Lesson Objectives: educate the children that all people have a physical body and a spirit. We care for our Spirit when we have good attitudes, study, obey parents, wish good to our neighbours, we participated in Spiritist Education classes, forgive, respect our neighbours. When we die, it is only our physical body that dies; the spirit is still alive.
Greetings and Opening prayer
First: asking students to name examples:
01 – Things they can touch, see and feel (e.g. any kind of matter: chair, table, clothes).
02 – Things we can see; some even feel it, but we can’t catch (e.g., smoke, water, light, clouds, fire ...).
03 – Things that we can hear but can’t see (e.g., music, thunder, voices, sounds different.).
04 – Things that we feel and we know exists but can’t touch or see (e.g., air, wind, gases, electricity).
05 – Something that we know exists but can’t see, hear, feel or touch; a few people can see in fact due to their mediumship (Spirit).
Note: to apply the above exercise, the spiritist teacher should start with question No. 01 and ask someone to write down all the correct answers on the board, and so on in numerical sequence of questions, always giving time for the children to respond correctly.
In question 05; if they don’t know the answer (or even before answering), the spiritist teacher shall give tips so they can discover the correct answer.
Tips for question No. 05: Whoever knows the answer should write down on the paper that was received previously from the spiritist teacher. This person should wait until the spiritist teacher tells if the answer is right, staying silent until the others discover for themselves the correct answer.
1st Tip: they live everywhere.
2nd Tip: they are different from each other (perfect or pure, good and imperfect).
3rd Tip: It's the intelligent part of the body (it is he who thinks, feels and speaks.).
4th Tip: When born, it reincarnates (incarnated: souls lined with a material body in order to evolve).
5th Tip: When you die, you disincarnate (only the physical body dies, because it is still alive).
6th Tip: It is immortal (never dies).
Note: It is likely that children will get it right soon; in this situation the spiritist teacher should read the tips and ask whether they agree/understand that these are characteristics of the Spirit.
Second: show them a deflated balloon. Ask if it’s possible to play with it when it’s withered? What must be done so that we can play with it? Fill the balloon with air. Can we see what is on the air balloon? What does the physical body need to be able to work on Earth? The Spirit.
After the questions the spiritist teacher should fill a balloon until it pops and then relate the Spirit with air, and the body with pieces of bladder:
What happened with the air that was inside the balloon? It still has the same properties.
What are the pieces of the burst balloon? Does it have any use? It is decomposed in nature or is recycled.
Note: the Spirit goes to the spiritual world and continues its evolutionary trajectory; the physical body decomposes, serving as food for small worms. It doesn’t rise, it doesn’t return to life.
Third: explain that we are made of body and spirit. We do not see our spirit as we do not see the air inside the balloon. What gives life to the body is the spirit, which is immortal. When we die; that is, disincarnate, our spirit is still alive. What we take with the death of the body are our attitudes, thoughts and feelings. We don’t take with us, however, material goods (our notebooks, bicycle, doll, computer, TV, our house).
Fourth: ask:
How can we care for our spirit? We can care by having good attitudes, thoughts and feelings.
Give examples of positive attitudes: be friends, always speak the truth, obey parents and teachers, study, participate at Spiritist Education Classes, be peaceful (not fight), or even help when asked or without being asked, be a helper in class, pray, apologize, forgive and respect others.
Fifth: ask if the spirits are all alike, explaining the Different Orders of Spirits as stated in The Spirits’ Book (questions 96-113).
Are all spirits equal or does there exist among them a hierarchy of ranks? They are of different degrees according to the degree of purification to which they have.
Explain the classes:
1st Order: Perfect or Pure Spirits. General Characteristics: The influence of matter null; a superiority, both intellectual and moral, so absolute as to constitute what, in comparison with the spirits of all the other orders, may be termed perfection. E.g. Jesus.
2nd Order: Good Spirits. General Characteristics: Predominance of spirit over matter; desire of excellence. Their qualities and their power for good are proportionate to the degree at which they have arrived. They strive to combat their imperfection.
3rd Order: Imperfect Spirits. General Characteristics: predominant influence of matter over spirit. Propension to evil. Ignorance, pride, selfishness, and all the evil passions which result from these.
Sixth: asked the children how they imagine the awakening of spirits is in the Spiritual world? It will depend on the evolution of the Spirit:
If we are good and do our duties, we retain good memories; we will be happy.
If we are bad and we don’t fulfil our duties, we will be unhappy and feel sad.
Seventh: Give each child a copy of the Theatre play Good Person Ask them to read, organize, rehearse and present it later on. You can also invite a group of young people to present theatre for children or count as history.
Note: Another suggestion is to tell the story and comment on The two young boys.
Eighth: after the theatre presentation, the children should say the conclusion they reached about the story.
Ninth: collective learning assessment. Please ask them these questions out loud.
01 – Why does the Spirit reincarnate? To learn to love, to evolve, getting closer and closer to God, our Father.
02 – When born: we reincarnate.
03 – When there is the death of the physical body: we disincarnate.
04 – Which's the intelligent part of the body? The Spirit.
05 – Where do the spirits live? They are everywhere. They populate the infinite spaces.
06 - How are they classified? Perfect or pure; good and imperfect.
07 – How do they wake up in the Spiritual world? If we are good and fulfil our duties, we retain good memories, we feel happy. If we are bad and we don’t fulfil our duties, we will be unhappy and sad.
08 – Why is the Spirit immortal? Because when someone disincarnates, it’s only the physical body that dies. The spirit continues to live in another dimension.
09 - Are we body or spirit? We are spirits and have a physical body.
10 - Who is reborn many times? The same Spirit in other bodies.
11 - What is a soul? It's how we call the Spirit when incarnated. The material body is temporary, because the physical body is temporary (mortal, for a short period of time) for the Spirit.
12 - Why do we say that the body is transitory home (mortal; for a short period of time) for the Spirit? Because the Spirit is always the same; that is, we are spirits and received a different physical body in each reincarnation.
Tenth - activity: complete sentences.
Click here to print the activity.
Note: you can find other activities in the other classes on "Spirit - the existence and survival."
Closing prayer
Class suggested being suitable for: 1st (7 to 8 years old) and 2nd cycle (9 to 10 years old).
Suggested lesson received from Sandra Ramos Medeiros, Spiritist Center ‘Fé, Amor e Caridade’ - Campo Grande/MS.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
