Scooped! Quaker Heritage and Friendly Flapjacks

Scooped again! Robin has already written about Saturday's Quaker Heritage Day and Sunday's Meeting/School meeting for worship followed by potluck pancake brunch.

At QHD, I took lots of notes on Brian Drayton's talk, and hope to post some of it. Meanwhile, here is a brief summary of the Firstday School lesson I did yesterday. We had 25 children; usually we have 3 to 6!

Introductions: Say your name and the name of one friend.

Objectives: Learn about the Society of Friends, George Fox, walking in the Light

Strategies:

• I lectured for a few minutes about the name of the Religious Society of Friends, referring to the passage in John 15:15, "I have called you friends." I also talked about George Fox's role in starting the Quaker movement, and how early Friends were called "Quakers" in scorn by a judge and the nickname stuck.
• We sang the chorus of the "George Fox Song." I did a handout with the full verses and chorus, with a portrait of Fox and a photo of his gravestone. (Incidentally, here's a pdf pamphlet about the song, published by Southern Quarter of PhilaYM.)
  
• I talked about how our Friend Rolene is Walking with Earth, and this is a contemporary example of walking in the Light.
• Then, as the children lined up for a simple snack of banana or apple slices, we unfurled a sheet of butcher paper across the room, over their heads. They enjoyed that.
• They traced their shoes on the paper, then decorated them.
  

Results: Voila! We had a group mural of walking in the Light.

I ran through this quicker than expected, so I improvised a query: "Where would you like to walk with your shoes?" The second and third grade boys were happy to answer with absolutely silly ideas. One 8 Year Old who shall remain nameless said he would walk to the ceiling! After each child answered, we sang the chorus again.

That took us to the end of the time. We went downstairs and fortunately meeting for worship was over. So the children walked in with their long mural and sang the chorus for the assembled meeting. That was the Affirmation, the last part of the mnenomic I use for lesson plans (IOSRA, "In our school, results appear").

Many thanks to parent W.S. who was one of my able classroom assistants -- she invites everyone to worship at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, by the way, where they also have lots of wiggly boy energy -- and to the meeting member who was the other much-needed assistant.