A Fresh Start

To help children make a fresh start at the beginning of a new year, by thinking about the idea that God can make all things new.

by The Revd Catherine Williams

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To help children make a fresh start at the beginning of a new year, by thinking about the idea that God can make all things new.

Preparation and materials

• You will need five substances that make things ‘clean' – some we use on ourselves and others we use around the home. Those used below are soap, shampoo, washing powder, washing up liquid, sugar soap.

Assembly

1. Ask the children to put up their hands if they washed this morning – ask them to keep their hands up if they used soap. Show a bar of soap and say how good it is at keeping our bodies clean.

2. Do the same exercise with the shampoo. Ask the children to say why they think it's important that we keep our hair and bodies clean. Develop the importance of not getting diseases and of smelling ‘fresh'.

3. Move on to talk about keeping the layer on top of our bodies clean, i.e. our clothes. Show the washing powder and explain how having clean clothes also helps our health, and makes us good to be around.

4. Show the washing up liquid and talk about the importance of keeping the things around us clean too.

5. Finally show the sugar soap and ask if anyone knows what it is used for. This is a difficult one so you might award a merit point or equivalent for a correct answer. Explain that we use sugar soap to clean walls, etc. before we put fresh paint on them so that the paint will ‘hold'. The sugar soap removes grease and dirt and makes the surfaces easier to paint.

6. Say that at the beginning of a new year it's good to have a fresh, clean start. Perhaps they've got new things with them that they received at Christmas, but inside themselves they need to be clean and fresh too so that the new things they are going to learn this year will stick.

7. In the Bible God promises that he can make us clean deep down inside, and can make all things new – including when we feel upset or bad about things we've said and done, or things that have happened to us. All we need to do is to say sorry for the times we haven't behaved very well and ask God for a fresh start.

Time for reflection

Reflection :
Ask the children to sit and think of how they might need a fresh start.

Prayer :
Dear God,
I'm sorry for all the things that didn't go well last year.
Help me to grow and move forward this year.
Thank you that everyone can have a fresh start.
Amen.

Song/music

‘One more step along the world I go' ( Come and Praise, 47)