Standing
Committee on Education Children's
Religious Education Programs
Dear Expediters,
Thanks very much for giving us the name of the new RE contact person for your meeting! This month three of you have let us know that you are stepping down and want to pass the RE contact responsibility on to someone else (with their consent, of course).
In a couple of months, you will receive a Yearly Meeting Curriculum packet, which is being created right now by the CYPYM Committee. Please set aside three or four weeks between February and March 21 (the beginning of Yearly Meeting) to teach the lessons and make a banner on the topic of Losses and Findings.
The Nifty Idea this month has directions for a timely gift, due to AFSC by the end of this month, which will help those who have been affected by the war(s) in Afganistan
Marty Smith, editor
martys@pym.org
Site Search Group Looking for Travelers
At the end of this past summer’s Yearly Meeting Sessions at DeSales University, Friends minuted their wish to look for an alternate RYM site for 2003, if that was possible, or for 2005. This initiative arose because room allocations (especially for the children’s program) and room maintainance at De Sales University have been problematic, and because a site in another part of the Yearly Meeting might be accessible to more Friends or a different group of Friends. In order to find a RYM site in time to prepare for RYM 2003, the Site Search Group hopes to finish its work by the Spring of 2002. To do that, this tiny group of four needs some help. Would you be willing to help us out, especially in traveling with one or two of us to the most promising RYM sites, which meet the criteria, in the next few months? Please give me a call 1(800) 220-0796, # 7008 or e mail me at martys@pym.org Many thanks!What to Do About Christmas
Do you have a plan for a Christmas pageant, story, or lesson, which gives the meaning of Christmas in a Quaker context? If the answer is no, here are some ideas for you:
Teach a lesson on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” from PYM RE’s, Doctor Seuss for First-Day Schools (p. 20). This lesson emphasizes how to simplify Christmas to its essence and explains why Friends did not originally celebrate Christmas.
The curricula mentioned above can be borrowed from the PYM Library by phoning 1 (800) 220-0796, # 7220 or purchased from Friends General Conference bookstore at 1 (800) 966-4556.
Spice Up Your Teen First-day School
Recently I have tried with success to enliven my lessons for teens by occasionally changing the sequence of the lesson. For example, right at beginning of the lesson, I might do “get-acquainted” games, review games, or worship-sharing, and then launch into the main “meat” of the lesson. This idea was recently reinforced in the May, 2000 issue of Group Magazine in Five Ways to Spice up Your Teaching. The authors suggest that “when you add “spice” to the way you teach, your teenagers will learn more, and you will fall in love with teaching all over again.” This is what you can do:
Buzz spice - divide into groups of two or three teens (if you have that many), assign a leader, and have the kids respond to a set of questions, a Bible passage, discussion topic, and ask them to report back.
Object spice - after you have prepared your lesson, pick an object, which exemplifies the idea you are trying to teach. Use the object as part of your lesson.
Role Reversal - ask the class to take five minutes to study a Biblical passage, a poem, or song which you give to them and to come up with three questions. Call on one or two students to use the questions to quiz one another about the facts or meaning of what you gave them.
Trip spice - get out of the First-day class space occasionally, meet with other teens in another meeting; meet in a home, or take a field trip.
Role-play spice - teach the lesson you planned; leave 20 minutes at the end . Ask the class if they can figure out the idea or truth you were trying to get across. Then ask them to role-play it.
(From May 2001, Group Magazine)
Middle School: 6th-8th grades
January 18-20, 2002: Middle School Friends Peace Gathering, at Princeton Meeting (NJ). We will learn how to cope with, face, and transform difficult situations creatively through a humor workshop and a shortened Alternatives to Violence training. Cost is $45.00. For details or to register, call or E-mail Melanie Douty at (215) 241-7171; melanied@pym.org.Young Friends: 9th-12th grade (or 14 by September 1)
December 27-30, 2001: Seeking Community, Using Silence Christmas Retreat, at Burlington Conference Center, Burlington Conference Center, Burlington, NJ. Part of the retreat will be spent in silence. Arlene Kelly,
clerk of PYM, will lead a workshop on Community Building and Brenda Macaluso (London Grove MM) will lead a “Sacred Sound Drumming” session. Young Friends will learn to play without words, and learn to communicate without words. Cost is $60.00, with scholarships available. Car pool lists will be sent out on Dec. 17. Call or E-mail Cookie Caldwell for details at (215) 241-7222; cookiec@pym.org.
December 2001
Blankets for Afghan Refugees with a Child’s Touch.Recently, American Friends Service Committee sent out an urgent request for blankets, quilts and sleeping bags in excellent condition needed by December 31st, which will be shipped to Afghan refugees. What follows is how Goshen Meeting’s First-day School responded creatively to AFSC’s call:
First they bought bolts of fleece and blanket fabric wholesale and cut them into blanket lengths. While lessons about Ramadan and Islam were being taught to a class of 3rd – 6th graders, a blanket length was laid out on a large square table, and the children over-casted (whip-stitched) or blanket-stitched the edges with many colors of embroidery floss. Because the edges of the fabric didn’t unravel, folding under and hemming was not needed. But children’s stitching made the lengths look like blankets, which have some love put around them.
Betsy Balderston of Goshen Meeting writes, “If the class doesn’t get all the way around the edge, no problem; an adult can finish if so inspired.” Betsy also mentions that, “It helps a lot if the teachers/adults thread many needles beforehand with three strands of floss and make sure that BOTH ends are knotted together. Otherwise you spend so much time re-threading needles. Embroidery floss comes in six strands, which can quite easily be separated into two sets of three; it is a lot easier to thread three-strand floss than six-strand.”
When the blanket(s) are completed, send them to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479. Or deliver to the address above between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Thank you, Betsy and other teachers from Goshen Meeting, for involving children so creatively and constructively in this very worthwhile and timely service project.
Published by Religious Education Concerns Group, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Office: 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Marty Smith: (215) 241-7008 (E-mail: martys@pym.org);
Cookie Caldwell: (215) 241-7222 (e-mail: cookiec@pym.org);
Melanie Douty: (215) 241-7171 (e-mail: melanied@pym.org);
Mary Anne Crowley: (215) 241-7221 (e-mail: maryc@pym.org);
Gene Hillman: (215) 241-7182 (e-mail: geneh@pym.org)
or: 1-800-220-0796, with the appropriate extension number.
Last modified: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 at 04:23 PM
