Pause for Thought: Look at the Daisies!

Lessons from the daisies

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider the beauty of daisies and the lessons that we can learn from them.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Pause for Thought: Look at the Daisies) and the means to display them.
• Have available the YouTube video ‘Mowing the lawn and regrowth’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 1.29 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqFiKzXw84w
• Optional: for one of the extension activities, you will need the YouTube video ‘Daisies regrowth in lawn’ and the means to show it. It is 1.14 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u9lX62_M4k

Assembly

1. Ask the children whether they know the names of any flowers.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
2. Explain that you are going to describe one of your favourite flowers and you want the children to guess which one it is.
   
   Describe a daisy.
   
   
3. Show Slide 1.
   
   Ask the children whether they are surprised that this is one of your favourite flowers. After all, a daisy is small, very common and doesn’t have much of a perfume. You wouldn’t expect to find common daisies in a bouquet of flowers. In fact, these daisies are often called weeds!
   
   
4. Ask the children whether they think that there are any other kinds of daisy.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
5. Show Slides 2 to 7.
   
   Explain that these pictures are of various kinds of daisy. Point out that there are many varieties and many of them wouldn’t be out of place in a bouquet of flowers.
   
   
6. Show Slide 8.
   
   Explain that today, however, we are going to think about the more common daisy.
   
   Ask the children, ‘Where do we find daisies?’
   
   Explain that daisies are found in many places, including in grass, in cracks in the ground and on waste sites. They are good at conquering new habitats. In fact, daisies can be found everywhere on earth except Antarctica.
   
   
7. Ask the children, ‘Have you ever looked closely at a daisy?’
   
   Extend the discussion by asking the following questions.
   
   - How many petals do daisies have?
   - What is the stem like?
   - What colour is the centre?
   - How many seeds do daisies have?
   
   
8. Ask the children, ‘Have you ever seen one daisy growing alone?’
   
   Daisies usually grow together in clumps and can even cover whole fields. They make a lovely white-and-yellow display.
   
   
9. Ask the children, ‘Can you use a word to describe how daisies look in a field or how they make you feel when you see them?’
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   Many people describe daisies as joyful because the flowers seem to dance around in the breeze.
   
   
10. Explain that one reason why daisies are special to some people is because of a lesson that we can learn from them. Daisies keep coming back even when they are trodden on, picked or cut down by a lawnmower. They are very resilient.
    
    
11. Show the YouTube video ‘Mowing the lawn and regrowth’ (1.29 minutes long).
    
    
    
    
12. Remind the children that daisies keep bouncing back. It is as if they refuse to be defeated, and are determined to keep smiling and enjoying life.
    
    
13. Discuss with the children that there are many circumstances in life that hit us and could defeat us. Perhaps we have been badly treated, have lost someone we love or have been wrongly blamed for something. Perhaps others have laughed at us, perhaps schoolwork seems impossible or perhaps we have simply had enough of Covid-19 getting in the way of our enjoyment of everyday life.
    
    The daisies teach us an important lesson. It is not circumstances that determine our mood, but our reaction to them. The daisies could simply say, ‘Oh, what’s the point? I’ll just lie down and give up.’ But they don’t!

Time for reflection

Show Slide 9.

Read out the words on the slide:‘We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.’

Ask the children to spend a few moments thinking about these words.

Ask the children what things they are finding hard just now.

Encourage the children to learn from the daisy.

Point out that daisies often grow surrounded by other daisies. In the same way, we need other people around us. Point out that if any of the children are struggling, there are people they can turn to who will listen.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for all the beautiful things that you have put around us.
Thank you for daisies, and for all that they can teach us about being brave and joyful.
Thank you that they grow together.
Please help us to grow together.
Please help us to be there to care for and support one another.
Amen.

Extension activities

1. Observe, draw and label a daisy.
2. Make paper daisies. Examples of how to do this are available at: https://www.instructables.com/How-To-Make-Paper-Daisies/ and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSv2VMlLqpQ (8.39 minutes long)
3. Watch the YouTube video ‘Daisies regrowth in lawn’. It is 1.14 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u9lX62_M4k
   
   Discuss the following questions.
   
   - Was this video as powerful as the first video that we watched during the assembly?
   - How did the power of music enhance the images?