First: Opening prayer - The Spiritist Volunteer will bring the book LEARNING HOW TO PRAY - A BOOK OF PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN by Elsa Rossi. The following story will be told:
‘Prayer for the Love in the World
Dear Jesus,
My Dad always starts to pray by asking for protection for the world.
I want to do just like him and ask you to protect the world and to make love grow in people’s hearts.
May love be the smile in everybody, the joy of life and this way we all can be good neighbours and live in harmony?
Please Jesus, help the world to progress towards love!’.
Second: Welcome the children into the session. Say how happy we are to see them there and how important they are for the class. The Spiritist worker will introduce a box of prayer after the prayer and will ask for one child to volunteer himself/herself to read the prayer for the class. Please ask the child to say his/her words as well, as to complement the opening prayer.
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: Get the children to watch the following videos and see what their reaction is as we go through the video.
I Take Turns: Teaching Children the importance of Taking Turns from Affies4Kids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ8MIikc-SU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbrOmOJ0Fx0
In this story, Bunny struggles with self-control and is caught not taking turns. Bo prompts him to watch the frogs play on the lily pads, each taking turns so they won't fall off. This sparks Bunny's curiosity, and as he watches, Bunny understands the importance of solving his problem. He ends up learning how to cooperate with his friends.
In I Take Turns, kids will learn about:
Self-Control
Curiosity
Cooperation
Problem Solving.
Fifth: Get them to retell the story and talk to the children about the video
* What happened?
* Who are the characters of the story?
* How do you think Bunny behaved?
* Is this the right way to treat a friend?
Sixth: Activity - Get the children to create one of the characters of the story with construction paper.
Seventh: Activity - Pass it on! Pass an object around the circle. Each child has to make a comment about
it, taking care not to copy what others have said (this also supports good listening!).
Eighth: Rule bound - In circle time discuss the rules of conversational turn taking. For example: look at the person who is talking to you, don’t speak when they are speaking, don’t change the subject, use verbal fillers e.g. ah hah, umm, ok, to show you are interested and only interrupt when really necessary.
Ninth: Feely bag - Equipment: Bag, range of objects that are not to obvious in shape (e.g. fircone, brush, remote control etc). How to play: Children sit in a semi-circle in front of you. One object is placed into the bag without the children seeing it. The bag is passed round the circle, with each child having a feel. Encourage the children to think in their heads of what they think the object is but to remain quiet until everyone has had a feel in the bag. When the bag has gone round the circle, you say ‘hands up anyone who thinks they know what was in the
bag.’ One child is then chosen to make a guess, and guessing continues until someone guesses correctly.
Tenth: 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
Closing prayer
Class suggested being suitable for: Kindergarten (5 to 6 years old).
Spiritist volunteer: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.