Times and seasons

To help the children towards a simple understanding of the meaning of 'there is a time and season for everything in life'.

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Key Stage 1

Aims

To help the children towards a simple understanding of the meaning of 'there is a time and season for everything in life'.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a copy of Miss Brick the Builder's Baby  by Alan Ahlberg and Colin McNaughton (Puffin, Happy Families series). The story could be either read or retold by the teacher.
• A soft toy, a rattle, some large building bricks, and a toy made of very small pieces.

Assembly

1. Spend a short time allowing some of the younger children to talk about their baby brothers or sisters. It may be that a child has just welcomed a new baby into the family. Celebrate this good news with the rest of the school.
2. Look at the baby/toddler toys on display and ask if they would all be suitable for a tiny baby. Discuss briefly material, colour, softness, small pieces, etc. Ask for some volunteers to put the toys into order of age appropriateness.
3. Tell the children the story of Miss Brick the Builder's Baby. Establish that babies like knocking things down! Check with the children that this is true in their experience.
4. Building towers and knocking them down is great fun for little children, and is part of growing up. Mr and Mrs Brick didn't need to worry. It was quite normal for a baby of Miss Brick's age to enjoy knocking things down. Later there would come a time when she would enjoy building. It would have been worrying if Baby Brick had still been knocking down towers at age five, or eight, or ten. By then she would hopefully be more helpful in her play.
5. In the Bible, in a very old book with a funny name, Ecclesiastes, the writer says that there is a time and season for everything in life:
   
   There is a time to plant … and a time to dig up.
   There is a time to keep … and a time to throw away.
   There is a time to be silent … and a time to speak.
   There is a time to build ... and a time to tear down!
6. Talk about appropriate observations from school, giving examples of how different behaviour, attitudes, games and lessons are right for different ages. Even in school there is a time for one type of thing and a time for another. This is true during the school day: there is a time to arrive, a time to play, a time to work, a time to eat lunch, and so on.

Time for reflection

Reflection

There is a time for quiet and a time for noise.
There is a time for work and a time for play.
There is a time to be serious and a time to have fun.
There is a time to work on your own and a time to work with other people.
There is a time to listen and a time to talk.
There is a time to take out and a time to put away.
There is a time to say yes and a time to say no.
There is a time to say hello and a time to say goodbye.

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you that you know the times and seasons of our lives.
Thank you for each new day and for each new opportunity.
Help us to make the most of each one.

Amen.

Song/music

‘To ev'rything, turn, turn, turn’ (Come and Praise, 113)