share about their training and competitions.)
   
   
10. Explain that winning a medal in running, winning a game of football or doing well in a dance competition is like a ‘harvest’ for all the hard work involved. In the same way, a good score in a test or exam is like a harvest for hard work and trying hard.
    
    
11. The Bible talks about fruit, too. It talks about the ‘fruit of the Spirit’.
    
    Show Slide 7.
    
    Explain that the fruit of the Spirit is not fruit that grows on a tree. Rather, these fruits are great qualities to have in our lives: love, joy, faithfulness, goodness, patience, peace, self-control, kindness and gentleness. Christians believe that God helps them to show these qualities in their lives, but they don’t happen overnight. We have to practise them in our lives.

Time for reflection

Explain that you are going to read out the list of qualities (fruits) again. After each one, you would like the children to try to think of a way in which they could show that quality today.

Read out the list of fruits again, pausing for reflection after each one: love, joy, faithfulness, goodness, patience, peace, self-control, kindness and gentleness.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that we are all good at something.
Help us to persevere when we find things difficult.
Help us not to give up.
Help us to show the qualities of love, joy, faithfulness, goodness, patience, peace, self-control, kindness and gentleness.
Amen.

Song/music

One of the school’s harvest songs.