The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity - more by Jason Gardner

Hotshots: Take the Risk?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:28:23 +0100

Title: Take the Risk?

Preparation:

Four cans of food – 3 normal eg fruit salad, one dogfood. Remove labels and number the cans 1-4. Two spoons, can opener, hat.

Activity:

Play tin can roulette with 2 volunteers, they have to pull numbers out of a hat and taste the contents of the corresponding tin.
Stop when someone gets the dog food – don’t get them to actually eat it unless you do the old ‘swap’ trick ( take the bottom off the can, empty it of dog food, wash it and fill it with blackcurrant jelly and mars bar chunks then reseal the bottom as carefully as you can with selotape)

Hotshots: The Real Thing

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:25:17 +0100

Title: The Real Thing.

Preparation:

One disgustingly cheap cola and one quality i.e. Coke or Pepsi.
Have a table ready on stage and two plastic cups, one marked A one marked B, pour one of the colas into A, one into B.

Activity:

Get two volunteers up to the stage to do the taste challenge saying:
‘Who thinks they’ve got what it takes to spot the real thing from the fake, the genuine article from the copy?’

Hotshots: The Language of Love.

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:22:41 +0100

Title: The Language of Love.

This assembly focuses on sex and is aimed at older year groups.

Opening Illustration:

This work’s best with powerpoint. Display ways of saying ‘Hello’ from different languages, Hint - go to www.wikihow.com/Say-Hello-in-Different-Languages
Accompany this with some upbeat or appropriate music. Eg, Scissor Sisters version of comfortably numb begins by repeating ‘hello.’

Hotshots: Self Worth

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:19:52 +0100

Title: Self Worth

Preparation:

One envelope containing a two pound coin, one envelope containing a 2p coin. On the envelope with the £2 coin write clearly ‘what is in here is definitely worth more than anything I’m going to offer you.’ Both coins should be padded within the envelope so your volunteers can’t feel what they are. And 2 bags containing one of each 2pence sweets, 10p sweet, 50p chocolate bar.

Hotshots: Odd One Out

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:16:46 +0100

Title: Odd One Out

NB works better with lower high school years 7-10

Preparation:

You will need two types of same flavour crisp – one ‘quality’ eg Walkers Cheese’n’onion and one cheap brand. Open one of the bags at the bottom – cheap brand would be better and empty contents replacing them with salt’n’vinegar crisps and resealing with clear selotape.

Hotshots: Getting your Goal.

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:14:03 +0100

Title: Getting your Goal.

Talk:

What’s the best excuse you’ve ever used for handing in a piece of homework late?

How about the dog ate it? My little sister scribbled all over it or if it’s maths homework how about ‘I came up with a mathematical theory so incredible that genius Stephen Hawkings is still looking into it?’

Or how about this one ‘My homework’s late because I’ve been playing computer games for the last three months.’

That’s not likely to get your teacher to give you an extension but it’s actually the excuse that famous Scottish author Iain M Banks once used. Take it from me, he is famous. He missed the publisher’s deadline for finishing one of his novels because he’d got hooked to playing the strategy game Civilisations. In fact he was so hooked he had to take the games discs and snap them in half so he couldn’t use them!

So what’s stopping you from achieving your goal in life? Your goal may not be to do your homework well but maybe it should be. But how about if you want to be a great musician? What’s getting in the way? Too much time on the Playstation and not enough time practising your instrument?

Well here’s a story of someone who’ll stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
Barbara Haddrill is intent on living an environmentally friendly lifestyle. When she was asked to be a bridesmaid the other year for a friend in Brisbane Australia she realised that flying there would produce 5.2 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

So what did she do? She took the bus instead. Well several buses, and a few trains and a boat. First to London, then to Moscow by coach, more coaches and a train to Shanghai and a boat from there to Brisbane.

It cost her four times the air fare and the journey was 49 times longer than flying, but that didn’t put her off. Because even though she took all those trains, coaches and a boat her journey only produced 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide.

You might think she’s taking a great stand against the pollution flying causes. You might just think she’s nuts but you have to admire her for not letting anything get in the way of her achieving a life goal.

So think about what’s getting in the way of you achieving your goal? Could be computer games, could be friends who encourage you to play up in class when you actually want to study.

Think about it. What steps do you need to take in order to become the person you really want to be?

Further Illustrations:

Hotshots: Facing Challenges

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:11:34 +0100

Title: Facing Challenges

Preparation:

Two cleaned out Yoghurt cartons into which set a nice flavoured jelly. Two bamboo sticks of equal length – at least 1.5 metres. Attach a teaspoon to the end of each - gaffa tape is the easiest method. Create a gaffa tape handle of about a hands width at the opposite end from the spoons.

Activity:

Hotshots: Dedication

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:08:25 +0100

Title: Dedication.

Preparation:

3 mini remote controlled cars, Powerpoint slide show featuring British formula One driver Lewis Hamilton (use variety of images with at least one from his go-karting success aged 14, a picture of a remote controlled car and a picture of a McLaren formula one car).

Activity:

Get three volunteers and get them to have a race with the remote controlled cars. (hint: if you think racing with the cars is too risky/ time consuming then use wind up snails www.initialideas.co.uk/product.php?prid=271) If you want to create a bit more atmosphere why not hook up a camcorder to a data projector and show the race on the big screen?)

Hotshots: Changes

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:03:10 +0100

Title: Changes

Activity:

6 volunteers, 3 to remain in hall and take up a freeze position, the other 3 study the ‘models’ before leaving the hall. The 3 left in the hall then make 2 changes each to their appearance, one subtle and one obvious (i.e. uncross legs and take off tie) the rest of the audience can help them choose what they should do but make sure they do so quietly.

Hotshots: A little bit of Hard work…

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:41:15 +0100

Title: A little bit of Hard work…

Preparation:

This works better with a Flipchart or a huge piece of paper.

Write four attributes in a row across the top leaving a margin on the left hand side: Gifted/ Hard Work/ Beautiful/ Lucky.

In a column down the left hand side write: Professional footballer, Bank Manager, Supermodel, Nurse, Pop star, politician.

Summer of Dross.

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 20:12:19 +0100

So far this year’s Blockbuster films have failed to impress, so says Jason Gardner

I don’t ask for much from my summer popcorn fests: Scintillating action sequences, eye-popping special effects, seamless CGI, riveting chase scenes, credible plot twists and characters that make you weep, laugh and dread the moment the credits start rolling. So maybe my standards are a teency bit high but if we can moan when £100,000 a week football stars fluff penalties surely we can gripe when multi-million dollar blockbusters miss the mark too.

Hotshots: Value It

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:33:16 +0100

Title: Value It

Opening question & Comment:

‘If your house was on fire and you could rescue one thing ( not person) from your room, what would it be and why?’

When there is a tragedy such as the terrorist attack on the twin towers, people don’t call people to have a go at them, or to tell them how much they dislike them. They phone people they love to leave messages of hope. Because when it comes down to it, when the pressure is on, we realise what we really value.

Hotshots: Religion and Media

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:30:49 +0100

Title: Religion and the Media

Preparation:

You’ll need powerpoint or keynote for this.

On the internet find a negative headline about young people that includes a big photo of young people up to no good eg being arrested (a search for ‘UK teens worst in Europe’ should bring up a headline from The Sun). Copy the page and headline into powerpoint (best way to do this is by pressing ‘Print Screen’ on your keyboard – PrtSc – then switch to powerpoint and paste). Now paste over the ‘nasty’ photo a ‘nice’ picture of teenagers – do google image search for teenagers.

Hotshots: Relationships

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:26:45 +0100

Title: Relationships

Activity:

Get two friends to volunteer and ask them if they think they know each other well. Then get one to go out of the assembly hall/ room (or use noise protector ear muffs for more impact!) then ask the following questions:

NB remember to remember their answers!

Hotshots: Preferential Treatment

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:24:31 +0100

Title: Preferential Treatment.

Preparation:

Carton or can of drink, Doughnut or selection of sweets, shoe shine kit.

Talk:

Begin by introducing yourself and where you are from but whilst your doing this single out a member of the school audience (front row) for preferential treatment. First say ‘you’re looking a bit thirsty’ then offer them a drink, then carry on introducing yourself but stop again shortly to say ‘you look a bit hungry, can I offer you a doughnut or some sweets?’ then interrupt yourself again to offer to clean their shoes.

Then go on to say: