This looks great. Animoto is a web application that allows you to create great looking movie trailers and music videos, just by uploading photos and selecting some music. If you're not up to speed on your final cut pro or don't have hours to research movie editing for your next assembly, why not visit this site....it does it all for you!!
This is a great story from Tony Buck who posted this on the community blog a few months ago. A presentation in keynote, powerpoint and quicktime formats has now been added to complete the resource.
Ever been given that age old assembly topic of friendship? I've used this story in lots of schools with very positive results. I came across this in the resource section of Youthwork Magazine, summer 2006 - I tied it in with the football world cup in Germany. I shared this story with some of the other schools workers at the youthwork conference early day this year.
Earlier on this year, Tearfund and Scripture Union joined forces to develop a brilliant resource aimed at school Christian groups. It has been developed to help those groups raise money to fight HIV around the world.
Do you use a lot of photos in your work and don't have the money for istock pictures? Here's a great site, with thousands of free pictures, highly recommended.
World Fair Trade Day is an international celebration of Fair Trade internationally, with events organised worldwide. On and around the second Saturday of May every year, IFAT (International Fair Trade Association) member organisations based in 70 countries, along with Fair Trade shops and networks, host events including Fair Trade breakfasts, talks, music concerts, fashion shows and much more, to promote Fair Trade and campaign for justice in trade. Fair Trade products from marginalised communities in the majority world, including coffee and tea, clothes, jewellery and beautiful handicrafts will be showcased on this day. Many events continue throughout the month of May.
This US video from Creature Comforts is a brilliant take on self image that would be a great element in a lesson or assembly. The comments are from a wide range of Americans and, although most are adults, it's got lots of interesting quotes that would fit into something for teenagers (and maybe even primary too?).
'Children Talking' is a web-based database of pupils' responses to key questions raised in RE, with a search facility and the option for pupils to add their own responses to the original questions. What that means is that you can get a list of quotes about a whole range of subjects from young people in the UK. And you can specify the age, gender and religion of the children or young people you want to hear from. Their comments could be really useful as part of an assembly or lesson.
Each month schoolswork.co.uk provide assembly and lesson resources in Youthwork magazine. In the February 2008 issue of Youthwork magazine, the schoolswork.co.uk resource page has a secondary lesson on forgiveness. Here's the game 'Can you forgive everything' that's part of that lesson.
Each month schoolswork.co.uk provide assembly and lesson resources in Youthwork magazine. In the March 2008 issue of Youthwork magazine, the schoolswork.co.uk resource page has a secondary assembly on bullying. Here's the set of slides that accompany the assembly.
This is an illustration that works well as part of an assembly or even a group or club. You'll need a can of drink - Coke or whatever is your fancy - and a thick sheet of card, hardboard or plywood. Whatever you use, it needs to be solid enough to be pushed and pulled without breaking, so if you end up using card, get the thick mounting board from an art shop not cardboard. The sheet needs to be about 70cm square. To set up, you'll need to cut a perfect hole in the board exactly the same diameter as the can. This is the bit where patience and some useful tools come in handy. If it's card, then a sharp art knife may do the trick. For hardboard or plywood, it's a quick trip down to the local timber merchant to ask them if they'll do it for you. (It's more hassle but what you end up with will last a lot longer than card).
To tie in with the beginning of Lent and Shrove Tuesday, here are some pancake facts for assemblies:
The first recorded pancake race was in Olney, Buckinghamshire in 1445.
'Shrove' originally comes from the archaic English verb 'to shrive' which means to absolve people of their sins. It was common in the Middle Ages for 'shriveners' (priests) to hear people's confessions at this time, to prepare them for Lent, as priests do today.
The largest number of pancakes tossed in the shortest amount of time in the UK is 349 tosses in 2 minutes (Dean Gould at Felixstowe, Suffolk, 14 January 1995).
The Re:Jesus site has a section looking at famous followers of Jesus, many of who would make a great topic for an assembly. One of the most dramatic is the life, and death, of Maximilian Kolbe. Jesus once said that no one could have greater love than for someone to lay down his life for his friends. He has always been a tough act to follow, but there have still been people willing to follow the example of Jesus, even to the extent of dying in someone else's place. Kolbe is one of those people.
Crowd Control is a Christian company based in the US producing simple but very visual games designed to be played on a big screen at an assembly or youth group.
An assembly adapted from Oxfam's award-winning role-play resource for ages 13+. Using the life of 25 year-old sweatshop worker Mara from Cambodia, students learn about:
The assembly lasts around 15 minutes and has a teachers' script and a PowerPoint slideshow. It can stand alone, or could be used to introduce topic work around globalisation.
In 2006 BBC Newsround produced a series of incredible films, The Wrong Trainers, about young people living in poverty in the UK. Using the voices of real young people, the films use animation and carton characters to tell their stories visually.