KS2 Assemblies and Collective Worship. Together: Christmas - the Christmas journey

School Radio > Assemblies and Collective Worship
KS1 audio: Something to Think About / KS2 audio: Together

Programme content:

Voxpops: Children share where they travel to at Christmas, who they are going to see and the means by which they will get there
Song: ‘Mary had a baby’ (Come and Praise, no 123)
Story: Ruth the Innkeeper’s Dog by Gordon Lamont
Reflection: Children take a moment to think about the special journey that first Christmas and reflect on how they feel on a journey.

Pre-programme questions:

• Are any of you going away this holiday season?
• Where are you going and to see who?
• What’s the furthest that some of you have been before and why did you go there?
• How do you feel when you go on a journey?
• How do you think Mary and Joseph felt when they went on the long journey to Bethlehem?

Story synopsis:

Ruth is the dog of Daniel - the innkeeper - and she’s a bit smarter than him too. She spots a tired-looking couple with a baby due any minute at the door of the inn. She leads them round the back of the inn to a stable and introduces them to all her friends. Later a baby boy is born to the couple; however, in all the excitement caused by singing coming from the sky, Ruth forgets to find out what the baby’s name is.

After the story:

• How would you describe Ruth the innkeeper’s dog?
• What journey did she take in the story? (The journey towards Mary and Joseph and round the back to the stable)
• How was that journey important?
• Do you think Mary and Joseph expected to stay the night in a stable? How do you think they felt about it?

Follow-up activities:

• Ask each child to write a story about a journey that they’d like to go on one day. Ask them to include details about an interesting mode of transport that they took and to mention what they learnt on the journey.
• Arrange the children into pairs and get them to remember two journeys that they’ve taken in the past. Ask them also to make up a story about a journey that they’ve taken. They should tell each other their stories and the partner then guesses which ones are true and which one is false.
• Arrange the children into groups and set them the task of creating a treasure hunt journey around the classroom. The objective of the treasure hunt is that the person taking it discovers something new.