Pancakes & Assemblies
Take a look at our new Pancake Day/Lent assembly here.
How about starting off by doing a poll asking students what their favourite filling is for a pancake. If you’re brave you could even get the students to stand up when their favourite one is shown on screen (you could collect pictures beforehand to show on a slideshow), or just ask a class ahead of time. There’s some quality pictures available here. You can also check out sites like flickr for some good quality photos.
Lent is a time when lots of people choose to give something up, but lots of them, and lots of young people who do this I work with, don’t really have a clue why. Take this opportunity to explore with them why we might give something up, or indeed why we might make a conscious decision to take something up - perhaps more time having deep conversations with friends, making contact with those we’ve gotten out of touch with; more time reflecting or in prayer; more time reading that book you’ve been meaning to finish for ages; more time thinking about how you want to make a positive difference in the lives of those around you this year & put it into practise! (as I write that list I realise these are all things I’d love to do - maybe I’ll try giving more time to them over lent! what are your personal thoughts for this season??).
There’s so many ways you could go in an assembly, it would be great to hear if anyone’s leading an assembly or event for pancake day. I’m not actually doing one, so don’t have time to dream up an assembly I might do, but please share your ideas or ask for advice from the community here.
So I was reflecting further about how I might personally engage more with Lent this year, and came upon a couple of resources you may want to investigate. The first one is a collection of 40 illustrations with accompanying reflections by Si Smith and Chris Goan. Really creative images, could be used in many settings including assemblies at any point in the Lent season.
Not for work in schools, this second link may be useful in a church setting, a home group or for your own personal reflections: Mustard Seed Lent Story, and it invites us to comtemplate our own Christian journey in the six weeks leading up to Easter.
Hmm, pancakes now you’ve gone and made me hungry! ;-)
Just a thought. I did an assembly this week loosely based on Lent. I actually focused on “What does temptation look like?” and talked about the fact that when give something up, you will be tempted to eat it or whatever.
I put some chocolate bars on chairs and asked half way through the assembly who had pocketed it (a few hands) and who had eaten it (no hands), proving that situation and peer pressure can have implications for self control, i.e. in assembly you know you’re not supposed to eat but also that probably no one’s watching whether you stick it in your pocket or not.
Used Mike Pilavachi’s story of the chocolate cake in the fridge (where’s your self control? Do you avoid the kitchen or do you open the fridge door?) Talked about food and anger with year 7&8;, and drugs and alcohol with year 9&10;. Year 11 coming up.
Please feel free to use the ideas.
Following this link, click ‘review book’ and scroll down to page 87, takes you to an extract from the book Multi faith activity assemblies focusing on primary school assemblies. This extract looks at pancake day ideas
I like the idea of using temptation with Pancake day. But I was thinking about going down the route of the history of pancake day. This site here has a history of pancake day The idea of getting rid of excesses to prepare ourselves for Lent, and the challenge of what that brings spiritually and materialistically. Maybe you could create a pancake with toppings such as ipods or PS3s?
Story about pancake day could be applied in assembly, or read it and reflect for yourself on the questions I added below:
Obviously Shrove Tuesday is right before Ash Wednesday…people are trying to get rid of fatty foods before Lent starts, because they give up eating fat during lent. And, so pancakes became a real tradition, a good way to get rid of fat and get it out of the kitchen at that time. And the legend goes that a lady was making pancakes on that Tuesday and she heard the church bells ringing and had to get to the Shriving Service, which is a service where you go and ask for forgiveness of your sins going into lent. She heard the bells, forgot everything else and went running to church with a frying pan in hand, flipping pancakes, with the head scarf and the apron on, so that she wouldn’t be late for the Shriving Service.
From then on, the idea of running to the church, pancakes and all, caught on, and now we just remember it as a race without the church bit.
Questions for reflection:
- Do you ever hear the call of God, and run, regardless of what you’re doing?
- Are there things you’re carrying that you think you need to finish with before you respond to Him?
- What would it be like to run, regardless of what you’re carrying & what you’re wearing. Do you dare to look a fool to the world, because you know you are being an obedient servant of God?
A scripture from 1 Peter 5 comes to mind, here is v.6-7 from the Message version: be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.
Just some thoughts!
A Lent assembly/pancake day resource will very shortly be available for download in the new Schoolswork Plus area of the site. Check back tomorrow and feel free to email a complaint if it’s not there by thursday!! Amy (03/02/09)