What's included in the A Solstice Story Whole School Assembly PowerPoint resource and why is it useful?

A Solstice Story Whole School Assembly PowerPoint is a slideshow that uses a story about two friends, Sunny and Frost, to explain the summer and winter solstices. The content includes 9 slides with teacher notes, covering why the Earth's tilt gives us long and short days, the Summer Solstice, the Winter Solstice, balance, a solstice chant and a reflection. It links to science learning about seasonal changes.

The Story of Sunny and Frost

Sunny loves long summer days and Frost prefers short winter ones, until the Earth explains how her tilt creates both, with questions such as "Which do you prefer - long summer days or short winter ones?"

The Summer and Winter Solstices

Why people gather at Stonehenge in June and light candles and fires in winter, with a chance for children to act out the Earth tilting and the question "Can you think of any festivals that use light during winter?"

Balance and Reflection

A short chant for everyone to join in with and a reflection on "What can we learn from the solstices about balance in our own lives?"

How do our whole school assemblies work?

Our whole school assemblies are PowerPoint slideshows that follow a similar structure: an introduction, questions to get children thinking, the key points of the topic and reflection time. They're paced to suit a primary school assembly and work best on a whiteboard, projected out to the hall. You can use them:

• as a whole school assembly, from EYFS up to KS2
• as a class assembly
• as a teaching PowerPoint when you want to cover an event or topic in your own classroom

The majority of our assemblies include teacher notes and guidance to support delivery, and because they're pacey, you can adapt them to however long your assembly lasts.

Adapting the Assembly for Your School

Every assembly is editable, so you can add, remove or change slides to suit the needs of your school. We cover religious events, seasonal topics, values such as kindness, friendship and tolerance, science, history, PSHE, music, significant people and sporting events, so you can choose the assemblies that fit your school year.

Supporting Learning at Home

Families can carry the conversation on at home by asking children about their assembly: what they heard, how it made them feel and what they think about it.

You can explore more of our whole school assembly resources here.