III. IDEAS FOR TEACHING QUAKER FAITH AND PRACTICE IN FIRST DAY SCHOOL

KEY: Asterisks indicate the appropriate age levels for each section: * A single asterisk indicates that the idea is especially appropriate for children. ** A double asterisk indicates it is appropriate for both children and teenagers. *** A triple asterisk indicates that the idea is best suited for teenagers. **** Four asterisks indicate it is ideal for all-ages.

*** ATTEND MEETING FOR BUSINESS: As a class, attend Meeting for Business. Before attending, hand out the agenda and talk with the class about why those items are on the agenda. After Meeting for Business, prepare a list of questions to ask the clerk and recording clerk. Then interview the clerk and recording clerk.

* BANNER MAKING FOR YEARLY MEETING: Make a banner based on the theme for yearly meeting. Display it in your meetinghouse. Bring it to yearly meeting for display.

*** CLEARNESS COMMITTEES: Ask a newly married couple to tell the teenagers about their experience with clearness committees.

*** CRITIQUING BUSINESS AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS: As a class, teenagers sit in on Meeting for Business or committee meetings. Meeting together afterward, the students critique the meeting.

*** FAITH AND PRACTICE: Have volunteers from your class read out loud a section of Faith and Practice. (A potentially controversial section, such as a section referring to same-sex marriages and commitments, is ideal.) Discuss.

*** A GOOD MEETING FOR WORSHIP: Have elderly, practiced Friends come to class and talk about what is essential for a "good" meeting.

** GREETING AT THE MEETINGHOUSE DOOR: Talk with your class about the role of greeters in the your meeting. Use role-playing to practice being greeters. Assign youth to assist with greeting under the care of an adult greeter who serves as a mentor.

** JUNIOR MONTHLY MEETING: Each month the junior and senior high school classes meet together for Junior Monthly Meeting. With an adult present for guidance, a high school youth clerks the meeting and another records. Junior Monthly Meeting plans all of the monthly meeting activities which involve the children--such as Halloween parties, hikes, service projects, bake sales, car washes, speakers they would like to have, overnights in the meetinghouse. For each activity, a subcommittee is formed, and that subcommittee chooses its clerk. Each year Junior Monthly Meeting writes a state of the Meeting Report, which the clerk of Junior Monthly Meeting presents at Meeting for Business. New clerks and recording clerks are selected through a nominating process. Junior Monthly Meeting nominates members who then leave the room. The remaining Junior Monthly Meeting members discuss the qualifications of the nominees until they come to agreement on who should be their clerks.

*** OFFICERS OF THE MEETING: Invite officers of the meeting (the clerk, recording clerk, treasurer, clerks of committees, and so forth) to speak to your First Day School class about what they do and why. Allow time for questions.

*** READING THE MEETING'S NEWSLETTER: Have older children volunteer to take turns reading the meetings' newsletter out loud.

Discussion question: Why does our meeting do the things we do?

** REWRITE YOUR YEARLY OR MONTHLY MEETING QUERIES: Rewrite your yearly or monthly meeting queries in children's or teenager's language. Illustrate them.

** STATE OF THE MEETING REPORTS: Have the children write and read to Meeting for Business their own "State of the Meeting Report." This should be presented when the adults present their "State of the Meeting Report." (Lynn Von Salis)

*** STATEMENTS OF PACIFISM: Ask students if they would like to write statements concerning their convictions about the use of violence. Have students sign and date the forms. Give a copy for a permanent record to your monthly and yearly meeting. Give the original to the child and his or her family. Such historic records can be of great importance for young Friends in establishing future claims as conscientious objectors.

To the FGC Religious Education homepage

1216 Arch St #2B, Philadelphia, PA 19107		(215) 561-1700. Fax: (215) 561-0759
Website: www.fgcquaker.org		Email: friends@fgcquaker.org