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Harvest (sharing)

To show the students how they can work together so that nobody misses out.

by John Marley

Suitable for Key Stage 3

Aims

To show the students how they can work together so that nobody misses out.

Preparation and materials

  • This assembly is best suited to a relatively small group. A Year assembly would be ideal.

  • You will need enough packets of Rich Tea biscuits to feed half of your assembly audience . . . or photocopied, paper equivalents, if you are nervous about the possible mess.

  • You should also have some paper plates, if you're using real biscuits.

  • Please check with whoever cleans your assembly space that biscuit crumbs on the floor won’t be too much of a nuisance – and perhaps get him/her a box of chocolates to be on the safe side!

Assembly

  1. Begin by saying that today we are going to think about sharing.
  2. Announce that each member of the audience is going to share in the celebration today. Everybody will receive a share of the riches available.
  3. Ask some volunteers to distribute biscuits to each member of the audience, starting from the front and working towards the back.
  4. Make sure that half way through the distribution the biscuits are going to run out.
  5. Ask the audience how to overcome the problem. Hopefully someone will eventually offer the idea of sharing.
  6. Explain to the audience that, to be fair, everybody with a biscuit should snap it in half and hand one half to somebody who doesn’t have a biscuit.
  7. Caution the audience before they halve their biscuits that any crumbs on the floor represent failure. Pass around paper plates to help them to contain the crumbs.
  8. Remind them that all over the world children scrabble in the dust for grains of wheat and rice. Those children would be shocked if a single crumb were wasted.
  9. Allow the audience a few minutes and then ask if everybody has received their fair share.
  10. Tell the audience to think about what they have done. Isn’t sharing the answer to the problem of world starvation?
  11. Tell them they can eat their biscuits if they want to. Alternatively, they can put them in a place at home where they will be reminded that sharing is the answer to the world’s food shortage.

Time for reflection

Reflection:

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.

(Mohandas K. Gandhi)

 

Prayer:

Creator of all,

we give you thanks

for the wonderful bounty of your world.

Make us mindful of those who do not share in our riches

and bless those who are in need.

Above all, Good Lord,

teach us to share.

Amen.

Song

'Lord of the harvest' (Come and Praise, 133)

Publication date: September 2006   (Vol.8 No.9)    Published by SPCK, London, UK.
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