Assembly Objective:

Where is our true home? This assembly explores the meaning of ‘home’ and Christian ideas concerning heaven.

Film:

Luca (Disney, 2021) certificate U, click here to buy the DVD online.

Bible:

Philippians 3: 20 (International Children’s Bible)

Supporting Values Education:

Mutual Respect and Tolerance: British society aspires to be inclusive of those with different faiths and beliefs.

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OPENING ACTIVITY

Where’s Home? (Quiz)

The children have to identify the natural habitat of each animal.

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FILM CLIP 1

From Luca (Disney, 2021) certificate U.

• Start time: 00:08:30 (Luca swims towards a spanner.)
• End time: 00:11:21 (Luca lies awake in his bed.)
• Clip length: 2 minutes 51 seconds.

If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘Luca finds some objects from the human world on the sea bed. He is examining an old gramophone when a deep sea diver, carrying a harpoon, appears behind him. Luca turns to see the diver and is terrified. The diver emerges out of the suit and reveals himself to be another sea monster. This sea monster gathers up all the objects from the human world and swims to the shore. Luca swims behind him. As the other sea monster emerges out of the water, he is transformed into a boy. He pulls Luca out of the water and he too is transformed! Luca panics but the other sea monster / boy calms him down. Luca is astonished by the beauty of the world above the sea. Frightened, he retreats back to his underwater home’.

FILM CLIP 2

From Luca (Disney, 2021) certificate U.

• Start time: 00:26:57 (Luca and Alberto run down the hill and jump into the sea.)
• End time: 00:32:57 (Ercole vows to catch a sea monster.)
• Clip length: 6 minutes

If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘Luca and Alberto decide to visit the human town, Portorosso. They slip ashore underneath an upturned boat and become boys again. Alberto greets a pair of fishermen in a rude way. They ignore him. Luca is entranced by the activity in the town square. Children are playing football and the adults are drinking coffee and chatting. Then Luca notices that everywhere there are images of humans hunting sea monsters. He starts to panic. At this point, Ercole, the local bully, arrives in the square of Portorosso on his beautiful red Vespa scooter. Luca and Alberto are transfixed by the sight of the scooter. Unfortunately, Luca absentmindedly kicks a football and almost damages the scooter. Ercole becomes angry and tries to dunk Luca’s head into the fountain in the middle of the square. Just in time, Giulia, a local girl and a rival to Ercole, rides into the square on her bike. She rescues the boys from Ercole. He overhears a police officer talking about another sighting of sea monsters in the town’s harbour. Ercole vows to win the reward for capturing a sea monster’.

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TALK

Scripted Talk

Download the Luca PowerPoint for use with this talk.

• [PowerPoint slide 1]
  • Welcome everyone to our assembly this morning. It is based on the film, Luca. The title character of the film is a monster who lives in the sea. Monsters, of course, do not exist in real life but, to start our assembly, I am going to show you the names of some real life animals and you are going to tell me where they live.
• [PowerPoint slide 2]
  • Let’s play, ‘Where’s My Home?’
• [PowerPoint slides 3 – 14]
  • Where’s My Home? quiz.
• [PowerPoint slide 15]
  • (Congratulate the children on their knowledge of obscure animals and their habitats.) In the quiz, you had to place the different animals in their natural habitats or homes. ‘Home’ is the place where we feel most happy and can fully be ourselves. For most people that will be where they live with their family but, for others, they might feel most ‘at home’ in school or at a football club or in a church or mosque. (Ask the children to consider where they feel most ‘at home’.)
  • Luca, you remember, is a sea monster who lives off the coast of Italy. He lives with his parents and his grandmother in their underwater house. He spends his days tending the family’s shoal of goatfish but he is very curious about the boats that pass over his head and the world of the land monsters who drive these boats. One day, he finds some objects that have dropped from a boat and makes a shocking discovery about himself.
  • Play the first clip from Luca (Disney, 2021) certificate U.
    • Start time: 00:08:30 (Luca swims towards a spanner.)
    • End time: 00:11:21 (Luca lies awake in his bed.)
    • Clip length: 2 minutes 51 seconds.
  • If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘Luca finds some objects from the human world on the sea bed. He is examining an old gramophone when a deep sea diver, carrying a harpoon, appears behind him. Luca turns to see the diver and is terrified. The diver emerges out of the suit and reveals himself to be another sea monster. This sea monster gathers up all the objects from the human world and swims to the shore. Luca swims behind him. As the other sea monster emerges out of the water, he is transformed into a boy. He pulls Luca out of the water and he too is transformed! Luca panics but the other sea monster / boy calms him down. Luca is astonished by the beauty of the world above the sea. Frightened, he retreats back to his underwater home’.
• [PowerPoint slide 16]
  • (Discuss with the children the mix of emotions Luca feels when he discovers that, when dry, he turns into a boy. Has something ever happened to the children to make them change their view of themselves or their families? This might be the discovery of a new talent or a sudden change of circumstances.)
• [PowerPoint slide 17]
  • Luca cannot help thinking about the dry land and, soon after his first experience, he ventures out of the water again. He and the other sea monster / boy, Alberto, become best friends who spend their time together making scooters out of junk and dreaming about owning a real Vespa. (Invite the children to think about their own friendships. What do they like most about their friends? What are their shared interests / dreams?)
• [PowerPoint slide 18]
  • In pursuit of their dream to own a real Vespa scooter, Luca and Alberto decide to travel to the nearby town of Portorosso. But their trip is not without its dangers.
    • Play the second clip from Luca (Disney, 2021) certificate U.
    • Start time: 00:26:57 (Luca and Alberto run down the hill and jump into the sea.)
    • End time: 00:32:57 (Ercole vows to catch a sea monster.)
    • Clip length: 6 minutes
  • If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say, ‘Luca and Alberto decide to visit the human town, Portorosso. They slip ashore underneath an upturned boat and become boys again. Alberto greets a pair of fishermen in a rude way. They ignore him. Luca is entranced by the activity in the town square. Children are playing football and the adults are drinking coffee and chatting. Then Luca notices that everywhere there are images of humans hunting sea monsters. He starts to panic. At this point, Ercole, the local bully, arrives in the square on his beautiful red Vespa scooter. Luca and Alberto are transfixed by the sight of the scooter. Unfortunately, Luca absentmindedly kicks a football and almost damages the scooter. Ercole becomes angry and tries to dunk Luca’s head into the fountain in the middle of the square. Just in time, Giulia, a local girl and a rival to Ercole, rides into the square on her bike. She rescues the boys from Ercole. He overhears a police officer talking about another sighting of sea monsters in the town’s harbour. Ercole vows to win the reward for capturing a sea monster’.
  • Allow children time to reflect upon the clip. What makes Luca leave his home under the sea? What might happen to Luca and Alberto if people find out that they are sea monsters? Have the children ever felt worried when visiting an unfamiliar place? What made them feel worried? Have they ever felt afraid of telling others something about themselves, e.g. which football team they support, which music they like listening to, which games they like playing. Inform the children that no one should make them feel ashamed of anything about themselves.
• [PowerPoint slide 19]
  • Like most Disney films, Luca has a happy ending. The three friends form a team and win the Portorosso Cup, denying Ercole yet another victory. During the race, Luca and Alberto get wet and turn back into sea monsters. The people of Portorosso do not turn against them, however, as they have grown to admire the boys. In fact, some of the townspeople reveal themselves to be sea monsters! Luca and Alberto decide not to return to the sea. Instead, Luca goes off to school in the city with Giulia and Alberto stays in Portorosso to help Giulia’s father in his fishing business.
• [PowerPoint slide 20]
  • Luca is a film that celebrates friendship, tolerance and being different. Many people who feel different from others have recognised their own lives in the film. For many Christians, the film reminds them that their true home is not on Earth but in heaven with God.
• [PowerPoint slide 21]
  • This is what Saint Paul wrote to some Christians who lived in Greece almost 2000 years ago. (Share biblical verse with the children.) But as they wait for the return of Jesus, Christians are called to come together with others to make this world as close to heaven as possible. They might do this by building houses for the homeless, feeding the hungry and healing the sick. Portorosso became a better place because Luca and Alberto came to live there. Christians have the same ambition but for the whole world.

Headings and bullets

• [PowerPoint slide 1]
  • Welcome.
• PowerPoint slide 2]
  • Where’s My Home?
• [PowerPoint slide 3]
  • Question 1: Where does a a bilby live?
• [PowerPoint slide 4]
  • Answer: desert (in Australia).
• [PowerPoint slide 5]
  • Question 2: where does a sunda colugo live?
• [PowerPoint slide 6]
  • Answer: jungle South East Asia.
• [PowerPoint slide 7]
  • Question 3: where does a whitemargin star gazer live?
• [PowerPoint slide 8]
  • Answer: water (the sea around Indonesia).
• [PowerPoint slide 9]
  • Question 4: where does a Christmas tree worm live?
• [PowerPoint slide 10]
  • Answer: water (tropical oceans).
• [PowerPoint slide 11]
  • Question 5: where does an axoloti live?
• [PowerPoint slide 12]
  • Answer: water (lakes in Mexico).
• [PowerPoint slide 13]
  • Question 6: where does a coatimundi live?
• [PowerPoint slide 14]
  • Answer: forest (South America).
• [PowerPoint slide 15]
  • Luca: a sea monster.
• [PowerPoint slide 16]
  • Luca: a sea monster AND a boy.
• [PowerPoint slide 17]
  • Luca and Alberto: best friends.
• [PowerPoint slide 18]
  • Portorosso.
• [PowerPoint slide 19]
  • A happy ending.
• [PowerPoint slide 20]
  • Luca: celebrating difference, tolerance and friendship.
• [PowerPoint slide 21]
  • Philippians 3:20.

Photo Copyright for Luca PowerPoint: Slide 1 Disney / Slide 2 forest Pixabay.com ocean Pixabay.com desert Pixabay.com / Slide 4 Bernard Dupont / Slide 6 Lip Kee Yap / Slide 8 Rickard Zerpe / Slide 10 Pixabay.com / Slide 12 Pixabay.com / Slide 14 Public domain / Slide 15 Cutewallpaper.org / Slide 16 Disney / Slide 17 image 1 Disney image 2 Disney / Slide 18 Disney / Slide 19 Disney / Slide 20 Disney / Slide 21 image 12 FreeBibleimages.org 

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RESPOND

Reflection

Where do you feel is your true home? If you could live anywhere else in the world, where might it be?

For most of the film, Luca and Roberto are literally ‘fish out of water’. When have you ever felt this way? How did you manage to feel more ‘at home’?

How might you make your home / school / community a better place for everyone?

At the end of the film, where do Luca and Alberto consider to be their true home?

Prayer

Dear God, sometimes life can be difficult and we feel that we are different from everyone else. Please help us to remember that you and many others love us just the way we are. May we learn to celebrate all our differences and help us to work together to make our homes, our school and our community a better place for everyone. Amen.

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YOU WILL NEED:

1. Luca PowerPoint.

2. Luca (Disney, 2021) certificate U, click here to buy the DVD online.