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.