First: Opening prayer; get the children to repeat after the Spiritist volunteer. As weeks go by the Spiritist volunteers should 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 as the weeks unfold. The child’s name that starts with the letter B will do the closing prayer at the end of the session.
Second: Welcome the children into the session. Say how happy we are to see them there and how important they are for the class. Sing songs together; get the children to remain standing but in a circle.
Hello my friend,
Let’s learn and play,
We will learn about Jesus all night long!
Hello my friend,
Let’s learn and play,
We will learn about Jesus all night long!
Good morning
Good morning, good morning, good morning (say the name of one of the children)
I am so happy today. Hooray!
Good morning, good morning, good morning (say the name of one of the children)
My heart wants to say
Good morning, good morning, good morning (say the name of one of the children)
Let's all sing and play
For Nature is so beautiful and wise
Teaches us to love every day
+++ repeat this song if necessary, as every child should hear their name being sang; this will help the children to feel integrated into the group)
+++ sing other songs from the songs’ list as per attached here.
Third: Get the children to sit down into a circle. Tell them we will play the Hot potato game; this game will help us to get to know each other. The children, gathered in a circle, will toss a small ball to each other while music plays. The child who is holding the "hot potato" will have to say his/her name and something about him/her when the music stops. Ex. My name is Mary and I enjoy drawing butterflies.
Fourth: Ask the children.
* Do you know where you are? What’s this place called? Do you know what you came here to do today? Who brought you here? Listen to their answers. Tell them the name of the Spiritist centre they came to.
* What is a Spiritist centre? A Spiritist centre is a place we come to in order to learn more about Jesus’ teachings. What else? We also come to learn more about ourselves. We are immortal spirits going through a physical experience.
* What do you think we will learn about? We will learn about Jesus, who is our guide and role model, God our Creator, nature, living beings.
* We will also learn about our protector spirit. What do you think a protecting spirit is?
Fifth: Tell them the story In a Spiritist Education Class… by Claudia Schmidt. Use paper puppets to get the children to engage with the story.
Sixth: Talk about the storyTalk about the story.
* Where did Louis and Jean go? What were they doing there?
* What was this place called?
* What did we come here to do? We came to learn about Spiritism, just as the children from the story. We are studying here not just with our incarnated friends, but also with our spiritual friends who are going to join us every week.
* Did you know we have our spiritual friends who are with us to help us, to learn with us and to develop as immortal spirits?
* Did you notice the class started with a prayer? What is a prayer? What do you think? Just as the prayer in the story, every week we will start our classes with an opening prayer. To learn to pray is to learn to connect with God, our loving Father. This is why we will always encourage you to help us to do the opening prayer of our classes.
* Do you pray at home? Do you think it’s important to pray? What do you think?
* Did you notice the class in the story was related to the protector spirit? What is a protector spirit? Did you know each one of us has a guardian angel looking after us?
Seventh: Colouring activity based on parts of the story. Give each of them pictures of Jean, Louis and children praying for them to colour at their own pace.
Click here to find a picture of Jean, taken from the internet.
Click here to find a picture of Louis, taken from the internet.
Click here to find a picture of children praying, taken from the internet.
Eighth: Balloon popping activity – Give children a balloon to blow up and let it fly when the volunteer says to "FLY YOUR BALLOON." Wherever the balloon lands, is where the child will go and stand. Continue to play for as long as time allows. At the final balloon blowing time, tell children to tie their balloons and everyone will let their balloon fly up into the air at the same time. Tell children that our balloons today represent we are all part of a big spiritual family that is made of friends in both plans of life: incarnated and disincarnated. We can all learn from one another and will be able to meet on a weekly basis to learn more and more from each other.
Ninth: Get the children to help cleaning the room.
Closing prayer - 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.
Class suggested being suitable for: Nursery (3 to 4 years old) and Kindergarten (5 to 6 years old).
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
