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!
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.
+++ please find an additional list of songs attached here.
Third: Get the children to sit down into a circle. Tell them the story called Esther and the Moon using the drawings suggested. The drawings were created by Carmen Samuel, volunteer worker from the Spiritist Group Seara do Mestre.
Full Moon
New Moon
First quarter Moon
Last quarter Moon
Fourth: Ask the children questions about the story
* Who created the moon and the stars? God, our loving Father, created them.
* Have you ever observed the sky by night? Can anyone count all the stars in the sky? When you look at the night sky you can see many beautiful stars. If you are out in the country or camping in the mountains or the desert away from the city lights, you may see thousands of them. In a town or city, you can't see nearly as many stars because the city lights create a glow in the sky masking many of them.
* Did you know that the majority of the stars are not visible to us because they are far, far away from our planet Earth? There are several different kinds of stars in the sky. Some are very big.
* Did you know that a couple of stars have been found that are 100 to 200 times larger than the sun? Some very old stars are smaller than the Earth.
* What's the moon? The moon is a big ball of rock that goes round and round the Earth.
* Did you know the sun and the moon are always in the sky at the same time? But because the earth twirls around the sun and the moon twirls around the earth, the sun can sometimes shine only a little bit of its light on the moon's face.
* In the sky at night we see lots of tiny dots of light. These are stars.
* What is the purpose of the stars, according to the story?
* We learn that they are made up of very hot gases that would burn you if you ever got close to them. They are like big balls of fire. What’s fire?
* We find out that they are the suns, like our sun, but some are even bigger, hotter and brighter and the reason that they look so small is that they are really, really far away.
Fifth: Show the following video called ‘What's the moon?’ to the children, which can be found on YouTube, from HooplaKidz TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYvKMPXXZQE.
Ask the children what they think about the image of the moon. Sing the song Zoom, Zoom, Zoom with them. Please find the lyrics here below:
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
We're going to the Moon
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
We're going to the Moon
If you want to take a trip
Climb aboard my rocket ship
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
We going to the moon
5,4,3,2,1, Blast off!
Sixth: Show the following video called ‘What are stars?’ to the children, which can be found on YouTube, from HooplaKidz TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_Hf7BdLOo8.
Ask the children what they think about the images of these different stars. Sing twinkle, twinkle little star with the children. Please find the lyrics here below:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Seventh: Show the following video, which can be found on YouTube, about The Tale of the Sun and the Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoWFJ690U6E.
Note: "The Tale of the Sun and the Moon" is a lullaby about why the sun is up during the day and the moon is out at night.
Eighth: Give each child pictures of the moon, the stars and the sun for colouring. Give them also a picture of a spacecraft and make a paper doll out of it. Get the children to sing ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’ & ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ with their paper dolls.
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.
Note: Please find an activity, which can be used during this class or given to the children as homework here.
Closing prayer
Class suggested being suitable for: Nursery (3 to 4 years old) and Kindergarten (5 to 6 years old).
Spiritist volunteer: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.