Quote Scramble

If the kids are old enough to read, make quotes to unscramble. This is a great, fun way to review the quotes we've been learning.Materials:
Construction paper

Simply write the quotes out on different colors of construction paper, then cut them out. If the quotes are different colors, it helps separate them for the kids.

Some quotes we've been learning:

• "Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues."
• "O Son of Spirit! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart..."
• "Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path."
• "O Friend! In the garden of thy heart, plant naught but the rose if love..."
• "That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race."
• "Supremely lofty will be thy station, if thou remainest steadfast in the Cause of thy Lord"

World Unity

"So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth."Unity: Something whole or complete that is composed of separate parts

Summary: Using the craft activity to help explain how even though we have differences, we're all part of the same whole.
Materials:
Large paper circle: for the earth
Paper human cutouts: preferably different colors
Glue sticks: for gluing humans to the earth
Decorating supplies: colored pencils, glitter glue, crayons, etc...

(This activity would also work well with chalk outside on the sidewalk. ^__^)

I'd suggest starting by having the kids decorate the earth and simply talking about the world and all the people living here. Then pull out the human cutouts and have then glue them around the outer rim of the earth. Add the finishing touches of decoration and make sure to talk about the oneness of mankind and how even though we're all different, we're all part of the same family.

Truthfulness: Peter and the Wolf interactive story

"Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues."

Summary: When telling the story of 'Peter and the wolf', the kids act out different roles

Cast:

Narrator: A person who knows the story

Peter

The Wolf

Villagers

sheep

sheepdog

• Give everyone a role to play in the story. Obviously the most important ones are Peter, the wolf, and at least one villager. The kids act out the parts as the narrator tells the story.

"One day in a village there lived a little boy named Peter. In his village his job was to watch the sheep to make sure wolves or other animals didn't harm the herds. His parents and all the other adults and kids were very busy doing other jobs so sometimes Peter would get bored.

On a particularly slow day he decided to make it a little more interesting.

Peter yelled, " WOLF! There's a WOLF attacking the sheep! Help!"

Everyone came running from their homes and jobs to come help get the wolf away, but when they got to the fields they realize the call for help was a lie. Peter just started laughing. He laughed and laughed, because he played such a joke on everyone. Angrily, the villagers went back to their duties.

The next day, Peter went out with the sheep. Eventually, he became bored again. It was so funny yesterday that he decided to play the same joke on everyone.

He yelled, "Wolf! There is a wolf attacking the sheep!"

The villagers came running to the fields to Peter's aid only to find that again, Peter had lied. There is no wolf. Peter just laughed and laughed.

"How silly your faces are, running out here! Ha ha ha!"

Very angrily, the villagers return to their work and homes.

The following day Peter is out with the sheep. Peter began to realize that the villagers were very angry with him so he was going to behave today.

Suddenly, out from behind a bush, a wolf appeared!

Peter was so scared and yelled, "Wolf! There's a wolf here! Help!"

He looked to the village.... no one was coming. He yelled again ,"Help!"

Again, no one came.

Peter watched as the Wolf ate up all the sheep.

You see, when Peter kept lying to the villagers, they stopped trusting him. Eventually, Peter lied so many times that when he actually was telling the truth, they didn't believe him.

In the end,the Wolf tried to eat Peter to... but he just barely got away.

After that, he remembered to tell the truth."

Humility/Pride Game

Summary: Someone comes up with situations where humility or pride occurs and the kids identify which one it is by running (and some times jumping) to the appropriate word.

Supplies:

Sidewalk Chalk

Some active kids

Water: in case anyone gets thirsty

• All you need to do is write 'Humility' on one spot and 'Pride' on another, then identify a starting point (kind of like a base-camp).
• Say one of the words or a situation where the word occurs and have the kids run to it, then back to the starting point.
• Take turns coming up with situations such as at school or at home.

For example:

At school, Lucy loves to run and often tells everyone else how she is the best runner. Better than everyone else. What is this an example of?

Over at Mark's house, Mark's mom makes the best cookies! Everyone knows it, even if she doesn't tell them they are. What is this an example of?

The Tortoise and the Hare: coloring book page

The story of why the tortoise beat the hare in a race is a great lesson about humility. Made this coloring book page to go with the story.

Feel free to download and use.

Quotation Poster

A quotation poster is something a kid can decorate and hang in their room. In this scenario they are quotes we started to learn in previous weeks.
Supplies:
A large piece of paper
Favorite quotes written or printed. (It helps to have them pre-cut out for quicker application)
Glue sticks
Decorating supplies: colored paper, pencils, crayons, stickers, etc...
(Oh my goodness they love glitter-glue o_O)

Simply glue the quotes onto the board and then decorate. You can use string to hang them as well.... or to attach quotes to the board as you can see below.

Virtue Tag

Virtue tag is very simple. It has the exact same rules as Freeze Tag, but to unfreeze your team-mate, you need to come up with a virtue.

For example: Andy gets tagged by the person who is 'It' and freezes in place. When Andy's friend Carly runs up to unfreeze him she yells, "Honesty!" Or some such virtue.

Another note is you're not allowed to say the same virtue twice in a row.

Pretty straight forward but a nice way to review what has already been learned.

Making cards for others...

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself

to the service of the entire human race."

Sadly, I didn't have my camera on me during class today so I'll just post images for a general idea of what I'm talking about. :(

Supplies:

Construction paper
colored pencils, crayons, or markers
glue sticks

Optional:
Stickers

Since service was the lesson of the day, we first ran through some flash cards and spoke about the importance of helping others.

As timing would have it, there's a Baha'i holiday coming up called Ayyam'i'Ha so we had the kids make greeting cards for their loved ones.

In summary, before the class, I prepared however-many blank cards we expected the kids would go through as well as wrote out the greeting or quote onto pieces of paper that could be easily glued into the card.
While in class, they glued the greetings into the cards then decorated them with markers, stickers, or even wrote additional messages. Sign the name of the artist, and you're done!

The kids' cards were adorable with things written like, "I Love Mom, from Jon" as well as additional drawings and stickers. They were super-excited to give their parents the cards after the class.

This is a LINK to the Gold Star Legion ( self-named junior youth group ) that got together to make cards and chocolate chip cookies for a retirement home as a way of spreading sweetness and celebrating Ayyam-i-Ha.

Service Flash Cards

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself
to the service of the entire human race"

To begin learning about what service is, I made some flash cards that illustrated examples that the kids could relate to in their everyday lives as well as asked them for ideas of their own.

For each service-oriented card, I made a complementary one that illustrated the effect of not assisting in some way.

For example: for helping to put toys away both in the classroom and bedroom there was an image of messy rooms. For holding the door open for someone, there was one of a guy walking into the door. For helping doing the dishes, there was a leaning tower of dishes in the sink.

In the end, we flipped through the cards and it was a bit of a game for them to identify the acts of service. Overall fun and the kids were super-sharp thus running through the game fairly quickly.

An idea for later would be to take pictures of the kids, themselves, helping out and making flash cards in their own image.

This idea was along the lines of 'Good Idea, Bad Idea' from the Animaniacs. Classic.

Rose of Love: coloring book page

"O Friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love..."

This coloring book page comes from Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 4.
About which, more information can be found Here.
All copyright goes to them.

For an activity that uses this particular coloring book page: Click Me!

Flowers in the garden of your heart

"O Friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love..."

Supplies:

Construction paper: cut into heart shapes large enough to paste flower cutouts onto

Print outs: of the rose coloring book pages

Coloring supplies to decorate the flowers

Glue sticks

Optional:

The kids went crazy over the colored glitter glue

Before beginning the project, be sure to review what the quote means and the importance of having love in the garden of your heart (as well as other virtues) as opposed to awful things like hate and jealousy.

(a more thorough suggestion for explaining this concept can be found in this activity)

Have the construction paper cut-outs ready to go when you begin the activity.

The kiddos decorate and beautify their flowers.

Help them cut out the flowers if needed.

Paste/plant in their heart-gardens.

Include the quote they're trying to memorize

And voila! Gorgeous roses of love in the garden of their hearts.

A special thank you to Aileen for organizing this activity!

^__^

Planting roses of love

"O Friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love..."

Supplies:

Different color paper petals with virtues written on them (flower petals)

Pipe-cleaners (flower stem): 2 pipe-cleaners per stem, twisted together for stability

Paper cups (garden of thy heart)

Optional:

Heart and/or flowers stickers (for easy decorating of garden, ie. the paper cup)

Large buttons or ring-shaped bead (for center of flower)

Paper cut-out leaves (additional decoration)

Before beginning the project, walk the kids through the quote and explain its meaning.

For example: "If your heart was a garden, you would only want to plant nice and lovely things because it would grow into the most beautiful of gardens. Lovely things like love, justice, and kindness. They would grow into the most gorgeous flowers. The more virtues and good plants, the more beautiful the garden will become.

If you were to plant not nice things such as hate, violence, or greed, it would be like planting weeds in the garden of your heart."

Have the kids decorate the gardens (the paper cups) with hearts and flowers (stickers) to begin the planting process, always relating it back to the idea of virtues being beautiful and ideas such as hate being weeds.

Show them the different color virtue petals and have them pick out their favorite ones. Thread the virtue petals to the end of the pipe-cleaner stem always leaving about a 1/2 inch from the end of the stem.

**Suggested:

Twisting two pipe-cleaners together per stem for stability as well as for final button decoration.

Cutting small holes into each of the petals prior to the activity.

Makes it easier for the kids when constructing the flower**

Once all the petals have been added, take one of the large buttons or bead rings, thread the stem through (preferably made of 2 pipecleaners) and secure by bending the stem.

Add a green leave or two onto the stem.

Punch a hole into the top of the decorated paper cup (garden) and plant the now beautiful, virtue-colorful flower. It may help to wind the stem inside the cup a bit because they're usually longer than the height of the cup, as well as gives it a bit more weight on the bottom.

Pure, Kindly, & Radiant Heart: coloring book page

"My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart."

Please feel free to download this coloring book page and use,

as long as it's not for profit.

Copyright belongs to Lauren Kvalheim

Justice, as it relates to 5 year olds.

Basically "Justice" is "Fairness" so to be able to explain that to a 5 year old child would mean to explain it in the simplest form using examples they can relate to.

Justice means to be fair. Is it fair if someone hits you and does not get into trouble? Is it fair to take someone else's toys without asking? Is it fair to get a time out if you do not listen to your mom or your teachers? What happens if you hurt someone else? What would be fair or just?

I would first have a discussion with the kids asking them about different scenarios that they can relate to.

To make it visual as well, you could print out several images or draw a few scenarios ahead of time (pictures of them maybe, or other children) and ask the kids to come up with 'just' consequences.

"What happens if you take something without asking?" and ask them how what happens helps them decide how to act. "What would be fair? Should the child be sent to his or her room?". "How does being a 'fair' person make you a better person? What virtues make you 'fair'?"

Help them come up with scenarios that have happened to them when justice or fairness came into play.

(ex. An older brother shared his Halloween candy with his baby sister because she had none.

"When I was little sometimes I took cookies when I wasn't allowed to because I didn't finish my dinner. But because I was taught that telling the truth was important, when my mother asked me if I took the cookies, I told her I did. And it was fair that she sent me to my room, because I wasn't allowed to take those cookies.") or something along those lines.

Then maybe you could choose their scenarios, write them on paper, and then have them draw themselves in that scenario.

Preferably have the quote you're trying to memorize written on the paper as well.

In this case it was: "Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily is the straight path."

Then simply color in and there you go. Activity accomplished and lesson learned!

And an insanely special thank you to Dana who made this lesson plan possible.