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Thank you

To remind the children of the importance of saying 'thank you'.

by Michelle Walker

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To remind the children of the importance of saying 'thank you'.

Preparation and materials

  • You will need an OHP and acetate or flip-chart and pen.
  • Stickers (see 4 below).

Assembly

  1. Begin by asking the children for two very important words that we should use many times a day. Hopefully they will give you the words – Thank You. Ask the children if they say thank you – do they sometimes forget?

  2. Create an acrostic for the words THANK YOU. Ask the children for suggestions of things that we can say thank you for. Write the answers on the acetate or flip-chart. E.g.

    T – Today
    H – Health
    A – Air
    N – New things
    K – Kangaroos (animals)
    Y – Year (our time)
    O – Oranges (food)
    U – Us (everyone)
  3. Explain that in almost every situation we can say thank you; to our parents or carers, our friends, our teachers, to other people at school such as cleaners and caretakers, at the shops, etc. It is really important to say thank you. Ask the children how they feel if they do something for someone and they don’t get thanked?
  4. Tell the story of the ten lepers from Luke 17.11–19. Call 10 children to the front and place a sticker on the back of their hands. (Be sensitive to children with eczema, etc.) These are the 10 people who had leprosy. Tell the children that this is a disease which affects the skin, for which there was no cure or medicine at that time, and people who suffered from it had to live in isolation, away from their families.

    Ask another child to play Jesus, who appears and tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. As they go, their leprosy disappears. (Take the stickers off.) They are so happy they are healed, and head off to tell their families (each child goes and sits down). All except one, who returns to Jesus to thank him for what he has done. Emphasize that 10 were healed but only one came back to say thank you.
  5. Explain that the Bible encourages us to give thanks to God in all circumstances (e.g. 1 Thessalonians 5.18). Christians believe that although this can be difficult, it is an important thing to remember as we go about our daily life. We can say thank you for all that God provides for us.
  6. Challenge the children to say thank you all week. Then thank them for listening so well!

Time for reflection

Reflection

Sit quietly and think of everything around us: nature, families, friends, food and so on.

How often do you say ‘Thank you’?

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for everything you provide for us day by day.

Help us to appreciate what we have and to remember to say Thank you.

Amen.

(All can say the Thank you)

Song/music

‘Thank you Lord’ (Come and Praise, 32)

Publication date: January 2006   (Vol.8 No.1)    Published by SPCK, London, UK.
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