First: Welcome the children into the session. Say how happy we are to see them and how important they are for the class. Explain we will follow the letters of the alphabet in order to choose the volunteer for the opening prayer. So, the child’s name that starts with the letter A will do the opening prayer this time. Everybody will have the chance to collaborate as the weeks passed by.
After that, the Spiritist worker will introduce the “Raffle Box of Prayers”. In your turn, each child will open the box, choose one prayer and read it loudly for whole class. We will do it until all the kids have their chance to choose and read a prayer.
When the activity with the “Raffle box of Prayers” finishes the volunteer will collect the booklet “The Lord’s Prayer” with the children who was responsible in the previous week.
The volunteer can make up few questions, such as:
* What did you most like in this prayer;
* What could you learn during the week with the prayer and others
The children can also read the prayer for his/hers colleagues. Please note another child will be able to choose himself/herself to take the booklet home and bring it back next week.
P.S. The parents will be informed and also asked about their availability to bring the booklet next week, at the end of the class.
Second: Prayer Activity – Each child will receive a piece of paper in order to create his/her own prayer. As soon as they finish they will be encouraged to read it to their colleagues and put the prayers inside the “Raffle box of Prayers”.
Extra activity: The volunteer will bring some music instruments made from recycled materials. The kids should decorate them and sing some songs afterwards.
My God is so Big https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOdDrVnORc
Jesus love is very wonderful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaMVjO_GruA
Third: Sing songs together; get the children to remain standing but in a circle.
http://www.sermons4kids.com/jesus_is_my_best_friend_1x.pdf
http://www.sermons4kids.com/jesus_is_my_best_friend_1x.mp3
http://www.sermons4kids.com/jesus_loves_the_little_children.pdf
http://www.sermons4kids.com/jesus_loves_the_little_children.mp3
Fourth: Talk about how some things you hear about are not actually true, but make-believe.
Deciphering truth from fantasy can be tricky, especially things we see on TV. Make up a fantastic story with the children about things that could not be true – such as flying, living in the clouds, or meeting animals that talk. Explain that these stories are fun, but they are not reality (what is true in the real world). Some things we see such as shows with cartoon characters, or hear about like fairies or monsters, are not actually true but “made-up” stories. Discuss when it is okay to pretend and explain that sometimes it is important for us to tell the truth – to say what is actually real.
Fifth: Create signs and learn about discovering truth for yourself.
Make two signs which say “True” and “False”. Show the children which sign is “true” and which is “false,” and explain what the words mean. Now tell the children some things that might be true or untrue while they hold up the correct sign for what you say. You can take turns where they say things and you hold up the signs, as well. This game reminds us that we should always use our own knowledge to decide what’s true – we do not have to believe without thinking for ourselves. Sometimes we may even need to ask for help and learn new things to discover truth — such as when someone says a statement which is not clearly true or false to us (such as “I am ten feet tall” when we do not know how much ten feet is). Knowing when to ask questions, and remembering to use our minds when we hear things, is important for investigating what is actually truth.
The volunteer will bring a bag with miniature random objects, such as the following: button, cat, candle, chick, egg, flag, flower, invitation, king, lace, mop, mouse, orange, pot (clay), ribbon, ring - plain brass, white shell, spiral shell, pearl, whistle, dice, yo-yo, zip, etc. Each child will pick up an object and will need to follow the volunteer instructions. The volunteer will ask them randomly to either ‘make-up’ a story with the object or to say something true about it. The other children will need to guess whether the story was true or if it was false.
Sixth: Role play with puppets - Learn what it means to make promises and how it feels when they are broken.
Have a puppet say various promises like, “I will help you put away your toys” or “I will sing a song for you” and have the puppet perform what he said he would. Then use another puppet to do the opposite – say they will do something (such as get a snack or do a dance) and then not do what they said they would. Talk about the importance of doing what you say you will do. This is a good opportunity to review the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUbtbjJaVnI
Talk about how important it is for us to tell the truth so that people can trust us; discuss it showing how bad lying is and explaining what trust means.
Seventh: Create a storyboard - Learn about how you can sometimes be nervous about telling the truth, but that the effort is always worth it.
Draw four boxes on a piece of paper. In the first one, draw a child breaking something and feeling nervous about what would happen. In the second, draw how the child told the truth about what happened. In the third, draw how the parent reacted. In the fourth, draw how the parent helped the child fix what they broke. Tell the story to the children or ask them to tell the story using the pictures. Discuss how it can be hard to tell the truth, but that being truthful is always best. Explain that parents may be sad or disappointed by something that happened, but that they always want their children to tell the truth. A parent will do their best to help the child through a situation, and will be very proud when the child tells the truth even when it was hard.
Eighth: Activity - Learn About Me: Each child should write down three statements (for older children) or draw / cut out and stick three pictures (for younger ones) onto cards or posters. The statements or pictures should be three pieces of information about themselves, only one of which is true. Each child then takes it in turn to read them out or show them to the rest of the group and then everyone else has to guess which one is the truth.
For small children you can have a theme to help them. For example you can write on three cards “I like eating…” and then get them to cut out one favourite food and two foods they don’t like from a magazine (or draw them). Other ideas for little ones are “My family is…” (with combinations of family members), “I like playing with…” (cut out toys from catalogue), “My favourite colour is…” (using blobs of paint or pen), “I live in a…” (pasting on different types of buildings from the houses section of the local paper). Slightly bigger children can devise three versions of the same fact and write or draw them. For example they can write “My pet is a dog / cat / hamster”.
Or to stretch big kids more they can devise three totally random facts. E.g. “My aunt’s name is Jane.” “I ate a crayon when I was a baby” and “I love stripy toothpaste”.
Extra Activities:
https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/home-and-family/fun-home-and-family/fun-family-game-3-who-is-telling-the-truth/
http://www.thefoodies.org/images/February%20Telling%20The%20Truth.pdf
http://www.bbbpress.com/2014/07/drama-game-whos-telling-truth/
Ninth: Get the children to help cleaning the room; one of the children will do a closing prayer; encourage the children to volunteer for this task. If they don’t want to collaborate we could say we will follow the letters of the alphabet. The child’s name that starts with the letter A will do the opening prayer this time. Everybody will have the chance to collaborate.
Suggested activity to be given as Homework: http://talkingtreebooks.com/docs/what_is_honesty_worksheet.pdf
TalkingTreeBooks.com
stories that teach good character traits
What is honesty?
When you think of honesty, you might think “don’t lie”. But being honest also means only saying and doing
things that are truthful. Here are a few good signs that an action is not honest:
- Saying something that is not true.
- Hiding the truth because you know it’s wrong or you’ll get in trouble.
- Doing it is considered morally wrong (like cheating or stealing).
In these situations, which actions are honest?
You broke a table. Your mom asks who broke the table.
a. You tell her you did it.
b. You say you don’t know what happened.
Explain your answer:
You really want to play with a friend’s toy at your house.
a. You slip the toy in your backpack and figure you’ll put it back tomorrow. As long as he doesn’t find
out, you didn’t lie.
b. You ask to borrow the toy.
Explain your answer:
Your mom said you could play computer for 30 minutes and set a timer.
a. When the time is almost up, you secretly add more time on the timer so you can keep playing.
b. You stop playing when the timer rings.
Explain your answer:
You went to Joey’s to play, and then went to Austin’s without asking. When your dad asks, “Whose house did you play at today?”:
a. You say, “I played at Joey’s.”
b. You say, “I played and Joey’s and Austin’s.”
Explain your answer:
Closing prayer
Class suggested being suitable for: 1st cycle (7 to 8 years old).
Spiritist volunteer: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.