4 year olds – 2nd grade

4 year olds – 2nd grade

We offer Godly Play at both 9:30 am & 11:00 am for children ranging in age from 4 years old thru second grade.

Children will join their families in the sanctuary for the first 10-15 minutes of worship. Following the gathering music and prayer, two teachers will escort our children to their Godly Play sanctuary.

WHAT TO EXPECT WITH GODLY PLAY

Threshold: Each child will be greeted by a Doorkeeper and welcomed into the sacred space of Godly Play after leaving the Sanctuary.

Building the Circle: The Storyteller will invite each child to be seated on the floor in a circle as everyone gets ready to enter the morning’s story.

Story: The Storyteller will then present the morning’s story. Stories include Sacred stories from the Hebrew Bible, Liturgical stories about the church, and Parable stories from the life and teachings of Jesus.

Wondering: Each story invites children to wonder about its meaning and significance.

Responding: Following the story and wondering, children will then choose their own work. Work may include materials from the art shelves or any of the stories in the room.

Feast: Children will put their own work away and then prepare & share a feast of bread and juice together.

Leaving: Children will say goodbye and then cross the threshold to meet their parents and guardians outside the door. Parents and guardians should plan to pick up their children at the door to the Godly Play sanctuary following worship.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF GODLY PLAY

The goal of Godly Play is to teach children the art of using the language of the Christian tradition to encounter God and find direction for their lives. Jerome Berryman, who drew upon Montessori philosophies to create Godly Play, outlines six objectives to meet this goal:

  1. to model how to wonder in religious education, so children can “enter” religious language rather than merely repeating it or talking about it.
  2. to show children how to create meaning with the language of the Christian tradition and how this can involve them in the experience of the Creator.
  3. to show children how to choose their own work, so they can confront their own existential limits and depth issues rather than work on the kinds of problems dictated by others, including adults.
  4. to organize the educational time to follow the pattern of worship that the Christian tradition has found to be the best way to be with God in community.
  5. to show children how to work together as a community by supporting and respecting each other and one another’s quest.
  6. to organize the educational space so that the whole system of Christian language is present in the room, so children can literally walk into that language domain when they enter the room and can begin to make connections among its various parts as they work with the lesson of the day and their responses in art or other lessons. (from Teaching Godly Play: The Sunday Morning Handbook by Jerome W. Berryman)

OUR GODLY PLAY TEACHERS

  • Sophia Dew-Hiersoux
  • Karen Edmiston
  • Emmi Felberg
  • Jamie Garrett
  • Rebecca Hill
  • Jacob Lee
  • Emily Medeiros
  • Sam Sutherland

 

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