Submitted by
S. Daly

Age Group
7-11

Aim
To appreciate God's creation of sand
To hear about Moses
To learn about being patient and waiting for what we want

Resources
A seaside display, e.g. sand, bucket and spade, pebbles, starfish, net, driftwood etc. An ornament containing different coloured sands. Egg timer. Glass ornament. Medicine ball. Sandpaper. Bowl. Cork. Water. Sand pictures.

Time of Year
Summer

Script
1. Good morning.
Today's assembly is about sand. Yes - sand! At this time of year, we are looking forward to our holidays. Many of us will be going to the seaside and will enjoy one of God's creations - sand.

2. Sand is amazing. Man could never have invented it. Here are some facts about sand.
60% of the earth's crust is silica. Wind, rain and frost break this up. The softer minerals become clay. The harder quartz becomes gravel or sand, depending on size. A grain of sand is smaller than a millimetre.

3. Sand contains different minerals, like gold, zircon and garnet. This is why sand comes in different colours. Iron oxide makes it yellow. Quartz makes it silver. Gypsum makes it white. At Alum Bay, on the Isle of Wight, there are sands of many different colours, like the ones in this ornament.

4. Sand has many uses.
It makes a soft landing area for high jump and long jump.
It can help you tell the time in an egg timer.
It can be mixed with washing soda and limestone to make glass.
It can strengthen your stomach muscles in a medicine ball.
It can put out a fire, by stopping oxygen reaching the flames.

5. 55 cm of sand in a sandbag can stop a bullet.
Sandbags can also help to stop flood water going into a house.
Mixed with cement, it can help build a wall.
Sandstone itself is strong enough to build cathedrals.
Stuck to paper, it can be used as sandpaper or in bird cages.

6. Sand is heavy and does not dissolve. If you mix sand and bits of cork together in a bowl, you can separate them by pouring in water. The cork will float because it has lots of air in it. The sand will sink because it is heavy. (Demonstrate.)
A kilogram of sand looks like this. (Show.)

7. Sand and glue can be used to make sand pictures. (Show.)

8. It is fun to play with on the beach and in sandpits.
Lots of things can live in sandy areas, like: palm trees, marram grass, camels, lugworms, seaweed, starfish, rabbits and gerbils.

9. Sand can be found in many places, like: seashores, riverbeds and deserts.
A desert is a place which has less than 25 cm of rain a year. The rain is not steady, but comes in sudden, violent storms.
A quarter of the earth's surface is desert. Some are cold deserts, near the North and South Poles, covered in rock and ice.
Some are sandy places near the Equator - hot during the day and cold at night because there are no clouds.

10. Famous deserts are: the Gobi Desert in Asia and the Sahara Desert in north Africa.
There are now roads and oil pipelines going through the Sahara.
Hot air from the Sahara helps to warm Europe. Sometimes the wind carries sand from the Sahara and drops it in England. We can see it on our cars.

11. People can live in deserts. They usually wander around with their animals - and are called nomads.
Someone who spent a lot of time in the desert was Moses.

12. Moses was an Israelite. When he was a baby, his mother hid him in a basket and put him in some reeds in the river.
She did this because the Egyptians were killing all baby boys born to Israelites. They used the Israelites as slaves, but were worried because there were too many boys, who might one day fight the Egyptians. Moses was rescued by an Egyptian princess and grew up.

13. God promised the Israelites a new country for themselves. He made Moses their leader. According to the Bible, Moses was 80 when he left Egypt. He took one million people with him, including his sister Miriam and his brother Aaron.

14. It took 40 years for the Israelites to find their new country.
While wandering in the desert, God helped them find water and sent them manna from heaven - a kind of flat bread.
He also gave them the Ten Commandments, which we still live by.

15. When Moses was 120, he found the Promised Land - called Canaan.
He saw it from the top of a mountain and then, sadly, died. But the Israelites had been saved.

16. Dear Lord, thank you for sand and all the fun we can have with it. Amen.

17. Dear Lord, thank you for making us clever enough to use sand.. Amen.

18. Dear Lord, please help us to be patient like Moses. He had to wait 40 years for what he wanted. When we want something, help us to work for it and to wait if necessary. Amen.

19. We will now sing "When Israel was in Egypt's land" (Celebration Hymnal for Everyone number 803)