A Garden Feast
A feast for our senses
by Janice Ross
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider how a garden can be a place to feast our senses.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (A Garden Feast) and the means to display them.
Assembly
- Point out that in the Bible, God places the first people in a garden. The garden is called the Garden of Eden and it is very well-watered and lush.
Ask the children, ‘Why do you think that God chose a garden rather than a village, city, mountain resort or seaside?’
Listen to a range of responses. - Suggest that one reason a garden is special is because it provides us with a rich feast of food. The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve had every kind of plant you could think of growing there.
Ask the children which of their favourite foods can be grown in a garden.
Listen to a range of responses, accepting foods that are fruit or vegetables.
Identify that a feast usually involves food - and sumptuous food at that. - Show Slide 1.
Explain that feasting on something means delighting in, enjoying, savouring something.
So, we can feast on something with our eyes, ears and noses as well as by tasting or feeling it. If we feast our eyes on something, we look at it for a long time with great attention because we find it very attractive, and we might even really want it! - Let’s think about the kind of feast a garden gives us.
Show Slide 2.
A garden gives a feast of colour in plants, flowers and trees. It includes various types and shapes of plant: tall, short, ground-covering, delicate and hardy. - A garden provides a feast of smells too.
Show Slide 3.
Ask the children if they can identify the kind of flower in the picture. Explain that they are roses.
Ask the children if they have ever smelt roses.
Click Slide 3 to reveal the next image.
Ask the children if they can identify the flower. Explain that they are sweet peas.
Ask the children if they have ever smelt sweet peas.
Click Slide 3 to reveal the next image.
Ask the children if they can identify the flower. Explain that it is lavender.
Ask the children if they have ever smelt lavender. - You can often find a feast of sound in a garden.
Ask the children what pleasing sounds we might hear in a garden.
Listen to a range of responses.
Show Slide 4.
There are many beautiful sounds to hear in a garden. - A garden also provides a feast of touch.
Ask the children what we might like to touch in a garden.
Listen to a range of responses.
Show Slide 5.
We might enjoy the feel of water running through our fingers in a fountain, or we might enjoy sitting on soft grass. - Identify that a garden is bursting with life. There is growth and movement all around, such as insects scurrying across stones, bees buzzing around plants and butterflies flitting between flowers.
Time for reflection
Suggest that the Garden of Eden must have been a great feast to Adam and Eve’s senses.
But there is something more that a garden gives us.
Show Slide 6.
Explain that the picture on the left shows the cherry blossom orchard at the Alnwick Garden in the north of England.
Tell the children to look at the person lounging in the hammock in the picture on the right. Ask them what words might describe the experience of lying there.
Listen to a range of responses.
Lead the children to think about feelings of peace and quiet, time-out, dreaming and relaxation.
Ask the children to close their eyes and imagine lying in that hammock.
Ask them to imagine what they can see, hear, smell and feel.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for gardens, both big ones like the Alnwick Garden, and small ones around our schools and homes.
Please help us to look for beauty in nature this summer.
Please help us to take the time to look, listen, smell and feel.
In our busyness, please help us to relax and take the time to be still.
Amen.
