Spring Godly Play Club Week 3

Unsere 3. Woche zusammen fing mit einer Frage an: "Was ist das allerbeste Geschenk, das du mal bekommen hast?" This week we began with a question: "What is the best present you've ever been given?"

"Mein Roller".  "My scooter".
"Meine Barbie". "My Barbie".
"Mein Leben". "My life".
"Meine Freunde". "My friends".

Meine Freundin, Jessica, war zu Besuch und erzählte uns die Geschichte. Sie sagte, dass manche Gottes Geschenke so groß sind, dass wir sie kaum wahrnehmen können. Oft müssen wir einen Schritt zurück machen oder sogar bis an den Anfang gehen um sie richtig zu sehen . . . Dinge wie z.B. Licht, Wasser und grünende, wachsende Lebewesen. My friend, Jessica, came to tell the story this week. She explained that some of God's gifts are so big that we have to take a step back or even go back to the beginning to notice them. Things like light, water and green, growing things.

Nachdem wir die Schöpfungsgeschichte vom 1.Mose Kapital 1 hörten, stellte Jessica den Kindern ein paar Fragen. After the children heard the Creation Story from Genesis 1, we asked them some more questions. 

Welcher Tag gefällt dir am besten? "Der Tag, an dem Gott die Menschen und Tiere schenkte." 
Which day do you like best? "The day where people and animals were created."

Welcher Tag ist der wichtigste? "Der Tag, wo wir Wasser bekamen, weil ohne Wasser können wir nicht leben." 
Which day is the most important? "Where water was created, because we couldn't live without it."

Welcher Tag erzählt etwas von dir? "Der Tag, an dem es Fische gibt, weil mein Goldfisch hat Babys bekommen!"
Which day tells something about you? "The day on which animals in water were created, because it reminds me of my goldfish who had babies."

Welcher Tag könnte man weglassen und trotzdem alles haben, was wir brauchen? "Den Ruhetag!"
Which day could we leave out? "The day of rest!"

Wir haben diese Woche eine neue Station: das Stempeln mit frischen Blättern. This week we added a new station for  Response Time, printing with spring leaves.

Wir haben die Kindern gebeten sich vorzustellen, was die Blätter-Stempeln sein könnten. Im Bild unten malte das Kind Feuer, eine Tür, und einen Igel mit einem Apfel auf dem Rücken! We encouraged the children to imagine what the leaf prints could be. In the picture below, the child drew fire, a door, and a hedgehog carrying an apple! 

Die Pfingstgeschichte von der vorherigen Woche kam in manchen Kunstwerken vor. Unten sieht man Jesus bei der Himmelfahrt und das Feuer von Pfingsten. The Pentecost story from last week was present in many of the children's artwork this week. Here we see Jesus' ascension and the imagery of fire from the day of Pentecost.

Hier sehen wir wieder Feuer in diesem Blätter-Bild. 

Again we see fire in this child's leaf painting.

Die Sonne macht einen Kopfstand!

On another note, here we have the sun doing a headstand!

Noch ein wunderschöner Vogel mit Nest.

Another beautiful bird and nest.

Ein Kind guckt die Schöpfungsgeschichte näher an.

Here a child takes a closer look at the Creation Story.

Es gab Brownies und gelbe Paprika zum Fest!

We feasted on brownies and yellow peppers at the end.

Wir hatten so eine tolle Zeit zusammen gehabt!

We had so much fun in this club that we were sad to see it come to an end!

Spring Godly Play Club Week 2

Diese Woche wollten wir Pfingsten, den Geburtstag der Kirche, ein bisschen 'reinfeiern, da wir uns nach dem Feiertag nicht mehr treffen werden. Obwohl Pfingsten ein offizieller Feiertag ist, wissen viele Berliner ganz wenig vom Hintergrund der Pfingstgeschichte; deshalb wollten wir mit den Kindern in die Geschichte eintauchen. Since our Godly Play Club will come to an end before Pentecost Sunday, so we decided to go ahead and start thinking about this story today. Pentecost is a much over-looked holiday, and many people here in Berlin are unfamiliar with its background, although we get two free days off from school.

Unsere Erzählung handelte von Himmelfahrt und Pfingsten, als Gott den Heiligen Geist geschenkt hat und die weltweite Kirche "geboren" ist. Wenn ihr mehr über die Reaktionen der Kinder lesen möchte, dann schaut mal her. Our story focused on Jesus' ascension in to heaven and the Day of Pentecost when God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit and the worldwide church was born. For more details on how I told the story and the children's responses, please see this post. 

Nach der Geshichte haben die Kinder Aktivitäten ausgesucht um weiter über die Geschichten der letzten 2 Wochen nachdenken zu können. Beim 1. Angebot konnten die Kinder Muffins verzieren zum Geburtstag der Kirche. (Wir haben sie nachher beim Fest aufgegessen!) After the story, the children began to choose activities to help them process what they have been hearing.  One activity involved decorating cupcakes to celebrate the church's "birthday". We then ate the cupcakes during our feast!

Andere Kinder malten weiter mit Ölkreide.

Several children drew pictures with oil pastels.

Wir haben auch weiter gemacht mit den Vögeln und Nestern aus Ton. At another station, the children worked on their birds and nests sculpted from clay. 

Andere Kinder haben an die Nähcollagen gearbeitet. 

We also continued our sewing collages.

Das letzte Angebot war mit dem Material von der Geschichte zu spielen. Dieser Junge kam auf ganz interessante Gedanken als er die Filzstreifen und Spielfiguren umgeordnet hat. And other children wanted to explore the story materials more in-depth.

Noch eine Woche!

One more week to go!

Experimenting with the Pentecost Story

Okay, Godly Play storytellers, see something strange in the picture above? 

"The Mystery of Pentecost" ("Das Geheimnis von Pfingsten" in German) is a story that I've written extensively about it on this blog in the past. First of all, the German version of the story is quite different from the original English version. Secondly, in my experience younger children or children who aren't very well acquainted with GP have verbally expressed their discontent with the use of the apostle's shields rather than real figures in the story. 

Jerome Berryman writes that his decision to use the apostles' shields instead of People of God figures is to give the story, which is by all accounts difficult to understand, a parable-like approach. I understand this and see the reasoning behind it, but I do question whether this is the best way for younger children or children new to GP to experience the story. I've also heard some of my other colleagues here in Germany express the same sentiment. 

When planning this year's Spring Godly Play Club, I knew that none of these children had heard this story (in Godly Play form) before, and only a third of the kids were familiar with GP at all. So I decided to experiment. I decided that I wanted to try telling the story with People of God figures rather than just the apostles' shields. However, I do think the apostles' symbols are important to see and know about, so I wondered if I could use both, unsure of whether or not the use of both would be distracting. 

The German version of this story starts out with Jesus' ascension rather than the Tower of Babel analogy. Jesus gathers with the disciples on the Mount of Olives. As I began to introduce the disciples, I told the children that each disciple had a shield with a special symbol on it that told us something about that disciple. I added that they could find out what the symbol meant during the Response Time with special control cards that explained the symbols. The children were very attentive and seemed to track with me rather than blurting out frustrated questions which had been my experience in the past. 

As I prepared the felt "house" that the disciples return to after Jesus' ascension, I added a Wondering question. I asked the children how they thought the disciples felt after seeing Jesus ascend into heaven. The children were responsive, and we talked about the possible reactions.  I think it was a good call to have this question in the middle, because the story is almost like two small stories within one, since our German version starts with Ascension.

There was more Wondering this time than any other time I can remember telling this story. That may just be because this group of kids is extremely verbal, but I think the combination of real figures and the apostles' shields helped the children to identify more with the story.

What was their favorite part? "When Jesus went up into heaven."  "When the apostles went out of the house and started telling people about God." "When they went into all the world to tell about Jesus."

In addition to the usual 4 Wondering questions in the Sacred Story genre, I also added this one: How do you imagine the Holy Spirit? One first grade girl answered, "I think he is like a bird flying in the wind, who helps people when they are in trouble."

This boy matched the shields to the control cards to find out about each apostle. Then, he began playing with the materials and rearranging them. I love this image that he created- it makes me think of the church as a house, a safe place where a family lives, which is what the church can be. 

Have you experimented with the Pentecost story? If so, how have you told it differently?

Spring Godly Play Club 2015

So viele Kinder hatten Lust bei der OsterAG zu sein, dass wir eine Warteliste machen mussten - ein tolles Problem zu haben!  Daraus ist die FrühlingsAG entstanden.  So many children signed up for the Easter Club this year that we had to make a waiting list. What an awesome problem to have! As a result, we decided to offer a Spring Godly Play Club, which kicked off this week. 

Unsere erste Geschichte ging um das Gleichnis vom Senfsamen in dem Lukasevangelium. Our first story was the Parable of the Mustard Seed found in the Gospel of Luke.

Die Gleichnisse regen unsere Kreativität an und geben neue Perspektiven. Es macht mir viel Spass die Gleichnisse mit Kindern zu erzählen, weil Kinder so frische Einblicke darauf haben. Parables help our creativity to flow and God can use them to help us question our everyday situations and gain new perspective. I love telling the parables to children, because they have such fresh thoughts and insight into the metaphorical meanings.

Diese Gruppe von Kindern war besonders verbal, sodass unser Ergründungsgespräch nachher ziemlich spannend war. This was a very verbal group of children, so our Wondering conversation after the story was quite lively.

Nach der Geschichte und Ergründungsgespräch kommt die Kreativphase, die von der Montessori-Pädagogik inspiriert ist. Die Kinder dürfen Aktivitäten aussuchen, die ihnen helfen die Geschichte weiter zu entdecken. Sie dürfen sich auch zwischen den Angeboten frei bewegen. After the story comes a free Response Time inspired by the Montessori Method. During this time, the children can choose activities to help them explore the story further or perhaps explore some other topic on their hearts and minds.

Diese Kinder malen mit Öl- und Pastelkreiden. 

This group of children worked with oil and chalk pastels.

Andere Kinder gestalteten Vögel und Nester aus Ton. Nächste Woche werden wir die Vögel anmalen. Another group chose to make birds and bird nests out of clay. We'll paint the birds next week after the clay has dried.

Ein weiteres Angebot ging um "Nähcollagen" aus Filz und Jutestoff. At another station, the children could sew collages out of burlap and felt.

Auch konnten die Kinder eine eigene Geschichte ausdenken. And finally, the children could also make up their own story to tell.

Letztens feierten wir ein kleines Fest mit "Blondies" (Brownies mit hellem Teig), Paprika, und ein Gebet der Dankbarkeit für die schöne Zeit zusammen! Our time ended with a prayer of thankfulness and our "feast".  This week we had "blondies" and red pepper. 

Bis nächste Woche! 

See you next week!