Wonderful Bread!
Thank you for our food
by Rebecca Parkinson
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider the process of bread-making as a focus for harvest thanksgiving.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Wonderful Bread!) and the means to display them.
- You will also need seven large pieces of card, each with a letter on, to form the word ‘HARVEST’.
- Optional: you may wish to have available ingredients for making bread: yeast, flour, salt and water. Alternatively, use Slides 5-8.
Assembly
- Have Slide 1 showing as the children arrive.
- Show Slide 2.
Ask the children which kind of bread they prefer to eat. Ask the children if they can think of any other varieties of bread.
Suggestions may include wholemeal bread (show Slide 3) and bread rolls (show Slide 4). - Ask if anyone knows how to make a loaf of bread.
Ask which ingredients are required. As the children suggest a correct ingredient, bring out that ingredient or show the relevant slide.
- Slide 5 shows yeast.
- Slide 6 shows salt.
- Slide 7 shows water.
- Slide 8 shows flour. - Ask the children if they know where flour comes from.
Listen to a range of responses. - Show Slide 9.
Establish that flour comes from wheat grown in fields.
Ask the children if they have ever seen fields like these. - Show Slide 10.
Explain that this is what wheat looks like closer up. - Show Slide 11.
Explain that the grain is removed from the stalks and then ground to make the flour. - Show Slide 12.
The flour is then used to make the bread. - Invite seven children to come to the front and give each of them one of the pre-prepared cards.
Ask the children to order themselves so that their cards spell a word. Hopefully, they will spell out the word ‘HARVEST’. - Show Slide 13.
Invite the children to make connections between bread and the word ‘harvest’.
Establish that, at this time of year, farmers harvest their crops. If we live in the countryside, we might see tractors in the fields doing this work.
At this time of year, churches and schools sometimes hold harvest celebrations, where people say thank you for the food that farmers produce.
Time for reflection
Encourage the children to think about the food that they enjoy. Encourage them to reflect on all the hard work that goes into producing the food that they eat. Encourage them to be thankful.
Pause to allow time for thought.
When Jesus was on earth, he taught his followers to say a special prayer. It is called the Lord’s Prayer.
Show Slide 14.
If the children are familiar with this prayer, ask them to say it out loud. If they are not familiar with it, read it out, or ask a child to do so.
Ask the children to listen carefully to see if they can spot the part of the prayer that reminds us to be thankful for our food.
Draw attention to the line ‘Give us today our daily bread’ and explain that, in the prayer, bread represents all the food we need to live on.
Show Slide 15.
Ask the children to sit quietly and focus on the loaves of bread.
If appropriate, you may wish to ask the children to join in with the Lord’s Prayer again. Alternatively, encourage the children to think about the food that they enjoy and to be thankful.
Song/music
‘Autumn days’ (Come and Praise, 4), available at: https://youtu.be/ajRVIh3srXw (2.42 minutes long)
