What Are You Worth?
Learning to appreciate our unique value
by Becky May
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To explore the unique value of each person and consider that there is no equivalent monetary value.
Preparation and materials
- You will need three large price label shapes and a marker pen.
Assembly
- Ask the children the following questions.
- What is the most valuable thing you own?
- What is the most valuable item you’ve seen close-up?
Listen to a range of responses. - Suggest that perhaps someone’s grandad has a really precious painting hanging on his wall that you’ve never been allowed to touch. Maybe someone’s auntie has just started driving a new car that you’d love to go in, but haven’t been allowed?
Ask the children, ‘What do you think is the most valuable thing we have in this school?’
Listen to a range of responses.
Ask the children, ‘What do you think is the most valuable thing we have in this room?’ - Ask for a volunteer to come to the front.
Explain that a few years ago, some scientists worked out the value of a human body. Apparently, if we took out all our organs and sold them, we would have a price tag of over £35 million!
Write this figure on a label and ask the volunteer to hold it. - Point out that there are other ways to calculate the value of a person.
Ask a member of staff to come to the front.
Explain that other scientists have worked out the value of a human body based not on the resale value of our organs, but on the value of each chemical component, broken down to its lowest form. The biggest part of your body is water, so that’s a whole lot of oxygen and carbon! You’ve also got potassium, iron, calcium, tin and even gold, but only trace amounts, so that’s worth nothing. The scientists calculated that if we add together the value of each element, we get a price tag of just £122!
Write this amount on the second price tag and attach this to your staff volunteer.
Ask the two volunteers whether they would rather be worth £35 million or £122. - Ask the children, ‘How much do you think you are worth?’
Point out that some of us find it easy to appreciate our value, whereas others may feel pretty worthless at times. - Invite a third volunteer to come to the front.
Write ‘Priceless’ on the third label and ask the volunteer to hold it so that everyone can see.
Make the following comments.
- ‘If I had enough of these labels, I’d write one for each of you to wear!’
Pause to allow time for thought.
- ‘Each one of you is priceless.’
Pause to allow time for thought. - Ask the children to look at their fingers. Point out that they are the only person who will ever have fingerprints exactly like theirs. There has never been another human like them in the past, there is no one exactly like them now and there will never be another human like them in the future. They are a one-off: completely unique and entirely priceless.
- Point out that we are so much more than the sum of the chemicals in our bodies and even the sum of our organs. What’s more, so is the person sitting next to us!
- Point out that when we realize that each of us is unique and special, it should mean that we value people around us for their uniqueness, too.
Time for reflection
The Bible has lots to say about our value. It often talks about how God sees us and loves us, and how we should value other people. Jesus said that not even one sparrow falls from the sky without God noticing, but we are worth far more than many sparrows!
Ask the children to close their eyes and think about the following statement.
‘You are worth more than a sparrow, more than a bunch of chemicals and more than a pile of organs. There is only one of you and you are very precious; in fact, you are absolutely priceless!’
Pause to allow time for thought.
Ask the children to listen to the following questions and keep their eyes shut while they consider the answers.
- How does it make us feel, knowing that we are so precious?
Pause to allow time for thought.
- How can we make other people feel precious?
Pause to allow time for thought.
- What can we do to show that we value the other members of our class?
Pause to allow time for thought.
What will you do today to show someone that you think that they’re priceless?
Pause to allow time for thought.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for all the children here.
Thank you that we are all unique and different, and thank you that we are precious to you.
Please help us to show other people that we value them and their uniqueness, too.
Amen.
Song/music
‘Touch a finger’ by Doug Horley, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxxiKKnDmYY (1.32 minutes long)
