Honesty and integrity can often require real courage of us! In this classic Chinese children's story, we learn once again that "Honesty is the best policy." Ping was a young schoolboy who loved to grow flowers. He embraced the Emperor's challenge to grow the best...
Children’s Religious Education Category
Say Something
Say Something takes us on the short but significant journey from being a silent bystander to an engaged community member with small, simple acts of inclusion like acknowledging a new student in a class or sitting next to someone on the bus. Bullying and teasing can be...
Four Feet, Two Sandals
This is a tender inspiring story of resilience, friendship, creative problem-solving, and peacemaking set in a refugee camp in Pakistan. After weeks of privation and the arduous journey walking out of Afghanistan to escape the fighting, great excitement fills the camp...
Teaching Conflict Resolution through Children’s Literature
This curriculum is a gem. Designed for 5-7 year olds, it is useful at home and in First Day School. Each lesson is based on an excellent storybook. Kreidler was a Quaker and brilliant educator. His curriculum normalizes conflict as an inevitable part of life in...
Quaker Affirmations
Celebrating What’s Already True About Your Children The Quaker emphasis on Truth creates a wonderful jumping off point for conversations with children about special capacities they have (spiritual gifts) and ways those gifts help them to engage with others in ways...
I Think, I Am! Teaching Kids the Power of Affirmations
I Think, I Am! can be a bridge for children from hearing about their gifts to embracing those words and incorporating them into their understanding of themselves. Being able to acknowledge our gifts is a crucial step on the Quaker faith formation journey. "Your...
Jack’s Talent
"You must be good at something," said Miss Lucinda. "Everyone has a special talent." On the first day of school, Miss Lucinda asks the students to share their special talents. Francesca is a star soccer player, Matthew can catch huge fish with his grandpa, and Candace...
Teaching the Language of Children’s Spirituality
We as human beings need stories. It's this primal part of who we are as a human race — from the very beginning. That's how we have always made meaning. Telling stories, over and over again. Caryl Cresswell, a recorded minister in Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting, a...
Weaving Quaker Activists Into First Day Schools
Make your Quaker Religious Education come alive! Weave Quaker Activists into your lesson plans bringing a fresh, contemporary voice of lived Quakerism to your Friends Meeting or Church. Use digital technology to invite the world into your classroom in the person of a...
Bayard Rustin: Troublemaker for Justice
A biography for younger readers about one of the most influential activists of our time, who was an early advocate for African Americans and for gay rights. Bayard Rustin was a major figure in the Civil Rights movement. He was arrested on a bus 13 years before Rosa...
QREC Suggested Religious Education Web Resources
A rich collection of useful websites with curricula and learning materials from many different yearly meetings, Quaker organizations and other educational organizations for teaching all ages. Please use the comment section below to suggest other websites that should...
Silver Bullets: Guide to Initiative Problems, Adventure Games, and Trust Activities
Silver Bullets is a guide to initiative problems, adventure games and trust activities. The activities of this book have all been used effectively by a variety of teachers, counselors, therapists, camp directors and church leaders. All have wanted an effective,...
33 Multicultural Children’s Books About Peace
Every day can be about creating peace. Here are some multicultural books on peace for Quaker collections......
Northern Yearly Meeting Children and Youth Policy Manual
Policies and procedures for facilitating programming for children and youth in Northern Yearly Meeting. The manual includes: NYM Children & Youth Committee member role description, Personnel policies for youth serving employees, Responsibilities for reporting...
Conversation Circle (Sep 2020) — Child Safety
How are we caring for children in our Meetings? We have been given a sacred trust, as Quaker religious educators who work with children and youth, to nurture the spiritual growth of young Friends in a loving and safe community. This conversation will explore child...
Letter Acknowledging Grief
September 2020 Dear Friends, This is an open letter to Friends engaged in youth ministry. We offer it to the First Day program teachers, the summer camp counselors, the religious education committee members, the volunteer adult presences, the childcare providers . . ....
My Mandala: What is Your Spiritual Journey?
This experiential curriculum uses mandalas to help children learn about their past and current connection to the Divine and to their faith community. Can be taught in one or more lessons. From the author… "In 2017, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions...
Video Conferencing with Under 18’s, Britain Yearly Meeting
There are times that you may want to consider virtual meetings with your children's or teenage meeting, with your youth group or as an all age meeting. This policy from Britain Yearly Meeting offers advice on safe online meetings. Download the guidelines Video...
Child Safety for Virtual Youth Programs, New England Yearly Meeting
New England Yearly Meeting's (NEYM) Child Safety Policy applies to all youth programming, including programs provided virtually. The following are specific to the use of Zoom or worth highlighting: Youth Programs Zoom meeting links will be shared with appropriate...
Guidelines for Virtual Meetings, Northern Yearly Meeting
The Northern Yearly Meeting (NYM — located in the upper midwest USA) Children and Youth Committee has considered best practices and recommendations related to virtual meetings involving youth. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to widespread use of virtual technologies for...
Guidance and Practices for Online Youth Gatherings, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Meetings to hold Religious Education on virtual platforms. Even though we are not together face to face, child safety remains a concern. The following guidance for online child safety was developed by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting...
Planning Calendar for First Day School 2020/2021
Building a curriculum plan or “road map” of topics and lessons for the year ahead allows you to gather inspiration, season ideas, seek out adults to teach, and present First Day plans to families. Connecting the themes of lessons from one week to the next gives your...
The Gardener
Lydia Grace Finch brings a suitcase full of seeds to the big gray city, where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim, a cantankerous baker. There she initiates a gradual transformation, bit by bit brightening the shop and bringing smiles to customers' faces with the...
Family Worship Pamphlet
What a challenge our form of worship is for children! Even if you just consider the visuals — "still forms on every side" — it looks like a room full of adults either falling asleep or being punished with a time out. How can we help our children feel the depth, the...