Teaching children during Peace Month
Use the seed packets/cards in conjunction with Peace Month to study men and women in the Religious Society of Friends’ history. For more in-depth information on some of these historical Friends, click on the “Friends biographies” link above. You can also use the word searches provided, depending on the age group with which you are working. We suggest you use these in the second half of Peace Month.
Week 1: Seed packets for George Fox/Margaret Fell and The Valiant Sixty/John 14:25-26 can be used for the first week of Peace Month where Friends in the 17th Century are the focus.
- Discussion: prayer, listening and trusting God
- Talk to your Sunday school class about George Fox’s search for someone to tell him the right way to live. When he didn’t receive answers to his questions about faith and how he should live, he found guidance from the Holy Spirit and discovered he could place his trust in Jesus. Using age-appropriate words, you can talk to your students about listening for that Still Small Voice that is in each of us and about the Holy Spirit guiding each of us, if we take time to listen. Talk about waiting in silence to hear the Holy Spirit as a group during worship service or while we are alone.
- Depending on the age group, you could also talk about Margaret Fell and the Valiant Sixty.
Week 2: The second week of Peace Month will look at Friends in the 18th Century. Seed packets for this week will be William Penn/John Woolman. Matthew 25:35-36/John 15:14-17 seed packets would be a good choice for this week also, or you may decide to use them for the next week’s study of the 19th Century.
- Discussion: Fruit of the Spirit
- Give brief outlines of the lives and importance of John Woolman and William Penn.
- Share Matthew 22:37-40 and Galatians 5:23 with your class. Connect the qualities in these passages to the lives just discussed. Emphasize the importance of loving God and loving others. Tell your class that love comes from God and that Jesus came to earth to show us how to live. Give children the opportunity to talk about how we can show God’s love to others through the Fruits of the Spirit.
- Living by the Fruit of the Spirit involves making good choices and being thoughtful about how we treat ourselves and how we treat others. We can help children develop empathy for and understanding of others by discussing how much people are alike, even when they live in different places, under different circumstances. Everyone wants to be loved. We all need food and shelter. We want to be treated with dignity and consideration.
Week 3: The seed packets for Elizabeth Fry and Lucretia Mott concern the 19th Century, looked at in the third week of Peace Month. You can also choose a Word Search.
- Discussion: loving action toward others
- Give a brief outline of the lives of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Fry.
- Discuss some of the ways that early Quakers showed God’s love and had an impact on society, by living peacefully with others and working for justice in many areas of society including women’s rights, children’s rights, improving conditions in prisons, working to end slavery, and helping provide for those in need. Discuss how Friends are helping improve the condition of others today; for example, missionaries are installing equipment to provide clean water to those who don’t have it, NWYM meetings are providing community dinners, etc. You can find examples of NWYM local and global outreach in the Connection archives.
Week 4: For the fourth week of Peace Month use the Matthew 5:14 and Quakers Definition seed packets. You can also choose a Word Search.
- Discussion: What does it mean to be a Quaker/Friend?
Week 5: For the fifth week use Matthew 11:28-30 and John 14:27 seed packets. You can also choose a Word Search.
- Discussion: What have we learned about peace this month?
- Review some of the people and topics discussed throughout the month.
- Talk about what they think peace means after learning about all these people’s lives.
