First class – new lessons, Grade 2: ‘Prayer’

With the first class of the new year, we introduced the new lessons for Grade 2 from  the Ruhi Curriculum. In this level, the lessons are structured slightly differently: there are 7 units of 3 lessons each. Each unit concentrates on one theme, which is then looked at in 3 sessions.

Our first theme is PRAYER. Looking at the what, why and how we pray. Understanding that it is a way to communicate with God, expressing our hearts desire and love.

The children memorize a new prayer for each unit. To get started with memorising the first one, we created little prayer cards: each one has an image on the front and the appropriate section in words (illustrated in the image) on the back. Using the images as triggers to remember the words, the children will committed to memory all the words very soon.

Stories and Drama are another integral part of the Grade 2 lessons. We are planning to put more emphasis on the storytelling quality this term, bringing props, pictures and energy into it as well. We didn’t quite get to the drama itself as we ran out of time. We’ll catch up next Sunday.

Thanks to everyone for making it such a wonderful start to the year – all the help and support we get from the community and the many smiling faces of the children, make it the best place to be on Sunday morning 🙂

Lesson 15 : Trust in God

This is the last lesson of the Ruhi Book 3 programme – and a beautiful way to round up everything we’ve learned. Putting our trust in God and committing our affairs into his keeping.

The word ‘affairs’ took a bit of exploring with the children – what are our affairs? Are they the things we think about, worry about, get caught up with….? Our fears, our longings, everything that keeps our minds, hearts and souls busy? We figured that there isn’t one correct answer, and maybe they are different ‘things’ for different people.

The children learned the quote of today (see box on the right) in record time. Well done everyone! We then moved on to do some arts/crafts – a beautifully decorated prayer, which we attached to a little paper stand, so we can have it our our night tables, or where we can see it easily.

With the children’s amazing track record of memorising, we might need to tackle the prayer from the art activity next time… 🙂

We finished our lesson with a story from Ruhi Book 3 – about a father (Sina) and his son (Habib), travelling together to visit some Baha’is in a village far afield. The travel was hard going, the weather miserable and on top of it all Sina got sick. His son took him to a village where they knew noone, but were warmly received and looked after. It turned out, that the whole village was Baha’i too, and all ended well – an example of how when we put our trust in God, he will be there to help and guide us.

Have a look at today’s lesson here – or check out the ‘Lesson’ page.

Next week we will start with lesson 1 again (Unity) exploring many more ways to learn about the virtues and principles taught in them. See you all then! 🙂

Lesson 14 : God’s love – our stronghold

….after some beautifully read prayers by the children, we started our lesson today by discussing what a ‘stronghold’ is: Castle, houses, safe places, mosquito nets, moats… a whole lot of ideas came up. 🙂 We then looked at today’s quote by Bahá’u’lláh, where the word ‘stronghold’ came from:

“O Son of Being! My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.” 

Does that mean, by having God’s love in our hearts, we are safe and secure, like in a stronghold/a castle/a safe place…? We certainly think so. And because God’s love is with us no matter where we are, we felt that is definitely a comforting thought.

Our craft for today was making a House of Peace, a stronghold, where we can be safe and happy – have a look at the busy work of the children (you can download a pdf of the house craft here if you’d like to replicate it):

 (sorry, I forgot the camera again – the mobile phone pics are just a bit blurry….)

After crafts, we read the story about the 3 little Fish, from Ruhi Book 3 – always a favourite with the children, and then finished off with singing “Blessed is the spot” again. Even our youngest participant, really got into the music part of class 🙂

See the whole lesson here – or check them out on the Lesson Page, where you’ll find all pdfs. Have a fabulous week everyone and see you next Sunday!