AGE: Juniors |
THEME: End of Term |
AIM: |
| In the context of the end of the school year, when some children are leaving, to encourage consideration of the fact that all things change and move on. To reflect on the Christian belief of forgiveness and hope for the future. |
RESOURCES: |
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DEVELOPMENT: |
| On a stage, or other open space, identify three areas. Each is marked by an arrow facing in the same direction with a large notice above. The three notices read 'PAST', 'PRESENT' and 'FUTURE'. There is one person standing in the PAST area, facing towards the side, away from the present. One person stands in the PRESENT area, facing the front. Another person stands in the FUTURE area, also facing away from the present (i.e. both PAST and PRESENT are facing outwards). Three characters walk on and stand in the 'PAST' area. They are wearing masks of different shades of pink to represent different degrees of embarrassment (see 'Resources' above). After walking on the spot for a moment in the 'PAST', they move into the 'FUTURE' area and stop. They start to talk among themselves, improvising or acting out a conversation to suggest that they are really embarrassed. They can be embarrassed by anything - girls/boys, exam results, appearance, other people's expectations. After a short while, they stop. LIGHT PINK MASK: Oh no! What are we going to do? I'm so embarrassed. MID-PINK MASK: You're not as embarrassed as I am! DARK PINK MASK: NOBODY is as embarrassed as ME! ALL: (Shouting) What do we do next? MID-PINK MASK: We could go back to the past and try again... PERSON IN THE PAST: NO ENTRY! NO WAY BACK HERE! DARK PINK MASK: We could just stay here - perhaps no-one will see us. PERSON IN THE PRESENT: MOVE ON, MOVE ON, NO WAITING. YOU'VE BEEN HERE LONG ENOUGH! LIGHT PINK MASK: No rest for the wicked! ALL MASKS: HELP! PERSON IN THE FUTURE: Who's there? We're waiting for you! DARK PINK MASK: But we can't come! We're too ashamed of ourselves! PERSON IN THE FUTURE: Well you certainly can't stay there. Just think what would happen - but you still haven't told me who you are. All I know about you is that you are ashamed of yourselves. I'll just have to look for myself. PERSON IN THE FUTURE: (turning around and walking to the three masks) Tell me about yourselves, then. PALE PINK: I got off the bus at the wrong stop and everyone thinks I'm stupid. MID-PINK: I got the wrong answer in the maths test. DARK PINK: I put my shoes on the wrong feet. PERSON IN THE FUTURE: Hang on a minute. I asked you who you were - and I can't hear you behind those masks. You'll have to take them off. MASKS: (Loudly) NO! NO! WE CAN'T! (The characters all throw their hands up and freeze.) (Pause) LEADER: So what will happen now? Have you ever felt like that, scared that someone will find out something about you, fed up because you feel no good at anything? It may be something at home or school that made you feel that way, or a scar from an accident or words that hurt you. Sometimes you feel as if things are going to go on like that for ever. But things don't usually stay the same for ever. This term, for example, is nearly at an end. Maybe you feel happy, maybe you feel sad. If you are going on to a new school you may be worried about how you will get on in the subjects you are not so good at, or whether you will do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Even very confident people - the ones who seem good at everything - get bothered about the future sometimes. Jesus is interested in the sort of people we really are, not what we think we are, or what other people say we are. He said that we don't need to be worried about the future, and that whatever we have done in the past can be forgiven if we are sorry about it. Whether you have had a good term or a bad term, there's a new future waiting for you if you want to move into it. |
PRAYER AND REFLECTION: |
| Ask the children to focus on the sort of person that they would really like to be, not just a footballer or a pop star, but someone who has special qualities: kind, confident, thoughtful, strong, or brave, for example, perhaps like someone they know. Then invite them to think silently for a moment about how they could become the sort of person they would really like to be. Finish by suggesting that they continue to think about these things during the day - only at appropriate moments, of course! |
MUSIC: |
| 'Father, I place into your hands' (No. 42 in Junior Praise (Marshall Pickering); No. 133 in Mission Praise (Marshall Pickering); and No. 97 in Songs of Fellowship (Kingsway Music).) |
FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES: |
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