Below are a collection of lesson plans for specific children’s books. Listed lower on the page, you’ll see a collection of books recommended for children’s religious education, with a review for each book. For lesson plans for high school students and adults, visit here.
Lessons Plans for Books
In God’s Name
In God’s Name is a beautiful and poetic book endorsed by Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish religious leaders. It’s appropriate for children ages four to nine. Lesson plans for this book include wonder, reading skills, puppetry, and affirmations.
Sam Johnson and Blue Ribbon Quilt
Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt encourages children to break out of binary gender stereotypes to try activities they may enjoy. Lesson plans for this book focus on integrity and equality. The author has also provided discussion points, a letter to parents, and insights. Please note that the book, written in 1992, does not include transgender or nonbinary characters.
“Elizabeth Fry,” Chapter Five of Good Friends
This lesson plan, based on the life of Elizabeth Fry, include service learning projects appropriate for middle school students. The story itself focuses on Quaker testimonies, and the value of having mentor. It comes from a chapter of Good Friends, which was written in 2002 by Judith Baresel, illustrated by Ken Hutchinson. Lesson plans are appropriate for ages 10-13.
The material in this lesson plan could be used for several lessons. It could also fit into a unit on the peace, equality, simplicity or community testimony, or one on “letting our lives speak.”
I Wanted to Know All About God
This lesson plan is for the book I Wanted to Know All About God, which was written by Virginia Kroll in 1994. It gives children age 4-8 time to describe their own experience of the Divine. Interactive, outdoorsy activities invite children to explore themes from the book in the world around them.
Somewhere Today: A Book of Peace
This lesson plan is for the book Somewhere Today: a Book of Peace, which won the 1999 Best Children’s Book of the Year. The book illustrates ways that people are living with kindness and love. Lesson plans are appropriate for children ages 3-8. They includes activities for a peace collage, acting, and service.
The Empty Pot
This lesson plan is for the book The Empty Pot, written in 1990 by Demi. Based on Chinese Folklore, it demonstrates the value of honesty. Lesson plans are appropriate for children ages 5-11. They include gardening and hands-on art activities.
Where Does God Live
This lesson plan is for the book Where Does God Live?, by August Gold and Matthew J. Perlman. Published in 2001, the book is a delicious invitation to wonder and explore. The lessons are made for ages 3-6. They focuses on the Equality testimony and “that of God” within all people.
Reviews of Children’s Books
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins, by Carole Boston Weatherford, was published in 2005. In this book, Carole Boston Weatherford gives us a child’s eye view of one chapter in the Civil Rights Movement. The storyline and the beautiful illustrations make the discrimination palpable and personal and the final victory joyous and sweet. Connie, the main character, is an eight-year-old African-American girl. She cherishes the times she and her mother go downtown shopping together. When they get tired or thirsty, they always go to Woolworth’s for a Coke, but this is 1960 and they can’t sit at the counter–yet. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to Aunt Gertie from New York who won’t comply with the segregation rules and an elderly white woman who cheers the protesters on at the lunch counter. The reader can feel the excitement, consternation and alarm of the many characters as powerful social assumptions begin to give way.
Weatherford deftly weaves many elements of the Civil Rights Movement into this brief story. Dr. King comes to town and preaches a stirring sermon, a voter registration drive takes place, there is a nonviolent sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, Connie’s older siblings join the NAACP, the shopping trips downtown stop as the family boycotts local merchants, sister is arrested in a protest, and the sit-ins spread across the South. Finally, the lunch counter is open to all and Connie has her banana split at the counter!
Freedom on the Menu is a well-told story that can be used in a variety of ways in your First Day School. It was probably written for third graders, but it will hold the interest of middle school students. You could create a one-day lesson around the story or use the book to open a whole unit on nonviolence or anti-racism. You could easily use Freedom on the Menu in a unit on one or more of the testimonies. A guest teacher who had a personal involvement in the Civil Rights Movement would add a rich complement to lessons drawn from the book. Friends in your own meeting may have participated in freedom rides or helped to rebuild African-American churches in the South that had been burned.
Children hunger to hear the service and faith stories of adult Quakers. Personal vignettes about living the testimonies through acts of conscience and nonviolent resistance add a reality and texture to the Quaker faith they are learning about in First Day School. This is Quaker community building at its best! This is the legacy of Quakerism being passed on to the next generation.
As a final lesson possibility, you could make a very large menu decorating the cover with a picture of your meeting and the title Freedom on the Menu. Inside, have your whole meeting help the children add the “dishes” you are serving up in 2005 to keep freedom on the menu. Contact your Peace and Social Justice Committee and Working Party on Racism in advance. They may have minutes to add to the menu.
Opening Doors to Quaker Religious Education
Opening Doors to Quaker Religious Education by Mary Snyder (QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference, 1999. Paperback, 128 pages) is a thoughtful, well-organized, and thorough book on developing religious education programs so that “each person may meet the Inward Teacher.” Its author, Mary Snyder, provides both a theoretical framework and a wide range of practical ideas to implement First Day School plans for young children through adults. It is, I believe, one of the most important publications on this topic put forth by Friends General Conference and serves as a companion to Opening Doors to Quaker Worship.
The book emphasizes five ways in which we communicate as Friends: role modeling, storytelling, wondering together, affirmation, and curriculum. It discusses many assumptions underlying Quaker religious education as well as how to teach children, teens, and adults. Based upon a simple, straightforward framework, Mary Snyder consolidates many ideas used previously by Friends as well as her own innovations. She recognizes the diversity of children and age groups in Meetings and the vast fluctuations in class sizes. She blends different methods-storytelling, art, drama, games, and silence-contrasted in both single-aged groups and intergenerational settings. Her chapters on working with teens and then with adults go beyond First Day School issues to encompass community building, service, and the integration of education and worship.
Some Friends have found this book helpful in writing a curriculum about the Gospels for middle school students. The author’s approach provided a structure to articulate class goals and lesson plans. Her vast number of teaching techniques can inspire additional activities. This book is recommended for anyone, new or veteran, interested in Quaker religious education.
Lives That Speak: Twentieth-Century Quakers
This book review is for Lives that Speak: Twentieth Century Quakers, which was published in 2004. This book is appropriate for middle and high school, though many adults enjoy it as well. It covers daring, courageous, and inspiring human stories from the last 100 years. There is lots of information on this book so read the full review below.
“Lighting Candles in the Dark” (Study Guide)
Lighting Candles in the Dark is a collection of 45 short stories made for children ages 7-12. Each story illustrates Quaker values in a way that is both interesting and upbeat. The stories cover the themes of courage, nonviolence, service, love, fairness, and care for the earth. The Study Guide is available as an ebook through QuakerBooks.
The study guide provides discussion questions, activity suggestions, and biblical references for each of the stories. Each lesson may be used independently or in concert with the other stories in its section.
A unique aspect of the study guide is that the authors enable teachers to provide continuity between stories by suggesting an ongoing activity that can be used with each of the five sections of the book. For the section on “Courage and Nonviolence,” children are introduced to the practice of writing queries; for the section on “The Power of Love,” children are introduced to journaling; for the section on “Acts of Loving Service,” suggestions are given for service projects; for the section on “Fairness and Equality,” the suggestion is made that the children create a display that uses the historic testimonies as a daily guide; and finally for the section on “Belonging and Care of the Earth,” there are activities that focus on testimonies that have arisen in recent years. Activities within each lesson have a lot of variety: puppet plays, art, cooking, crafts, puzzles, games, letter writing, service.
Teachers at all grade levels will find lots to do with young people to complement the concepts presented in the stories. Teachers working with younger children may find the suggested questions for each story need paraphrasing; however, the questions are varied in their type and elicit cognitive responses requiring simple observation to abstract reasoning.
Looking for more to do with your classes besides telling the stories? Pick up this study guide. You will enjoy it.
Practicing Peace: Testimony in Action– Teaching Young Children the Quaker Peace Testimony
Practicing Peace: Testimony in Action — Teaching Young Children the Quaker Peace Testimony, by Jean Watson McCandless (QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference, 2002) is available as an ebook. This curriculum integrates art, music, and drama to teach children about peace. The book is written in three levels, so it offers activities that are appropriate for preschool to fourth grade. If your meeting has children with a wide range of ages, this book may be useful. Each lesson has an introduction with preparatory information, and a carefully constructed program which includes reviewing the content of what the class covered the previous week.
Jesus, Who Was He?
Jesus, Who Was He? by Mary Snyder (QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference, 1991. Paperback, 130 pages)
Some meetings have used this curriculum with preschoolers as well as middle school students. Friends read the stories in the Bible and from the text. The stories were clearly laid out, with suggestions to help the teacher prepare and teach the lesson. The guide offered a variety of activity ideas which really helped the children understand the lessons. You may supplement this curriculum with role playing to teach the children about cheating, care and compassion, forgiveness and love, answering God’s call, and Jesus’ life as a healer, teacher and spiritual leader.
If you have children in First Day School who are creative, consider inviting them to make a “news story” video: interview several people who had met Jesus, such as the wedding guests at Cana. Produce a show that recounts scenes from these perspectives. You may find that there’s energy to paint scenery, gather props, and create costumes.
Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children
Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children, by Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac, 1999. Paperback, 240 pages
This is curriculum that can be easily modified for use with young children and high school students. The lessons are unforgettable. We in Dayton Monthly Meeting found that the stories and their meanings stayed with the children for a long time as evidenced by their ability to retell stories they had heard years earlier. The textbook provides clearly drawn black and white pictures and photographs to tell of the lives of the North American tribes and their relationship to the earth. The Teacher’s Guide offers additional material, pictures, queries and practical hands-on activity suggestions that give the children personal experiences that reinforce the values we try to instill in them. The activities lend themselves easily to creativity. We made masks and puppets, and acted out the stories. We used the material to cover a variety of branch-off lessons: race relations, family, animals, the environment, changing seasons, growing plants and unity with nature. We also used the stories to practice visualization techniques that the children can use to learn to center in Meeting for Worship.
Last updated December 18, 2025.