Lesson 11 – Being fair, contributes to unity & harmony

We know that all the peoples of the world are meant to live in unity as one family. In a family, everyone is treated with fairness. We learn to find ways to work together for everyone’s benefit. The well-being of every member is connected to the well-being of the family as a whole. Should harm come to one member, all are affected. Similarly , we should be fair in our dealings with all those who cross our path, never taking advantage of anyone. We strive to show forth such fairness and justice in our daily lives that we become worthy of the trust and confidence of our fellow human beings. (Introduction from the Ruhi Curriculum, lesson 11, Set 4, Grade 2)

We used an activity from the Australian Peace Pack to supplement today’s lesson. Using the quote by Bahá’u’lláh:

“Be vigilant, that ye may not do injustice to anyone, be it to the extent of a grain of mustard seed.”

…we created a beautiful little piece of art – with a nest made of tissue paper, and a tiny mustard seed stuck in the middle of it. So tiny in fact, that we lost several of them until we managed to tape one into the centre of our ‘nests’. It definitely helped visualise that we have to be fair at all times, and can’t let injustice happen – even though it might only be to the extent of a grain of mustard!

For drama, we started out with warm up exercises and some playing with out voices – using the expression ‘Oh!’ in lots of different ways: as if someone had stepped on our foot; as if we’re sleepy; as if someone is giving us a present; etc…. there were some amazing sounds coming out of the children! 🙂

The scenario we enacted was based on the harvest story – the villagers have to harvest all their fruit, as big storm is supposed to come, just as they set out, the teacher approaches them, saying he needs help with fixing the school’s roof, as last time there was a storm all the books got wet. The villagers decide that some should go and help fix the roof. Then this scenario plays out in two different ways – in the evening when everyone is back from picking fruit/fixing the roof, the people who picked the fruit first don’t want to share them with everyone. In the second setting, they decide that since everyone has done something for the village they should share all the food and have a big feast.

There’s been some great acting and very creative use of props (I think it was a couple of yoga mats that were used for fixing that roof …) Well done everyone!

See you all next week, when we’ll look at another aspect of living in harmony – through co-operation.

Tread ye the path of justice…

After a lovely welcome by Lily, we learnt to sing ‘E te Atua’ (O God, guide me in Te Reo Maori). In case you would like to practice it for next time – here are the lyrics:

E te Atua

Arahina i ahau

Tiakina ahau

Whakamaramatia te rama o toku manawa

kia meinga ahau hei whetu

Tiahoaho

ko koe te kaha rawa

me te mana (x2)

The children then shared some beautiful prayers (we had some printed out and laminated for the children to use in class – download the pdf here), before splitting up into our classes. There were 13 children in 3 classes – yay!

‘Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path…” was the quote we learnt today. As part of the curriculum, we are focusing on a different virtue each week. When asked what the children understood ‘justice’ to be, we got some very insightful answers – being fair, balanced, accepting consequences… We then thought about, why the path of  justice is the straight path, and not a crooked one? …because it will get us there faster, safer and sooner!

As part of the memorising, we drew a straight path on the concrete in the playground – with lots of footsteps on it, one for each word in the quote. The children then followed the steps one by one, reciting the quote as they went – well done!

After another story about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and some colouring in, we played a game called ‘Sharing’ – where as many children as possible had to try and stand on a tyre (see pics below), without falling off, or anyone getting hurt. They all worked together real well and managed to have everyone on one tyre! 🙂

Lily teaching everyone to sing 'E Te Atua'

The children cooperating in the 'Sharing' game

Learning about being friendly - with popcorn!

Learning to sing 'Tu tiro mai nga iwi...'

The classes finished off with more songs and prayers, and the leftovers of morning tea – yum! What a gorgeous day – see you all next week…

Lesson 18 : Justice

Today we looked at the lesson on “Justice” a bit closer. Starting out with some of the explanations from the Virtues Guide. There are some fabulous examples in there about what being just really means (see pages 161 onwards). We learned, that being just is looking through our own eyes and not through others – finding the truth for ourselves. Making sure things are fair, treating everyone equally, no matter what their race, background, age or looks are.

Virtues Guide - 'How to practice justice'

 

The children practiced being just by having share out bunches of balloons. There wasn’t always an amount, that made equal distribution easy (ie. 11 balloons shared among 3) – and they came up with some very creative solutions: giving others more balloons than themselves; keeping some balloons on the side, if someone else might come along, etc.

The children were very good at sharing fair and square! Their sense of justice is fabulous!

After practicing our quote (see quote of the week) we learned the song from Book 3 “Justice is the way” (page 19, or use lyrics here, thanks to resources on http://aotearoa-institute.bahai.org.nz). We had good fun with it! Doing it in lots of different voices 🙂

For crafts, we created justice puzzles. Each child had a pre-cut jigsaw puzzle (from the 2$ shop, 4 in a packet) and drew their interpretation of the path of justice. Some very imaginative work  results!

We finished today’s lesson with the story about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, travelling from ‘Akka to Haifa in a regular coach. See pages 20 – 21 in Ruhi Book 3.

This was our last class for this term – next week is school holidays – 🙂 – see you all back on the 17th of October, same place, same time (although it will be daylight savings by then – yay!).

Lesson 3 : Justice

Today we learnt about Justice. Using material from both Ruhi Children’s Class books (3 and 3a – see lesson pdf for download) – we started out with some drama exercises, which were lots of fun.

We then moved on to act out a story, about some villagers who have to harvest their fruit, because of an oncoming storm that might destroy the whole crop. At the same time there is a leak in the school house roof, that needs fixing, before all school materials get soaked. The villagers divide into two groups – some help with the harvest and some help with fixing the roof. When evening comes around and all are tired from the hard work – the big question arises – do the roof-fixer-upers get to have some fruit as well, even though they didn’t pick it…? The children were very quick in coming up with various just and fair solutions! Well done!!

See a pdf of the lesson 3_Justice here.

Our craft then centred around keeping the balance and the virtues we need to achieve justice – we made a mobile!

It took a bit longer to get all the colouring, glueing, cutting and attaching done, so we didn’t quite manage the planned game of fruitsalad as well – maybe next time…. 🙂

See you all next Sunday when we’ll learn about … ‘love’!