Assembly Objective:
- Why do emotions such as fear or happiness spread so readily? This assembly explores the Bible’s teaching about sharing love. (Particularly suitable for Valentine’s Day).
Film:
- Despicable Me 2 (Universal, 2013) certificate U. Click here to buy the DVD online.
Bible:
- 1 John 4:19 (Worldwide English)
Supporting Values Education:
- To show Respect and Tolerance we must understand people, and even love them, just as they are.
CREATE THE ATMOSPHERE
Mood-setter (song)
- As children and staff enter the room, play Happy by Pharrell Williams (from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack). You could set this up as a dance competition, selecting some confident volunteers before the assembly, and awarding a prize for the best dance moves.
OPENING ACTIVITY
Pass it on (game)
- Play one or more games that involve passing things on. For circle time, play pass the parcel or pass the message (also known as Chinese whispers). For collective worship, select volunteers to become two teams and play a relay race where each team must pass something over their heads and then in between their legs, until it reaches the end of the line, and then the last person runs to the front and it travels down the line again until every person has had a go at being at the front of the line.
I’m contagious! (illustration)
- Invite a volunteer to come to the front and attempt to pass something on to someone else in the group. Give them a card with an action or instruction written on it.
- Here are some ideas:
- Pretend you are itchy and try to make someone else scratch as well.
- Pretend you are tired, and see if you can make someone else yawn.
- Pretend you are really happy, and make someone else smile.
- Give someone a hug.
- Give someone a high five.
- Give someone a hand shake.
- Tell a joke and see if you can make someone laugh.
- Do something funny and see if you can make someone laugh.
- Pretend to sneeze and cough loudly, and announce that you’ve passed on your cold.
FILM CLIP
- Play the clip from Despicable Me 2 (Universal, 2013) certificate U
- Start time: 00:54:11 (Gru wakes up and claps, beginning of chapter 12)
- End time: 00:55:16 (Gru dances at the top of an escalator alongside a lady who is wearing a bright orange dress)
- Clip length: 1 minute and 5 seconds
- From the moment he wakes up, it is obvious that Gru is not feeling himself. He is happy! He smiles and dances and makes heart-shaped pancakes. Gru is in love. And everyone knows it because he cannot keep it to himself. It shows on his face and in his actions: Gru helps ducks cross the road safely; he dances with his minions and with complete strangers; he pairs up other people so that they might fall in love too. Gru cannot help but share the love.
TALK
Play Happy by Pharrell Williams as everyone enters the room.
Download the Share the Love Assembly PowerPoint for use with this talk.
Scripted Talk
- [PowerPoint slide 1]
- Who likes that song? What do you like about it? [Take suggestions.] There is a version of this song that lasts 24 hours and features lots and lots of dancing in public places. It’s the world’s first day-long music video. What makes this song so catchy?
- The song is all about a person feeling happy. But, by singing about it, he has made us feel happy too. Isn’t that strange – nothing has changed in our lives, but we are happier just because we’ve heard about someone else being happy? Perhaps it isn’t as strange as we might think…
- [PowerPoint slide 2]
- What other things are easily passed on? Colds, flu and chicken pox are extremely easy to catch, but it’s not just sicknesses that are infectious.
- [PowerPoint slide 3]
- If you see somebody yawn, or scratch, or smile, it’s very difficult not to do the same thing. Stories are easily passed on too – whether they are good-news stories or gossip, they soon get around. Trends are also catching – be they fashion trends or funny videos that have gone viral.
- [PowerPoint slide 4]
- How do people pass on feelings? When people feel afraid, they sometimes tell other people scary stories that make others feel frightened too. When people feel sad, they might frown or moan or be mean, which can make their friends sad also. When people feel excited, they might jump up and down and tell lots of people about the thing they’re looking forward to, and that can make those people feel excited as well.
- Obviously we’d rather not catch germs or spread sadness. But passing on something that makes people feel good is a fantastic thing to do!
- What about love? Let’s watch a clip from Despicable Me 2. You’ll hear the Happy song again, but I want you to focus on Gru, a man who is in love. How does he share the love?
- Play the clip from Despicable Me 2 (Universal, 2013) certificate U
- Start time: 00:54:11 (Gru wakes up and claps, beginning of chapter 12)
- End time: 00:55:16 (Gru dances at the top of an escalator alongside a lady who is wearing a bright orange dress)
- Clip length: 1 minute and 5 seconds
- From the moment he wakes up, it is obvious that Gru is not feeling himself. He is happy! He smiles and dances and makes heart-shaped pancakes. Gru is in love. And everyone knows it because he cannot keep it to himself. It shows on his face and in his actions: Gru helps ducks cross the road safely; he dances with his minions and with complete strangers; he pairs up other people so that they might fall in love too. Gru cannot help but share the love.
- [PowerPoint slide 5]
- Gru is happy because he loves a lady named Lucy. But, this love makes him care for others too: he dances with his minions, he helps ducks cross the road and he cares for strangers he meets in the street.
- I’m not suggesting we all dance along the road every day. But, there are ways that we can share the feel-good emotion of love. We could smile at people as we walk around the school, we could help our family when we’re at home, we could give our friend a hug when they’re feeling sad. Can you think of any other ways we could share the love? [Take suggestions.]
- [PowerPoint slide 6]
- These are all great ideas, but I’ve thought of a problem. What if you don’t feel loved? Not everybody has a Lucy, like Gru. Nobody feels happy all of the time. It’s all very well for those who get a Valentine’s card or those who have a close family, but what about those of us who don’t feel loved?
- The Bible has an amazing answer for this problem. It tells us that absolutely everyone has a good reason to love. Because absolutely everyone is loved by God. Isn’t that incredible?! We are loved by the most powerful and most lovely being in the whole universe! We are loved by the one who made us and knows us completely. We are – as always will be – loved by God!
- Let’s read that bit of the Bible now:
- Read 1 John 4:19 [PowerPoint slide 7]:
- ‘We love others because God first loved us.’
- According to this, we all have love to share.
Headings and Bullets
- Happy [PowerPoint slide 1]
- [Play Happy by Pharrell Williams as everyone enters the room].
- Who likes that song, and why?
- There is a version of this song that lasts 24 hours! What makes it so catchy?
- The song is all about a person feeling happy, but, by singing about it, he has made us feel happy too.
- Contagious behaviour [PowerPoint slides 2-3]
- What other things are easily passed on?
- Colds, flu and chicken pox; yawning, scratching, smiling; stories; trends.
- Contagious feelings [PowerPoint slide 4]
- How do people pass on feelings?
- Fear, sadness, excitement.
- Passing on something that makes people feel good is a fantastic thing to do!
- Contagious love?
- Introduce film clip
- Play the clip from Despicable Me 2 (Universal, 2013) certificate U
- Start time: 00:54:11 (Gru wakes up and claps, beginning of chapter 12)
- End time: 00:55:16 (Gru dances at the top of an escalator alongside a lady who is wearing a bright orange dress)
- Clip length: 1 minute and 5 seconds
- Share the love [PowerPoint slide 5]
- How does Gru share the love that he feels?
- Gru is happy because he loves Lucy, but, this love makes him care for others too.
- Ways we can share the love.
- When we don’t feel loved [PowerPoint slide 6]
- These are all great ideas, but I’ve thought of a problem.
- What if you don’t feel loved?
- The Bible has an amazing answer: it tells us that absolutely everyone has a good reason to love, because absolutely everyone is loved by God.
- Read 1 John 4:19 [PowerPoint slide 7]
Photo Copyright for Share the Love Assembly PowerPoint: Slide 1 Kevin Winter/Getty Images / Slide 2 James Gathany / Slide 3 Ed Yourdon / Slide 4 Universal Pictures / Slide 5 Universal Pictures / Slide 6 iStockphoto.com / Slide 7 iStockphoto.com
RESPOND
Reflection
- Think about how you are feeling. Do you feel happy or sad, upset or excited? Do you feel loved?
- The Bible says, you are loved by God. Think about the best example of love you have experienced – it could be the way your parents look after you, or the friend who always plays with you, or the relative who gives you wonderful presents. God’s love is bigger than all of these loves put together! His love is big enough to forgive even the naughtiest behaviour. His love his strong enough to protect you in even the scariest of situations. His love is deep enough to know you, even what you’re thinking. And he loves you! How does that make you feel?
- You can be involved in an exciting experiment. Pass this love you feel on to someone else, and see how far the love can spread. Think about one way you could show someone God’s love.
Prayer
- I’m going to say a prayer now. If you agree with what I say, and you’d like to say that to God as well, then you can join me by saying ‘Amen’.
- God, thank you for loving every single one of us with an amazing love! Thank you that we all have plenty of love to give. Please help us to share your love with other people. Amen.
YOU WILL NEED:
- Despicable Me 2 (Universal, 2013) certificate U. Click here to buy the DVD online.
- Share the Love Assembly PowerPoint.
- Happy by Pharrell Williams (from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack) for create the atmosphere.
- Equipment for games for the Pass it on opening activity.
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Cards with instructions written on them for the I’m contagious opening activity.
Ethos Education 