It’s Good to Talk

An assembly in the ‘Hello, Scruff!’ series

by the Revd Sylvia Burgoyne

Suitable for Reception / Key Stage 1 - Church Schools

Aims

To consider how to talk to God by using the Lord’s Prayer.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a glove puppet or sock puppet of a donkey, called Scruff.
• As the assembly begins, ensure that you already have Scruff the puppet on your hand.
• This is Part 1 of a series of assemblies about the Lord’s Prayer.

Assembly

1. Scruff waves to the children. Encourage them to say, ‘Hello, Scruff!’
   
   If this is the first time the children have met Scruff, you will need to use the following introduction.
   
   Scruff lives on a farm with Lucy Jane, her mum, Mrs B, her dad, Farmer Brown, and her baby brother, Tom. Lucy Jane loves Scruff. She looks after him. She plays with him and she talks to him – when she’s happy and when she’s sad. Scruff is her best friend!
   
   
2. Scruff knew that Lucy Jane loved her parents. When she broke something, she would often say, ‘I’ll let Mum have a look at it. I’m sure she’ll be able to fix it, Scruff.’
   When she didn’t know whether to believe what someone had told her, she would say, ‘Dad will tell me whether it’s true.’
   If she needed something to eat, she would say, ‘I’ll go and ask Mum and Dad for some food.’
   
   
3. Lucy Jane would often tell Scruff about the times when they shared news at school. She enjoyed hearing about what was going on with her friends.
   
   Pause to ask the children, ‘Does anyone want to share what they have been doing recently?’
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
4. Continue with the story.
   
   At different times in the year, Lucy Jane would tell the class what was happening on the farm. In spring, there were lots of new lambs to care for. In summer, it was hay-making time. In autumn, the wheat and barley had to be harvested and the fruit in the orchard had to be picked. In winter, the cows had to be brought into the barn. ‘It’s always busy on the farm,’ she would say. ‘There’s always so much work to be done to care for the land and the animals. Mum and Dad never seem to stop!’
   
   
5. Ask the children, ‘Do any of you live on a farm? Have any of you visited one?’
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
6. Lucy Jane liked to help with jobs on the farm. She collected eggs from the hen house, she picked apples from the orchard and, best of all, she loved to sit in the tractor cab when her dad was ploughing or planting seeds in the fields.
   
   Lucy Jane told Scruff that although her parents were very busy, her favourite times were when they sat round the big table in the farmhouse kitchen and talked about their day. She loved it when they asked questions like: Have you had a good day at school? What have you been doing? Did you do well in your spelling test? Have you found anything difficult that I might be able to help you with?
   
   ‘I love it when my family listen to me,’ she told Scruff. ‘It makes me feel special and like I’m not on my own.’
   Lucy Jane felt loved when people listened to her. It made her feel safe and happy.
   
   
7. Ask the children, ‘What makes you feel safe and happy?’
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   Take off Scruff.
   
   
8. Explain that Jesus loved to talk with God, his heavenly father, every day. God helped Jesus to speak the truth, and to care for people who had many kinds of illnesses and needs.
   
   Jesus wanted his friends to talk to God too. He taught them that, although God was very important, and had the whole world to care for, he always had time to listen to them. He loved them. They were his special children.
   
   
9. Jesus gave his friends a special prayer that we can use to pray to God too. It’s called the Lord’s Prayer.
   
   Jesus said that we begin by calling God ‘Our Father’. He even used the word ‘Daddy’ in his original language. This is a reminder that we are all God’s children.
   
   
10. The prayer continues, ‘Our Father in heaven . . .’
    
    Ask the children, ‘What do you think heaven is like?’
    
    Listen to a range of responses.
    
    Explain that Christians believe that heaven is where God is. If God is somewhere, that place will be a happy one, where everyone lives together peacefully.
    
    
11. Continue with the prayer.
    
    ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’
    
    ‘Hallowed’ means ‘holy’, so this is a reminder that God is very special and that there is nothing bad about him.
    
    
12. Continue with the prayer.
    
    Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name,
    your kingdom come,
    your will be done,
    on earth as in heaven.
    
    Explain that this reminds us to ask God to help us live in a way that makes the world the happy place that God wants it to be.

Time for reflection

God wants us to talk to him about the good things that we have enjoyed, but also about the things that make us sad or cross.

Christians believe that they can talk to God any time, anywhere. They believe that God never goes to sleep, so he is always there to listen to us. We can talk to him about anything, even when other people don’t want to listen.

Prayer

Let’s say together the first part of the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Amen.

Song/music

‘The Lord’s Prayer song,’ available at: https://youtu.be/i70XoA2ZxYQ (2.43 minutes long)