Assembly Objective:

• Who am I? This assembly explores the issue of identity and considers what the Bible teaches about God’s care for us as individuals.

Film:

• Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky, certificate U), click here to buy the DVD online.

Bible:

• Psalm 139:1-6  (International Children’s Bible)

Supporting Values Education:

• The promotion of the value of Individual Liberty involves enabling pupils to better understand themselves and their personal motivation.

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OPENING ACTIVITY

Who Are You? (quiz)

Download and use slides 1-13 of the Identity PowerPoint.

• Can the children correctly identify the occupations of some well-known and less well-known names?

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FILM CLIP ONE

• There are two film clips to be used in this assembly. Play the first clip from Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky, 2015) certificate U
  • Start time: 41:12 (Frieda says, ‘They’re posting the test scores’.)
  • End time: 44:17 (Lucy turns to the camera exasperated.)
  • Clip length: 3 minutes and 5 seconds
• If you cannot play the clip, instead say, ‘Charlie Brown is a normal boy who is something of a ‘loveable loser’. He is not very co-ordinated and lacks self-confidence. However, after a mix-up in a test, he receives a perfect score of 100%. People in his school start to treat him differently. They consider everything that he says and does to be a work of genius. Crowds follow him around asking his advice and copying how he dresses. His sister, Sally, starts taking tour parties around their family home showing them ‘the genius’ in his natural habitat. Out of all Charlie Brown’s friends, only Lucy is unconvinced that he is a genius and believes everyone else has lost their minds.

FILM CLIP TWO

• Play the second clip from Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky, 2015) certificate U
  • Start time: 01:14:42 (The Little Red-Haired Girl says, ‘Oh, hi Charlie Brown’.)
  • End time: 01:16:15 (The bus drives away.)
  • Clip length: 1 minute and 33 seconds
• If you cannot play the clip, instead say, ‘Charlie Brown has finally plucked up the courage to speak to the Little Red-Haired Girl. She is getting on the bus to go to summer camp. Charlie Brown is surprised that she knows his name. He asks her why she chose him to be her pen pal. She tells him that he has all the qualities that she admires; he is compassionate, honest, brave and thoughtful. In her opinion, he is not a loser. She promises to write to him over the summer. The bus drives away and Charlie Brown is left on the road, feeling elated.

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TALK

Scripted Talk

Download the Identity PowerPoint for use with this talk.

Please note slides 1-13 are used in the Who Are You? quiz in the Opening Activity.

• [PowerPoint slide 1] 
  • Welcome, everyone, to this assembly. Today we are going to be thinking about who we really are. So let’s begin by playing a short quiz called ‘Who are you?’
• [PowerPoint slides 2 – 13]
  • Allow children to tell you anything else they know about the people featured in the quiz.
• [PowerPoint slide 14]
  • The Peanuts cartoon strip ran for fifty years and appeared in newspapers across the world. It inspired a stage musical, TV specials and animated films.
  • Released to mark the 65^th anniversary of the start of the cartoon strip, Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie was written by Charles M. Schulz’s son and grandson.
• [PowerPoint slide 15]
  • Like all Peanuts stories, the central characters are Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy. And, also in common with all Peanuts stories, the film is not afraid to ask some very deep questions.
• [PowerPoint slide 16]
  • The question this film asks is: ‘Who are you, Charlie Brown?’
• [PowerPoint slide 17]
  • To answer this question, the film considers who knows Charlie Brown best. Himself? His classmates? Someone else?
• [PowerPoint slide 18]
  • Ask the children to consider this question for themselves. Discuss. If they think that someone else knows them best, who might that person be?
• [PowerPoint slide 19]
  • Here is a list of things Charlie Brown says about himself in the film. What do they reveal about his self-image? Charlie Brown has a very negative view of himself. He thinks that he is a loser and a failure. He tries to convince himself and others that he’s a winner by entering a talent show. He works really hard on his act and it is looking very impressive. But he never gets to perform his act as he chooses to save his sister’s performance instead. Again, he ends up looking like a loser.
• [PowerPoint slide 20]
  • Here are some things that Charlie Brown’s classmates say about him in the film. What do they think about him? Most of them think he’s a ‘loveable loser’ until something happens that totally changes their view of him. The class receives the results of their latest test and someone has done very well indeed.
  • Play clip one from Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky, 2015) certificate U
    • Start time: 41:12 (Frieda says, ‘They’re posting the test scores’.)
    • End time: 44:17 (Lucy turns to the camera exasperated.)
    • Clip length: 3 minutes and 5 seconds
  • If you cannot play the clip, instead say; Charlie Brown is a normal boy who is something of a ‘loveable loser’. He is not very co-ordinated and lacks self-confidence. However, after a mix-up in a test, he receives a perfect score of 100%. People in his school start to treat him differently. They consider everything that he says and does to be a work of genius. Crowds follow him around asking his advice and copying how he dresses. His sister, Sally, starts taking tour parties around their family home showing them ‘the genius’ in his natural habitat. Out of all Charlie Brown’s friends, only Lucy is unconvinced that he is a genius and believes everyone else has lost their minds.
• [PowerPoint slide 21]
  • But Charlie Brown is not a genius. His test paper got mixed up with Peppermint Patty’s. She is not a genius either as she had merely drawn a smiley face on her answer sheet and this had randomly produced a perfect score. At the special assembly for him, Charlie Brown tells the truth about his perfect test score. He may not be a genius but, despite that, he works really hard on a book report on his own as his partner, the Little Red-Haired Girl, is off school looking after her Grandmother.
• [PowerPoint slide 22]
  • So who does know Charlie Brown best, if it is not himself or his classmates? It is someone he loves but to whom he has never spoken. But she has been watching him and has noted all his good qualities. It is the Little Red-Haired Girl. At the end of the film, Charlie Brown finally plucks up the courage to speak to her.
  • Play clip two from Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky, 2015) certificate U
    • Start time: 01:14:42 (The Little Red-Haired Girl says, ‘Oh, hi Charlie Brown’.)
    • End time: 01:16:15 (The bus drives away.)
    • Clip length: 1 minute and 33 seconds
  • If you cannot play the clip, instead say; Charlie Brown has finally plucked up the courage to speak to the Little Red-Haired Girl. She is getting on the bus to go to summer camp. Charlie Brown is surprised that she knows his name. He asks her why she chose him to be her pen pal. She tells him that he has all the qualities that she admires; he is compassionate, honest, brave and thoughtful. In her opinion, he is not a loser. She promises to write to him over the summer. The bus drives away and Charlie Brown is left on the road, feeling elated.
  • Discuss clip. How does Charlie Brown feel about himself now? What do his classmates think about him? How has this changed?
• [PowerPoint slide 23]
  • For Christians, the person who knows them best is God. The Bible contains a very old poem that expresses this view. It is called Psalm 139 and is attributed to King David. Read verses 1-6. The idea that God knows everything that you think and say and do, can be a bit scary. But, for Christians, not only is God the person who knows them best, He is also the person who loves them best. There is nothing they can say, think or do to make God love them less, nor anything they do can make Him love them more. For Christians, this is a great source of comfort and means that they never need to feel like ‘an insecure wishy-washy failure’ or ‘a block head’ or ‘nothing’ because, despite everything He knows about them, God loves them.

Headings and Bullets

• [PowerPoint slide 1]
  • Welcome.
  • Who are you?
  • Introduction to quiz.
• [PowerPoint slides 2 – 13]
  • Allow children to tell you anything else they know about the people featured in the quiz.
• [PowerPoint slide 14]
  • The new Peanuts movie.
• [PowerPoint slide 15]
  • Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
• [PowerPoint slide 16]
  • Who are you Charlie Brown?
• [PowerPoint slide 17]
  • Who knows Charlie Brown best?
  • Himself?
  • His classmates?
  • Someone else?
• [PowerPoint slide 18]
  • Who knows you best?
  • Yourself?
  • Your classmates?
  • Someone else?
• [PowerPoint slide 19]
  • What Charlie Brown says about himself.
• [PowerPoint slide 20]
  • What Charlie Brown’s classmates say about him.
  • Play film clip one.
• [PowerPoint slide 21]
  • Charlie Brown is not a genius.
• [PowerPoint slide 22]
  • The Little Red-Haired Girl.
  • Play film clip two.
• [PowerPoint slide 23]
  • Psalm 139:1-6.

Photo Copyright for Identity PowerPoint: Slide 1, 18 and 23 iStockphoto.com / Slide 2 footballer and religious leader iStockphoto.com, writer Wiked Kentaur / Slide 3 Casa Rosada / Slide 4 Public Domain / Slide 5 Public Domain / Slide 6 microphone and football iStockphoto.com, Palace of Westminster Tony Moorey / Slide 7 Stephanie Houghton Candlemasbear / Slide 8 garden C T Johansson,  pen  Underground Pictures, racing driver Morio  / Slide 9 Philosophy Football / Slide 10 Public Domain / Slide 11 Ricardo Stuckert Agencia Brasil / Slide 12 Public Domain / Slide 13 Creative Commons / Slide 14 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / Slide 15 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / Slide 16 Twentieth Century Fox & Peanuts Worldwide LCC / Slide 17 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / Slide 19 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / Slide 20 Twentieth Century Fox & Peanuts Worldwide LCC / Slide 21 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / Slide 22 Twentieth Century Fox & Peanuts Worldwide LCC 

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RESPOND

Reflection

• Who knows you best? Yourself? Your classmates? Someone else?
• Is it healthy to think of yourself in the way that Charlie Brown thinks of himself?
• How do Charlie Brown’s classmates make him feel about himself?
• How might they help him improve his self-image?
• How do you make other people feel about themselves?
• How did the Little Red-Haired Girl make Charlie Brown feel about himself?
• How did she do this?
• How do the verses from Psalm 139 make you feel? Scared? Comforted?

Prayer

• Almighty God, You know us best of all. You know all our thoughts and our desires. You see what we do and what we fail to do. Yet, you love us for who we are. In fact, there is nothing we can do that will make You love us less or love us more. Help us to remember this at times when we struggle to love ourselves and other people. Amen.

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YOU WILL NEED:

1. Snoopy and Charlie Brown: the Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky, certificate U), click here to buy the DVD online.
2. Identity PowerPoint.