Favourite Things

What do we like best?

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To identify that people are God’s favourite thing.

Preparation and materials

• Have available the song ‘My favourite things’ from The Sound of Music and the means to play it during the assembly. A version is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IagRZBvLtw (1.47 minutes long)
  
  
• You will need a box that is decorated as a treasure chest, if possible, with a mirror inside. If a treasure chest is not available, any kind of bag will do.
  
  
• You may wish to arrange for a child to read the Bible passage, Genesis 1.26-28 and 31.

Assembly

1. Ask the children whether any of them have seen the musical, The Sound of Music.
   
   If any of the children have seen it, ask them what it is about.
   
   
2. Explain that The Sound of Music is about a young woman, Maria, who is sent to the home of Captain von Trapp to be a governess to his children. The children have had many governesses before and have got rid of them all by one means or another. Maria is a little different and not easily scared away, but the children initially give her a hard time.
   
   
3. One night, a violent thunderstorm leads to a breakthrough in Maria’s relationship with the children. Maria’s bedroom door is thrust open and, one by one, the children creep in to hide under her duvet. Maria tells the children that when they are afraid, the best thing that they can do is to think about their favourite things. She suggests that when we think about our favourite things, we won’t feel as bad.
   
   
4. Ask the children to listen to the song and to remember the many favourite things that Maria mentions.
   
   Play the song ‘My favourite things’ from The Sound of Music.
   
   
   
   
5. Ask the children whether they can remember the favourite things mentioned in the song.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
6. Ask the children what some of their favourite things are.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
7. Explain that God has favourite things, too! Tell the children that you have some of God’s favourite things in the treasure chest.
   
   Show the treasure chest.
   
   Invite some children to look inside without telling anyone what the treasure is. (Try to pick children who won’t shout out!) The mirror should be arranged so that the children see themselves in the mirror when they look inside the treasure chest.
   
   
8. Ask the children what they saw in the treasure chest. Identify that each child saw themselves and that they are actually God’s favourite things! Christians believe that God loves people and that he loves us.
   
   
9. Explain that you are going to ask the children some questions about God’s opinions of the things that he had made.
   
   Ask the children, ‘What did God think about the light that he had made?’
   
   Hopefully, a child will say that God was pleased with it. Point out that in the Bible, God thought that everything he had made was good. Ask the children to shout out the answer ‘Good’ and to put their thumbs up after each question.
   
   - What did God think about the sky that he had made? Good!
   - What did God think about the moon and stars that he had made? Good!
   - What did God think about the trees and plants that he had made? Good!
   - What did God think about the fish and the birds that he had made? Good!
   - What did God think about the animals that he had made? Good!
   
   
10. Read, or ask a child to read, the last part of the story of Creation, which is found in Genesis 1.27-28 and 31. Ask the children to spot what God says about people.
    
    ‘So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” . . . God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.’
    
    
11. Ask the children whether they spotted what God thought about the people that he had made.
    
    Encourage the children to shout out, ‘Very good!’

Time for reflection

Ask the children to close their eyes and imagine that they are looking at themselves in a mirror.

Remind them that God is pleased with the way that he made them and that he loves us.

Ask the children to imagine that God is smiling as he looks at them and saying, ‘That’s very good. I am so glad that I made you.’

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that you made us and that you love us exactly as we are.
Thank you that you made our friends and that you love them exactly as they are.
Thank you that you made our teachers and that you love them exactly as they are.
Thank you that people are your very favourite things.
Please help us to love others the way you do.
Amen.

Song/music

‘My favourite things’ from The Sound of Music, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IagRZBvLtw (1.47 minutes long)