Happy Ayyam-i-Há!

Our last class was a celebration of Ayyam-i-Há – the intercalary days between the 18th and 19th (last) month in the Bahá’í calendar. A time of joy, hospitality, charity and gift-giving – yay!

We had prayers, songs and morning tea and then played games (egg & spoon and 3-legged races…) and face (and arm!) painting – what wonderful artists we have amongst our children!

Thanks for everyone in participating and to Lily for the beautiful basket full of surprises for every child to take home! Have a happy, joyous time!

See you all next week for our regular classes again 🙂

Grade 2: ‘Prayer’ – lesson 1 (part2)

How well the children did with their memorisation cards! We practiced the prayer again on Sunday and most of them already had the prayer memorised! Wonderful!

Following on with our theme from the previous week, we continued to look at the ‘nature of prayer’. As we ran out of time the previous week, we now worked on the drama elements of lesson 1 – practicing to use our bodies to express/imitate certain movements or animals. From grasshoppers hopping, to lions roaring, from snakes slithering to panda bears munching – I think we had it all 🙂 These exercises are a lead-in to more elaborate drama practice later, and are designed to help us control our bodies, practice movement to express certain words, ideas and concepts.

The children then finished off with a little craft activity, related to the prayer they are memorising – “I am a tender plant, cause me to be nurtured through the outpourings of the clouds of Thy Mercy” – decorating beautiful pre-cut flower shapes.

We also introduced our Memorisation Booklets, which the children get to take home every week to practice their quotes and prayers from the lessons in set 1-3 (grade 2). Each time they give it a go and try to say it off by heart in class, they receive a little sticker – yay!

Note: Next week is the beginning of the festival of Ayyam-i-Há according to the Bahá’í calendar. To celebrate this, we are planning some fun, games and a BYO-picnic at Mc Jorrow park – meet us there at 10am to share in the joy of celebration (if it rains, meet us at Ko Te Aroha instead).

Bake-off time :: Christchurch, those cookies are coming!!!

After lots of flour, sugar, mixing, rolling, cutting, icing (and some tasting) – we are happy to announce, the cookies are ready! Two ice-cream containers full to the top with Gingerbread hearts and Swiss Mailänderlis – yum! They’ll be going to Wellington on the train with me in the morning – wohooooo!

And decorating the boxes….

Christchurch – our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with you…! Kudos to all at The Great Sunday Bake-off – you go guys!!!

Next Sunday we’ll get back to our regular children’s class lessons – see you all there 🙂