Suggestion for a primary school assembly Many
schools will have their own traditions in regard to a harvest festival
and ideas from the Hibbert Assembly may well be superfluous. But
for those teachers who are looking for a very simple way of marking
the harvest, we suggest this.
Take a loaf of bread, a bowl of flour and some ears of wheat to the
assembly. Remind the children of how important bread is as a basic
food. It is made from dough which is made from flour leavened with
yeast. The flour is made by grinding grains of wheat. So without wheat
we would have no bread. Farmers grow wheat, sowing it in the spring
and harvesting it in the late summer.
A good crop depends on rain and plenty of sunshine to ripen the grain.
When the wheat is harvested we show our gratitude to God for the earth
in which the seeds have been planted, and for the rain which has watered
the seed, and for the sun which has ripened the grain. We are grateful
too for the people who work on the land and harvest the crops for
us, and for the millers and bakers who provide our flour and bread.
At harvest time we give thanks for all the good things that the earth
yields - for carrots and cucumbers, for leeks and lettuces, for potatoes,
and plums, and for turnips and tomatoes. And no doubt the children
can think themselves of other fruits or vegetables that they like.
This is a moment just to be quiet and to give thanks.
