Assembly Objective:
- Why is it that we don’t always show love to those with whom we live most closely, in whatever form of family is our experience? This assembly explores the Bible’s teaching about ‘fixing-up’ our relationships by showing love to the people with whom we share our lives.
Film:
- Frozen (Walt Disney, 2013) certificate PG. Click here to buy the DVD online.
Bible:
- 1 John 4:8b-11 (Easy to Read Version)
Supporting Values Education:
- The values of Respect and Tolerance derive from an underlying belief that everyone is valuable, even those with whom we live most closely, in whatever form of family we experience, and whose weaknesses and faults we therefore see most clearly. This assembly enables pupils to explore how we can respect and tolerate people by showing love – even those we think need the most ‘fixing-up’.
OPENING ACTIVITY:
Draw! (illustration)
- Invite two volunteers to the front and dress them up to look like cowboys/girls. Stand them back-to-back and ask them to walk five paces and then turn and draw their guns (hands will work if toys aren’t available). The person who draws the slowest must stage a dramatic death.
- You could play any game where the object is to pip someone to the post.
- Explain that in this assembly we are going to learn a different kind of quick-fire draw. We’ll learn to ‘throw a little love’ before anyone else gets the chance.
An Alien Concept (discussion)
- Imagine a flying saucer landed on top of this building, and an alien transported itself into this room. It asked us to explain one word to them: Love. How would you describe it to them? What does love look like? What is an act of true love? Invite the children to answer some of these questions, and write up their ideas in order to build a ‘picture’ of what love looks like.
FILM CLIP:
- Frozen (Walt Disney, 2013) certificate PG
- Start time: 01:00:43 (Kristoff says, ‘So, about my friends, well, I say friends, they’re more like family’, chapter 10)
- End time: 01:05:41 (A troll priest says, ‘You’re getting married!’ and the other trolls sing the final word of the song: ‘Love!’)
- Clip Length: 4 minutes and 58 seconds
- If you cannot play the clip, then play the song Fixer Upper (from the Frozen soundtrack) instead.
TALK
Download the Fixer-upper families Assembly Powerpoint for use with this talk.
Scripted Talk
- [PowerPoint slide 1]
- Hello everyone! Today we’re thinking about families. Does anyone recognise these sisters? [Take suggestions – Elsa and Anna from the film Frozen]
- I don’t know everything that happens in your family, but I bet that there are times when your dad is embarrassing, times when your mum makes you do things you don’t want to do, and times when your brother or sister are really annoying. But, for some reason, life is usually better together. What is it that makes families great?
- Let’s watch a clip from Frozen, which shows a man visiting his family. See if you can tell what makes them special.
- Play the film clip:
- Start time: 01:00:43 (Kristoff says, ‘So, about my friends, well, I say friends, they’re more like family’, chapter 10)
- End time: 01:05:41 (A troll priest says, ‘You’re getting married!’ and the other trolls sing the final word of the song: ‘Love!’)
- Clip Length: 4 minutes and 58 seconds
- If you cannot play the clip, then play the song Fixer Upper (from the Frozen soundtrack) instead.
- What did you think of Kristoff’s family? [Take suggestions.] Would you like to have a family like that? I think parent’s evening might be a little embarrassing…
- [PowerPoint slide 2]
- They were all fixer-uppers – that means that none of them were perfect. But, they all had something very special. Can anyone tell me what they had? [Take suggestions – true love.]
- [PowerPoint slide 3]
- They loved each other. True love made them better fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.
- [PowerPoint slide 4]
- Let’s have another look at some of the words in that song.
- ‘People make bad choices if they’re mad, or scared, or stressed.’
- That’s very true, isn’t it? Our brother might shout at us when they’re feeling mad, or a friend might leave us in the lurch when they’re feeling scared. Our parents are under a lot of stress, and sometimes that can make them a bit snappy with us or too tired to play with us all of the time. What does the song suggest we do in these situations?
- [PowerPoint slide 5]
- ‘Throw a little love their way…And you’ll bring out their best. True love brings out their best!’
- The song suggests we love our family exactly at the moment when they are being annoying. Huh? Can that really be right? Can loving someone bring out their best? Why would we want to love someone when they aren’t being lovely to us?
- Let’s have a look at what the Bible has to say about true love, and see if it can help us love our own fixer-upper families.
- Read 1 John 4:8b-11 [PowerPoint slide 6]:
- ‘God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.
- That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other.’
- The Bible says that God loved us way before we even showed an interest in loving him! He loved us first. ‘True love is God’s love for us,’ it says. This true love can inspire us to love other people even when they aren’t at their best. We can love them first.
- [PowerPoint slide 7]
- But, how do we show them true love? What might it look like? Well, how did God show his love for us? He did something. He sent Jesus into the world to give us life, and to take away the wrong things we’ve done. Perhaps we can show people love by helping them to live well, and by forgiving them for the wrong things they’ve done to us.
- Let’s say your dad is stressed when he gets home from work. He goes straight to the garden, without even saying ‘Hello’ to you. How could you throw a little love his way? You could give him some space to relax, and then give him a big hug when he comes in, forgiving him for not hugging you when he first came in.
- [If you have time, you could work through one or two more examples, encouraging the pupils to come up with suggestions for how to show love to someone when they aren’t very loveable.]
- [PowerPoint slide 8]
- It helps to remember that we are all fixer-uppers. I’m sure you can think of a time when your parents were kind to you even though you weren’t being very nice to them.
- True love can bring out the best in all of us! That’s what makes families amazing!
Heading and Bullets
- Introduction [PowerPoint slide 1]
- Welcome.
- Introduce the theme and the film: families and Frozen, respectively.
- Family members can sometimes be really annoying, but life is usually better together.
- What is it that makes families great?
- Introduce the film clip:
- Play the film clip:
- Start time: 01:00:43 (Kristoff says, ‘So, about my friends, well, I say friends, they’re more like family’, chapter 10)
- End time: 01:05:41 (A troll priest says, ‘You’re getting married!’ and the other trolls sing the final word of the song: ‘Love!’)
- Clip Length: 4 minutes and 58 seconds
- If you cannot play the clip, then play the song Fixer Upper (from the Frozen soundtrack) instead.
- Fixer-upper [PowerPoint slide 2-3]
- What did you think of Kristoff’s family?
- They were all fixer-uppers.
- But, they all had something very special: true love.
- Lyrics [PowerPoint slide 4]
- Read song lyrics about motivation for bad choices.
- Examples of bad choices stemming from anger, fear or stress.
- The fix [PowerPoint slide 5]
- Read song lyrics about solution of love.
- Solution: we love our family exactly at the moment when they are being annoying.
- Can loving someone bring out their best? Why would we want to love someone when they aren’t being lovely to us?
- Introduce Bible passage:
- Read 1 John 4:8b-11 [PowerPoint slide 6]
- True love:
- The Bible says that God loved us before we even showed an interest in loving him!
- This true love can inspire us to love other people even when they aren’t at their best.
- We can love them first.
- An act of true love [PowerPoint slide 7]
- But, how do we show them true love? What might it look like?
- How did God show his love for us?
- He sent Jesus into the world to give us life, and to take away the wrong things we’ve done.
- Perhaps we can show people love by helping them to live well, and by forgiving them.
- Example.
- Amazing families [PowerPoint slide 8]
- It helps to remember that we are all fixer-uppers.
- I’m sure you can think of a time when your parents were kind to you even though you weren’t being very nice to them.
- True love can bring out the best in all of us!
RESPOND
Reflection
- Invite the children to each think about someone in their family, who they struggle to get along with. Encourage them to think of some way they can help bring out the best in that person by loving them. Play the song Fixer Upper (or play the clip and ask pupils to close their eyes) whilst they reflect.
Prayer
- I’m going to pray now. If you’d like to join in, just say ‘Amen’ at the end.
- Dear God, thank you for loving us first! Thank you for continuing to love us even when we aren’t nice or even good. True love is amazing! Help us to make our families amazing by sharing this love with them. Amen.
YOU WILL NEED:
- Frozen (Walt Disney, 2013) certificate PG. Click here to buy the DVD online (or the means to play the Fixer Upper song (from the Frozen soundtrack).
- Fixer-upper Families Assembly Powerpoint.
- Two cowboy/girl costumes for the Draw! opening activity.
- Interactive whiteboard, whiteboard or flipchart and marker for An Alien Concept opening activity.
Ethos Education 