Imagination

To help children to think about the wonders of the natural world and the gift of imagination.

by Rebecca Parkinson

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To help children to think about the wonders of the natural world and the gift of imagination.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a variety of different flowers and/or different fruits (from school fruit provision) and/or pictures of different animals and/or pictures of different birds.

Assembly

1. Keeping the pictures and objects hidden, ask the children which is their favourite type of animal and why. After some discussion, show the children the animal pictures and ask them to describe some of the differences between the animals you have chosen. They may describe features, or where the animals live, whether they are domestic or wild, etc.
2. Ask if the children can name the flowers as they are shown. Ask them to describe what they are like. They may describe colour and shape or come forward to smell them.
3. Ask the children which are their favourite fruits. Show them the selection in the school fruit provision. Maybe take a vote on which are their favourite fruits.
4. Show the pictures of birds. It may be possible to tie this in with the Big School Bird Watch (www.rspb.org.uk).
5. Point out that Christians and people of many different religions believe that God made the universe and the world. They may have different ideas about how this happened but they believe that God was ultimately involved with creation.
6. Ask the children to close their eyes and imagine what the world would be like if there were only, say, a robin instead of the wide variety of birds that we have around us. Imagine if the only flowers we could see were daisies and the only animals were cats. Ask the children to imagine what it would be like if the only food we ever ate was potatoes.
7. Explain that Christians and others believe that God wanted the world to be full of wonder and variety so that it is a wonderful place to live in. So he made far more variety than we can ever even imagine!
8. Point out that the children have all been given the wonderful gift of imagination to use to help them see the wonder in the world around them and to help them to create their own pictures, stories, music and much more.

Time for reflection

Reflection

Close your eyes and think about your favourite animal…

Your favourite bird…

Your favourite flower…

Your favourite food…

Think about the wonderful variety there is in our world.

Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for the wonderful world we live in.

Thank you that you didn’t make a world that is dull and boring,

but you made a world that is bright, colourful and full of amazing variety.
Amen.

Song/music

‘From the tiny ant’ (Come and Praise, 79)