Lesson Objective: make the children aware that your physical body is the source of life. It deserves affection and special care so that it can fulfil our learning in the earth.
Opening prayer
First: This is the time of the class whereby the Spiritist volunteer may present further explanations about the text that’s related to the physical body. This could be done with the aid of puppets or even through questions in which the answers can be found in the text. This will encourage the children to participate, exposing their ideas. (I opted to ask them questions since on the previous week we worked with the following class: Body - divine gift V – The Spiritist volunteer can use the feature of mime when the children don’t know how to respond to the questions asked, for example. Other elements from their day-to-day life could also be used; make sure they relate to the questions asked, to enable the children to answer them correctly).
Click here to find the text.
Click here to find suggested questions.
Second: Tell the children a story related to this topic. We chose the story called The sloth by Célia Xavier Camargo for this lesson. You can find this and many other stories split into different topics at the following link Stories (Drawings).
Third: activities.
Suggestion – drawing activity: taking a shower, washing hands, combing hair...).
Fourth: caring for the physical body. Reinforce their learning.
What type of care should we have with our physical body?
Hygiene care: bathing, trim nails and have a haircut to maintain a good appearance; brush your teeth when you wake up, before bed and after meals; wash hands before meals, when you go to the bathroom, get home from the street or whenever they are dirty, etc.
Wear shoes: to avoid worms and microbes to enter the physical body, causing diseases; it also prevents nails and glass to hurt our feet.
Nutritional care: eat only what you need, without excess. Eat healthy food, vegetables and fruits; aim to eat many kinds of food. Remember that eating well does not mean eating too much. Avoid sweets as much as possible (chocolates, candies, snacks).
Care for our Health: take care of our hygiene and nutrition; be careful not to hurt ourselves when playing, avoid excessive sun, take all vaccinations, practice sports in order to exercise our physical body helping it to grow healthy and strong. Go to the doctor as well as the dentist regularly to prevent possible problems. There could be other attitudes that contribute to preserving the health of the physical body that could be mentioned here.
Care for our mind: read good books and magazines. Watch programs that are proper for our age: children's movies and cartoons (the Spiritist volunteer should explain what the most appropriate programmes are, highlighting the danger of watching violent programs as well as playing violent games on the computer). Mental hygiene is very important for our health.
Fifth – group dynamics: the Spiritist volunteer should bring a cardboard paper with the drawing of a tree. Make sure the title “Tree of Wishes” is written on it. Show the drawing to the children and ask what it portrays.
Place the cardboard paper on top of a table and ask for the children remain seated until one by one come over to make his/her wish. The way you could call the children can be made by stature or by calling in alphabetical order of names.
The Spiritist volunteer should place in the branches of the tree several types of fruit and some goodies, such as candies, lollipops and chocolates. Make sure this is done when placing the poster on the table. You should then start calling the children; each must complete the sentence: "I wish to eat..." and remove from the tree what he/she wants.
The Spiritist volunteer should warn them that they can only take one thing from the tree each and eat it at the end of the class.
When everyone is already holding what they requested, the Spiritist volunteer should ask each child individually about the choices made and if what was chosen is good for their physical body. After all children present their opinions, the Spiritist volunteer should ask what type of care we should have with a tree. Compare our physical needs with the needs of a tree; that we need to grow strong and healthy to produce good fruit.
The Spiritist volunteer should reinforce the importance of always opting for natural foods that bring more benefits to our body. Tell them the bad side of some foods that sometimes we prefer, but that are great enemies of our physical body.
Sixth: Playing and putting into practice what was learned. The Spiritist volunteer can choose a game in which everyone can participate. Later on, talk to the children about the usefulness of each part of the physical body; after the end of the game.
Suggestions:
01 – Guessing games: the child who wishes to go ahead will try to imitate one of things we can do to care for our physical body; the rest of the group will need to guess what it is.
02 - “Follow the leader”: a child carries activities that are related to caring for the physical body and the rest of the group mimics.
Click here SPIRITIST TEACHER - EXCHANGING EXPERIENCES to find tips related to the class.
Here below you will find links where pictures for colouring could be downloaded from:
Click here to find the picture of a child sleeping.
http://www.mabilee.com/2009/08/desenhos-sobre-higiene-para-oferecer.html
http://educarpartilhando.blogspot.com/2008/03/higiene-do-corpo.html
http://higienecorporalpedagogia.blogspot.com/2009/06/atividade-ludica-vamos-colorir-os.html
Closing prayer
Suggested Class being suitable for: Kindergarten (5 to 6 years old) and 1st cycle (7 to 8 years old).
Suggested lesson received from Sandra Ramos Medeiros, Spiritist Centre Fé, Amor e Caridade - Campo Grande/MS.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
