Praise

To remind children of the importance of praise in our lives and how it links with praising God.

by The Revd Sophie Jelley

Suitable for Key Stage 2

Aims

To remind children of the importance of praise in our lives and how it links with praising God.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a Bible (Good News or The Message).
• You might like to prepare two groups of children, each to read one of the psalms.

Assembly

1. Hands up who likes to be praised? Explain that praise means saying ‘well done’ for something that somebody has done well or something we have really valued about a person. Talk about the value of praise in the school, depending on how familiar you are with the particular school context.
2. Explain that you are going to ask the children to think of some examples of praise they have received from different people in their lives. You will need to handle this carefully but you could ask for examples from the children, e.g. parents or carers, grandparents, teachers and support assistants, friends, sports teammates, etc. You might tie this in with celebration assemblies or other such events at your school.
3. Talk about the fact that we can give praise in a whole range of ways: e.g. a quiet word of encouragement from a grandparent about a lovely drawing, or noisy hugs and kisses from grown men on the football pitch after a winning goal!
4. The Bible talks about praise a lot. Christians praise God using some of the words from the Bible because they believe that God is so wonderful that our natural response when we think about God is to praise him.
5. Read part or all of Psalm 150 (decide how much is appropriate) quite slowly, explaining any tricky words. This psalm shows noisy praise.
   
   Now read part of Psalm 46. This psalm shows quiet praise.
   
   There are different ways to praise God but Christians believe that praising God brings us together as a community, and helps us to remember how great God is.

Time for reflection

Reflection

We live in an amazing world – stop and think for a minute about something you want to praise God for today.

Prayer

Spend a few moments in quiet thanking God for all those things that you have just been recalling.

‘Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Amen.’ (Psalm 150.6)

Song/music

‘Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia, Praise ye the Lord’

After singing the song through, you could divide the children into two halves, one half singing the ‘alleluias’ and the other the ‘praise ye the Lords’. They could stand up to sing and sit down while the other half sings. You could vary the volume to show all the different ways we can praise, which are all equally valid.