Taking a break for the summer

We have taken a break for the summer and will be starting up again in September - our classes are for 7-8 year olds. Weekly classes will be on Saturdays (exact time tba), and we hope that everyone will still be able to make it and to enjoy each other's company each week. We have also moved house, so please email me for our new address and phone number. Although this poster is from children's classes in New York City, it describes what all Baha'i Children's Classes are about. For more explanation, you can also go to the very first post on this blog.

Hope to see you all there,
Amy
Email: stephamy@gmail.com
www.bahai.org

Trustworthiness Feb. 7 - What Happened in Class?

Today we focused on the virtue of Trustworthiness.

We told a great story about a littl e boy who was in a class that was working on calligraphy, and 'Abdu'l-Baha was taking the time to look at all of the children's work every week. 'Abdu'l-Baha would comment on the work always in an encouraging way, praising the children, and offering any help if the children needed any. The little boy in the story created some beautiful calligraphy one week, and when he showed it to 'Abdu'l-Baha, 'Abdu'l-Baha saw how beautiful it was and he praised the little boy's work and wrote a comment on it (something like, "Excellent work!"). The boy was so proud and happy that 'Abdu'l-Baha had praised his work. The next week, however, the boy realized at the end of the week that he didn't have a good quality calligraphy done to show 'Abdu'l-Baha. So instead of showing him his real work for the week, the boy took the calligraphy that 'Abdu'l-Baha had already praised the week before, tore off the comment that 'Abdu'l-Baha had written, and showed exactly the same work to 'Abdu'l-Baha. When 'Abdu'l-Baha saw the work, he said kindly, "That work looks familiar," and handed the work back to the boy without any praise, without any written comment. The boy realized that he had lost 'Abdu'l-Baha's trust by trying to trick him, and after that he never tried doing something like that again.


The kids enjoyed the story, and understood the meaning of it. Then we read a storybook called "The Big, Fat, Enormous Lie" by Marjorie Weinmen Sharmat (Unicorn Paperback). The kids really liked the story.


Because we started class quite late today, we skipped the music went straight to the craft, which was making "fortune tellers" - those paper triangle-folded games that you ask questions and then the paper reveals an answer. A sort of "searching for truth" game, however we knew it wasn't a trustworthy source to ask!

Truthfulness Reflection - What Happened in Class?

Today our virtue was Truthfulness.

Story: We told the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and it was told with extra emphasis (to keep it interesting!) as the kids shouted out "super silly sheep!" every time they were pointed to. This story is easily understood by kids and our kids were no exception. We introduced the quote from Baha'i Writings: "Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtue." We discussed the meaning of the word "foundation", and then the meaning of "virtue", because understanding these words is key to really understanding the whole quote. The kids memorized this quote.

Music: We reviewed "Doh-Re-Mi" with the hand signs and added "Fa" and "Sol". We learned that "Doh" is the foundation of the music, and then sang the word "Truthfulness" as we signed "Doh". Then we added the words "hu-man vir-tues" on the notes "Mi" and "Re" and ended with the words "super silly sheep" (just because they are so fun to say!) on "Sol". We did this a few times until we had it learned vocally, and then transferred it onto instruments. We think it helped solidify remembering the quote, but definitely that would be reinforced much better by the craft.


Craft: We decided at the last minute to make sheep pictures - we drew a sheep outline onto a blank piece of paper for each kid, and then gave them cotton balls to glue onto the picture to make a wooly sheep. The kids added faces and landscapes etc to the pictures and they were lovely! At the bottom of the picture we wrote the quote about truthfulness, and the kids took the pictures home with them. Pictures of these sheep are forthcoming, as soon as I can figure out how to get the pics off of my phone (forgot the camera today!)

January 24th, 2010 ~ Truthfulness

This week our focus is on the virtue of Truthfulness.

Story: We will tell the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" which really illustrates well for children the importance of truthfulness.

Music: We will sing "Truthfulness is the Foundation of all Human Virtues" while accompanying it rhythmically on the instruments and xylophone. Then we will continue with reading rhythms and learning solfege (Do-Re-Mi etc).

Craft: still tba

January 17th, 2010 ~ Friendliness Reflection

What happened in class?

Story: Today we had five kids ages 5-7, and the theme of our class was Friendliness. We read a book to the kids called "I'm a Good Friend" by David Parker (Scholastic). We had a great discussion about friendliness as well as unfriendliness. We brought in a quote from the Baha'i Writings: "Blessed is he who mingleth with all men in a spirit of utmost kindliness and love." We discussed the meaning of "mingleth" just to be clear, and also we clarified that "men" refers to "humans" (not just men!).

Music: We learned the song "Hello World" by Red Grammer, and we learned the sign language for it as well. Then we made a rain storm on hand drums, using dynamics.

"Hello World"

Making a sonic rainstorm

Craft: We made friendship bracelets out of beads and pipe cleaners and planned to give them to a friend.

No Class January 10th, 2010

Hi everyone, sorry that there will be no class today as teachers are both unable to be there! So hope to see you next week,
:) Amy & Sarah

Generosity Reflection : What happened in class?

We had four kids today, and the lesson on generosity was easy to connect throughout all of our sections of the class.


Story: The story was fun to hear, as the kids all had comments about the felt sheep that were being used to help tell the story! Some were missing eyes and were a bit ragged around the edges, but when the sheep were distributed amongst everyone in class the point was pretty solidly made.


Music: We carefully reviewed speaking the rhythm cards before playing them, and then transferred them to instruments. The kids should be looking at the rhythm cards while playing their instruments - thus reading the music as they play. Even though they already know how the rhythm goes, seeing it while they play it correctly reinforces their knowledge of the components of notation. We also started learning pitch with Kodaly hand signs for Do, Re and Mi and talked about which notes sound higher or lower. We sang the song "Love is something if you give it away" and talked a bit about how you end up having more love if you give love away. The kids totally got it and said some insightful things.

Learning Kodaly hand signs (Do, Re, Mi)

Stirring cookie batter

Craft: Actually today was baking, and we made oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips on top. The kids took turns stirring or adding ingredients, and then each of them had their own tray to put their cookies on. While waiting for the cookies to bake, we decorated boxes for the cookies, and the kids decided to whom they would give their cookies - giving the cookies away is our practicing generosity.

January 3rd, 2009 ~ Generosity

This week we will focus on the virtue of Generosity.

Story: We will tell the story of 'Abdu'l-Baha (as a young boy) going out to inspect his father's flock of sheep. When the man who is accompanying him tells him that they cannot leave the shepherds without giving them a gift (as his father always did), 'Abdu'l-Baha thinks carefully, because he has brought nothing to give them, and then he decides to give the shepherds the sheep as a gift. His father, Baha'u'llah, was pleased with this, even though 'Abdu'l-Baha had given away their sheep. 'Abdu'l-Baha showed great generosity towards the shepherds, and he continued to show great generosity for the rest of his life. Generosity does not always mean giving 'something', it can mean spending time with someone, making food for someone, sharing toys with someone, or just giving love. It can mean many things and we will talk with the kids about this.

Music: We will sing the song "Love is something if you give it away" (an old favourite!). Since it has been a few weeks since our last class, we'll review our rhythm cards and begin to talk about
pitch.

Craft: We'll bake and decorate cookies to take home and give away. A way to practice generosity!