Pysanky: Ukrainian Easter Eggs

We've started making "Pysanky", the Ukrainian Easter Eggs made using a batik technique with beeswax, so that we can give them to friends at Easter. 

Here are several works in progress that I and my two
children are working on.

And here is one that I finished.

I learned to make Pysanky last year about this time. You can read about it here.

Then, I taught my two children, and you can read about their experience here.  Though it looks like a daunting process, children can do it provided that they have breaks in between colors. I leave my materials out the whole day, so that we can work on the eggs at our leisure. 

Information about where to get the "kistka" (writing tool), beeswax and non-toxic dyes are also in these articles.

Remember, Easter lasts for six weeks after Lent is over, so there is plenty of time to paint eggs and enjoy it. Easter is just too big to pack into one Sunday!

Linked to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now

and Eco Kids' Tuesday at Like Mama-Like Daughter and Organic Aspirations

and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy

and Keep Calm Craft On at Frontier Dreams

Sketchy Sunday: Pets + Spring

We're joining the Artsy Ants again for Sketchy Sunday! The past two weeks haven't afforded us a lot of time for sketching with school, the Easter Club, a Serve the City project and church. But here's what we've got . . . 

Last week's theme was "Spring", so I sketched this while waiting for my kids at an Abenteurerspielplatz ("Adventure Playground"). Unfortunately, it's still not looking very springy in Berlin.

and here is a sprouting seedling . . . 

As you can see, when I'm pinched for time, I stick to my favorite medium of black ink. But I did happen to have my watercolors out two weeks ago for the Parable of the Sower and sketched a cat for the "Pets" theme.

My son asked me to share this self-portrait with our hamster, Hammy, that he did a while back.

And my daughter handed in a sketch for "Telephone", which was the theme about a month ago.: ) She also exercised a little creative spelling in German.

If you like to sketch, please join us at the Artsy Ants! 

Easter Club 2013 Week 4

Wir liefen am Montag zur OsterAG im Schnee. Obwohl der Frühling nirgendwo zu spüren war, glaubten wir trotzdem, dass er kommt! We walked to Easter Club this week with snow on the ground. Though spring is nowhere is in sight, we have to believe it's coming! 

Unsere Geschichte diese Woche hatte ein ähnliches Thema. Sie ging um die zwei Emmaus-Jünger, die Jesu auf dem Weg nach Hause von Jerusalem begegnen, aber ihn nicht sofort wahrnehmen. In ihrer Trauer, Zweifel und Verwirrung erkennen sie ihn nur wenn er das Brot und Wein mit ihnen teilt. Überglücklich beeilen sie sich wieder nach Jerusalem um allen davon zu erzählen. These thoughts paralleled our story this week, which was about the two disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. In their grief, doubt and confusion, they don't immediately recognize him. Finally, after he has explained the events of the past few days in a way that they can understand, they recognize him as he breaks bread with them in Emmaus. Overjoyed, they hurry back to Jerusalem to let everyone know that they have seen the Risen Lord.

Die Kinder haben die Geschichte sehr gemocht, und das Kind unten im Foto erzählte aufgeregt, dass diese ihre lieblings Geschichte von allen war. Als ich nach dem lieblings Teil der Geschichte fragte, meinten viele, dass sie die Stelle, wo Jesus das Brot teilte, am liebsten mochten. Andere fanden's toll, dass Jesus auf dem Weg nicht sofort sagte, wer er wirklich war. The children loved this story, and the child below in the picture is excitedly telling us that this was her favorite story that she has heard in Easter Club. When asked what their favorite part of the story was, most everyone said that they liked the part about Jesus sharing bread with the two disciples, and also that Jesus did not immediately tell them his true identity. 

Ich habe auch gefragt, warum die Jünger Jesus nicht sofort erkannt haben. Manche meinten, Jesus anders ausgesehen habe. Ein Kind dachte, die 2 Jünger haben aus Trauer den Boden angeschaut und deswegen den Fremden nicht gerade in die Augen geguckt. Und andere meinten, sie waren einfach zu traurig Jesus wahrzunehmen. Ich habe daze eine Geschichte erzählt, wobei ich meinen verlorenen Schlüssel gesucht habe. Obwohl der Schlüssel gerade vor mir lag, habe ich aus Panik ihn übersehen.   I also asked the childen why they thought that the Emmaus disciples did not immediately know who Jesus was. Some thought that perhaps Jesus looked differently. One child mentioned that perhaps the two were looking down at the ground and not really paying attention to the stranger who had joined them. And others thought that maybe their sadness caused them to not see who he was. I told a story about how I couldn't find my keys once and was so panicked that I couldn't see them, even though they were right in front of my eyes.

Es gab die folgenden Angeboten in der Kreativphase:
Response Time included the following stations this week:

Wir haben Osterbaum-Schmuck angemalt! Die Kinder bekamen Scheiben vom Pflaumenbaum mit einem kleinem Haken zum Aufhängen. Sie haben dann kleine "Ständer" mit Knete gemacht, damit sie beiden Seiten malen konnten. Nachdem sie austrocknen, werden wir eine Schleife daran binden.  We painted Easter Tree decorations! The children were give discs cut from a plum tree branch with a hook on them. We used a tiny bit modeling clay to stand them up so that we could paint both sides. Once they dry we'll attach a ribbon to them so they can be hung from the Easter Tree branches. 

Osterbaum-Schmuck
Easter Tree decorations

Wir haben auch die letzten Bildern aus Wolle und Jutestoff fertig gemacht. Hier sitzen die Kinder mit Gabrielle, eine Mitarbeiterin von der Gemeinde, die und in der AG unterstützt. We finished up our pictures made from wool roving on burlap. Here the children are working with Gabrielle, who volunteers with our club. 

Die Kinder hatten auch die Möglichkeit Ton und Naturmaterial zu gestalten. Sie waren diese Woche besonders kreativ! The children also had the opportunity to create sculptures from air-drying clay and found nature materials. They were so creative!

Wir haben auch die "Pisanki" mit Pastelkreide fertig gemacht, und weiter bei der "Vater Unser" Station gearbeitet. We also finished up our Easter "Pysanky" with chalk pastels, and could work more at "The Lord's Prayer" station.

Und natürlich dürfte man die Geschichten genauer angucken! And, of course, there was the opportunity to explore the stories more!

Zum Fest diese Woche gab's eine Überraschung - Brownies! Melinda, die Co-Lehrerin, bäckt die besten Brownies der Welt! Our feast included a special treat - brownies! Melinda, my co-teacher, makes hands down the best brownies in the world, and the kids who have previously been in our clubs remember this!

Preparing for our feast together. 

Noch eine Woche! One more week to go!

Click here for Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3. 


Linked to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now

and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy

Godly Play: The Parable of the Sower

When asked an important question, Jesus often told parables to help his listeners think a little deeper. In Godly Play, we tell six of these core parables, and The Parable of the Sower is one of them. Jesus told this story when asked what the Kingdom of God was like.

The Kingdom of God is like seeds that are sown broadly. Some fall on the path and are eaten by the birds. Some fall between on stony ground and can't find get their roots deep enough into the earth to survive. Some fall on thorny ground and are choked by the thorns. Others fall on good soil and produce a harvest 30, 60 and 100 times that which the farmer sowed. 

We had three children this week that were new to our Godly Play group, so things were a bit "livelier" than usual, since they were not familiar with our routine. They were glued to the story, but I had a difficult time getting them to focus during the Wondering. Oh well, every Godly Play Storyteller (or anyone who works with kids!) knows that it is just like that sometimes . . . : ) When asked who the Sower might be, the children thought that he could be God or us. They also thought the most important thing was that the Sower actually got out and sowed the seeds. 

Every child that I have ever met is thrilled to be able to plant something and watch it grow. So just talking about sowing seeds would be boring - I had to give kids the opportunity to actually do it! As one of the options during the response time, the children made their own mini flower pots out of air-drying clay and planted garden cress in it. 

Cress grows fast and is edible (full of Vitamin C!), so it is a perfect way to illustrate the "good soil" in the parable and celebrate the coming of spring. One child came up with the sun shape below and several other children wanted to make theirs the same way. 

You can see tiny sprouts coming up two days later!

To read more about the wooden materials that I used for this parable, please click here. 

 . . . 

Unsere Godly Play-Geschichte diese Woche ging um das Gleichnis vom Sämann, das Jesus erzählte, als er gefragt wurde, "Wie ist es mit dem Reich Gottes?"

Während des Ergründungsgespräch habe ich die Kinder gefragt, wer der Sämann sei. Manche meinten, er könnte Gott sein, und andere sagten, er sind wir. Auch meinten sie, das wichtige an der Geschichte ist, dass die Samen gesät wurden. 

Nur übers Säen zu reden wäre langweilig - also müssten wir's einfach tun! Als Angebot zur Kreativzeit haben wir Pflanzentöpfe aus Ton gestaltet und Kresse eingesät. Ein Kind hat eine Sonne-Motiv für den Topf ausgedacht und einige andere haben's auch so gemacht. 

Linked to Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions

and Eco Kids' Tuesday at Like Mama-Like Daughter and Organic Aspirations

and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy

What we can leave out and still have everything we need?

One of the typical "Wondering" questions at the end of Godly Play stories is "What can we leave out and still have everything we need for the story?".  This is a question that often makes people that are new to Godly Play nervous want to turn tail and run. At a superficial glance, it would appear that the question is saying that some part of the Bible isn't important. It's not suggesting that at all. Rather the question is training young minds to understand and use a very important educational principle: sorting through and prioritizing information. 

Each day our minds are overloaded with information, be it from face-to-face communication, internet, magazines, books or other forms of media. We cannot possibly absorb all the information, nor should we. Instead, we make choices to remember and hold onto the most important things. 

And each time we read a portion of the Bible or hear a sermon, we come away with only a fraction of what we read or what was said. We hold onto what we resonated with us the most. In a similar way, this Wondering question helps children begin to focus on what is important to them at their particular stage of life and what God may be speaking to them at that particular moment. 

And sometimes thinking about what we can leave out and still have everything we need leads to a remarkable insight. The picture below shows a nine-year-old boy's response during "The Lord's Prayer" story at Easter Club last week. The two arches have "Our Father in heaven" and "Then yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever". In the middle were the different requests such as "Give us this day our daily bread".  When asked what we could leave out and still have everything we need, the boy removed all the requests except for "Your kingdom come". I realized at that moment that he was right. All of the other requests were wrapped up in this one. When God's kingdom comes, all of the other requests will have been answered. 

This child decided that "Your kingdom come"was the most important
part of the Lord's Prayer by choosing to "leave out" the
other parts of the prayer. 

David Pritchard, a Godly Play Trainer in Spain and member of the  GP International Advisory Board, has written the best article that I have ever read on this subject here (and he states his case much more eloquently than I do!).

Jill, a Godly Play storyteller in North Carolina for over 20 years, named her blog, "What can we leave out . . . and still have all we need for the story?" She writes a lot about how this question has helped her as an adult to keep her perfectionistic nature in check so that she can get more done.: ) 

Learning to ask ourselves what we can leave out is a life skill that we all need, and one that we most certainly should pass onto our children. 

 . . . . . . . 

In der Godly Play-Religionspädagogik gibt es immer nach der Geschichte ein Ergründungsgespräch. Eine typische Frage in diesem Gespräch lautet: Was können wir hier weglassen und trotzdem alles haben, was wir an der Geschichte brauchen?

Hinter dieser Frage steht ein wichtiges, pädagogisches Prinzip: die Fähigkeit einzuordnen und priorisieren. Man wird jeden Tag mit einer Menge von Information überladen und müsste entscheiden können, was in Erinnerung zu behalten ist.  Dadurch kommen auch wichtige Einblicke.

Oben hat ein Kind nach der "Vater Unser" Geschichte in der OsterAG entschieden, alle Bitten außer "Dein Reich komme" wegzulassen. Ich müsste ihm Recht geben. Wenn diese Bitte in Erfüllung kommen würde, wären all die anderen Bitte auch erfüllt. Da habe ich auch etwas gelernt. : )

Easter Club 2013 Week 3

Wir haben viel Spass bei der OsterAG gehabt! Hier ist ein Blick auf die gemeinsame Zeit . . .  

This week's Easter Club was a lot of fun! Here's what we did together . . . 

Jede Woche darf ein Kind die Christuskerze anzünden. Sie erinnert uns daran, dass Gottes Licht immer mit uns ist, auch wenn wir die Sonne draußen gar nicht sehen!  Each week one child gets to light the Christ Candle to remind us that God's light is always with us, even when we can't see the sun outside.

Unsere Geschichte diese Woche handelte um das Gebet. Wir hörten wie Menschen auf ganz unterschiedliche Weise mit Gott reden und über das "Vater Unser", das Jesus seinen Jüngern beigebracht hat. Our story this week was about prayer. We talked about the different ways that people pray and the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "The Lord's Prayer". 

Wenn wir mit anderen Menschen reden, dann ist es, als ob wir durch ein Tor gehen würden um zu ihnen zu kommen. Eine Begrüßung hilft uns durch dieses Tor zu kommen. Es ist auch so, wenn wir mit Gott reden. Wir sagen etwas wie, "Hallo Gott!" oder "Lieber Vater". Jesus sagte, "Vater Unser im Himmel." Wenn wir einmal durch so ein Tor hindurchgekommen sind, dann können wir sicher sein, dass Gott alles hört.  When we talk to people, we greet them by saying, "Hello." It's a bit like going through a doorway. It's the same when we talk to God. We can say, "Hello God!" or "Dear Father". Jesus taught his disciples to say, "Our Father in heaven." Once we have gone through this doorway, we know that God hears absolutely everything we say!

Manchmal sagen wir das Vater Unser allein, und zu anderen Zeiten sprechen ganz viele Menschen es gemeinsam. Es ist das Gebet, dass alle Christen auf der ganzen Welt verbindet. Sometimes we say The Lord's Prayer alone and sometimes together in groups. It is the prayer that brings Christians all over the world together. 

Wir hatten auch Besuch von dem Gemeinde-Kantor, der schöne Frühlingslieder mit uns gesungen hat. We also had a visit from the church's Cantor who sang some nice spring songs with us.

Während der Kreativphase konnten wir eine Beschäftigung von den folgenden Angeboten aussuchen:

 During the Response Time, we had the following activities to choose from: 

Station 1: Hier konnten wir unseren lieblings Teil vom Vater Unser (oder der Teil, der für uns am wichtigsten war) aussuchen, und entweder etwas dazu malen oder schreiben.

Station 1: Here we could pick our favorite line from "The Lord's Prayer" (or the one that was most important to us), and draw a picture with oil pastels and colored pencils or write something about it. 

Station 2: Hier konnten wir Wollebilder auf Jutestoff filzen.
Station 2: Here we could make pictures by attaching wool roving to burlap.

Station 3: Bei diesem Tisch haben wir weiter an die "Pisanki" (ukrainische Ostereier) mit Pastelkreide gearbeitet.
Station 3: At this table we continued our glue and chalk pastel "Pysanky" (Ukrainian Easter Eggs).

Schaut wie gut gelungen sie sind! Look how beautiful they turned out!

Station 4: Wir konnten auch die Geschichten vom Regal nehmen und mit ihnen spielen. Hier spielen wir mit dem Gleichnis vom Guten Hirten.

Station 4: As always there are several stories for us to choose from on the focus table. We can choose which one we want to explore more and play. Below we are playing with the Parable of the Good Shepherd.

Wir feiern jedes Mal zum Schluss ein kleines Fest zusammen. Wir haben immer Bärenhunger und freuen uns darüber! We have a small feast together at the end of each session. We're always really hungry and look forward to it! 

Noch 2 Wochen! Bis nächstes Mal! Two more weeks of fun to go!

Wenn du die ersten 2 Wochen schauen möchtest, hier sind ein paar Links: 

If you missed any of our posts, click on these links:

Woche 1 / Week 1

Woche 2 / Week 2

For my Godly Play readers: This is not actually a Godly Play story from Jerome Berryman. Rather it is a story from some German colleagues in religious education, and it is told in Godly Play "style". If you pin the pictures on Pinterest or any other social media site, please do not label it as Godly Play. If you are interested in the text, please e-mail me and I will ask the authors for permission to share it.

Linked to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now

and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy

Sneak Preview: Parable of the Sower

At my Godly Play Trainers' Course in Holland, I had the chance to use materials from Johanna Kaarto, a Godly Play Trainer in Finland. I was so impressed by them that I decided to order some of her DIY parable materials. They are reasonably priced and the etching in the wood is delicate and beautiful.

I will be doing the Parable of the Sower on Sunday. The last time I told this parable, it was with Playmobil figures. But that's the sort of thing you do when you are just starting out with Godly Play.: )  These days, I am slowing upgrading as time and money will allow.

I am using watercolor mixed with a little vinegar to paint the unfinished wood. (Think Easter egg dye - the vinegar makes the color more intense and adhere to the egg shell better.) I decided that acrylics would be too heavy and I didn't want to risk covering up Johanna's etching.

Now, I'll give them a coat of varnish before Sunday!

. . . 

Am Sonntag werde ich "Das Gleichnis vom Sämann" erzählen. Obwohl ich früher Playmobil  dafür benutzt habe, versuche ich langsam die Playmofiguren mit pädagogisch gerechtem Material auszutauschen.

Bei dem Fortbildner-Training für Godly Play in Holland habe ich Material von Johanna Kaarto in Finland benutzt. Da sie auch DIY-Material zum günstigen Preis anbietet, habe ich  die schönen Holzfiguren oben von ihr bestellt. 

Ich habe sie dann mit Aquarellfarbe und Essig angemalt, damit die Radierungen im Holz immer noch sichtbar werden. Letztens muss ich sie vor Sonntag lackieren!