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| Collective Worship: Together |
Programme 5: Water
Themes: the power of the elements, division, trust
Preparation for the programme:
Focus object: a bucket and mop
Focus image: to display a dramatic series of pictures of the Carlisle floods from the BBC Cumbria website click here.
Programme contents:
Feature: Children from Stoneraise Primary School in Carlisle tell us about the floods that hit their area during January 2005.
Song: Come and Praise 2, 82: 'It's the springs'. Verses 1 and 2 only.
Story: The monkey who made a flood
Prayer: thanks for water, and praying for people caught up in floods.
Pre-programme questions:
Can you name the elements? (Water, fire, air).
What do you know about them?
Water and fire are very powerful; we can't live without water and air. What do you know about the qualities of water (every living thing on earth needs water; a lot of water is very powerful and can cause damage - e.g. the Asian Tsunami on 26/12/2004 or flooding when there is a lot of rain, or melting snow.)
Story synopsis: The monkey who made a flood - adapted by Kate Stonham.
Each day Rhema picks oranges, apples and mangoes to take back home to the village - so long as the monkeys don't get to them first. At this time all the animals are able to talk to one another and are friendly with humans, except the monkeys. They love playing tricks - and the most mischievous is called Ato.
One morning when Rhema is out collecting fruit she passes the Great Tree and sees water flooding like an angry river from the roots. She knows that she has to do something or everyone in the village will suffer, so she makes a basket of reeds, puts it over the roots and stops the flow. But as she leaves, Ato is watching. Thinking that Rhema must have hidden the best fruit under the basket he pulls it away and the water begins to gush out again.
As the animals and humans seek shelter in the tallest coconut trees they begin to argue about whose fault the flood is. Rhema shouts at them to stop, telling them they needed to help each other to survive.
Thick clouds form under the tree so to test whether the water has receded Rhema drops a coconut from the tree each day...and on the fourth day they hear the sound of it hitting mud.
The villagers light a fire and invite the animals to join them, but don't include the monkeys because they distrust them. The other animals are not happy at the monkeys' exclusion. 'If you don't trust them, how do we know you won't turn on us next?' they ask and one by one they turn their backs on the humans.
From that day on everyone has only mixed and talked with their own kind - all because of the monkeys' foolishness.
Story questions:
Have you experienced a flood like the one in Carlisle , or the one in the story? Has it changed the way you think about water?
What lesson is the story trying to tell us? (It is a parable about relationships and also the strength and power of water).
What could the humans have done to make the situation better with the animals after the floods went down?
In ancient stories the flood is often seen as a sort of warning or punishment? Is this the case in this story?
Activities:
The children in the feature described the effect of the flooding in Carlisle - 'as three rivers burst their banks during torrential rain there were vans floating in the water, people trying to get around in boats, the electricity went off so people had to use candles and many were made homeless.' Using this information make some triptych pictures. On the left side, show the way water is essential for the life of humans, other animals and plants. On the right hand side draw a picture showing the power of water, perhaps drawing the flood in Carlisle . In the middle invent a symbol for water which recognises both its power to give life and to destroy.
Invent some experiments to show the power of water.
Weblinks:
Click here for the BBC's weather pages.
Click here for information about the Water Cycle (from BBC Schools Online).
Click here for some dramatic pictures of extreme weather conditions.
(The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites)
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Listen to an extract from the series
Come and Praise 1