Sunday Stories: the plan for each Session

by Pamela Mclean
inspired by Godly Play® by Jerome Berryman

Sunday Stories is a lectionary-based curriculum using Montessori techniques, drawing heavily on the influence of Godly Play®.

The author of Sunday Stories, Pamela Mclean, grants permission to parents, clergy and children's ministers to use, reprint, republish, adapt and distribute Sunday Stories provided that both the authorship, and the influence from Godly Play, are credited.

Opening

Ministry of the Word

Children will be invited to come to the front of the church to hear the story.The story materials should be waiting in front of the Altar, or they may be brought to the front by the Storyteller.

The Storyteller invites the children to sit in a circle around the story materials. It is best to take a little time to help the children settle, so that they can focus on the story. If the church uses an overhead projector, and especially if the story is displayed via webcam on the projector screen for the adults to see, then it is wise for the circle to be made so that the children face away from the screen, even if that put's the Storyteller's back to the congregation. Once the Storyteller begins the story itself, she should keep her focus on the story materials rather than on the children's faces.

When the story ends, the storyteller puts the story materials back onto their tray which contains a green ribbon book-mark, hands it to the Wonder Leader, but talks to the children: You can take this story with you into the Story room. Maybe some of you would like to work with it later when you are thinking about this story. Please follow (Door Keeper's name) into the Sunday Stories room now, or you may go back and sit with your family.

Journeying (about five minutes)

The Doorkeeper leads the children out of the Nave and into the Story Room. Normally, the children will sing as they journey out and the congregation will join in. The Doorkeeper might remind the children how their song goes, and cue the music-leader. It will be good if the door person has a banner or cross with which to lead the procession up the aisle to the back of the Sanctuary, and out and around back down the hallway (after the first lesson, one of the bigger children may carry it and lead.) The children should follow behind. The Wonder Leader takes the story materials out the side door and sets them up in the Wonder Circle before the Doorkeeper and the children arrive from their Journey.. S/he will need help when the desert bag is used since it is so heavy. In the Story Room the Wonder Leader takes a seat at the top of the circle (opposite the door, in front of the Bible shelf), and puts the tray and desert bag down in the circle in front of him/her.

Getting ready (about five minutes)

When God's people gathr together, one of the way we worship God is by singing. Let's learn a song that we can sing each time we start Sunday Stories together.The Door Keeper stops at the door of the Sunday School. At the first lesson, or when new children are present the door person needs to explain: We will let (Wonder Leader's name) go in first, so that s/he can put down the story and get seated.

If the Doorkeeper is not musical, then someone who is musical accompanies the children on their journey and says:

Let's learn our new Journeying song while we wait to go in to the Story Room. I'll say the words first, and you repeat them after me.

I will sing, I will sing (wait for repeat)

a song unto the Lord (wait for repeat)

I will sing, I will sing (wait for repeat)

a song unto the Lord (wait for repeat)

I will sing, I will sing (wait for repeat)

a song unto the Lord (wait for repeat)

Hallelujah Glory to the Lord (wait for repeat)

Now I'll sing it all the way through.

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Hallelujah Glory to the Lord

Now, let's sing it together. We'll add one line at a time. The first line is “I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord”. Ready --

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Good! Let's try that line twice. Ready --

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Good! Now let's do it three times. Ready --

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Good! Now we just have to add (singing)“Hallelujah Glory to the Lord” at the end. Ready --

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Hallelujah Glory to the Lord

The Door Keeper then greets each child and helps them get ready to go in one at a time. The Wonder Leader helps each child find a seat and get comfortable. The Door Keeper sits near the door ready to help if necessary.

Wondering (about five minutes)

Look: we have the desert bag here again. It reminds us

about the Story we just heard. I have been thinking about the Story:

I wonder ...

I wonder ....

What do you wonder? The Wonder Leader draws out the children without pressuring them, encouraging them to wonder and to say what they wonder about.

This Story comes from the Bible. I am going to put a bookmark in the Bible at the spot where this story is, so that you can read it for yourself if you want to. Stand up and get the Bible and bring it back to the circle. Put the Bible on the carpet in front of you and page through it smoothly Book by Book: Genesis, Exodus, There we are. Exodus chapter seven verse thirteen, to Chapter 12 verse 14: Put the bookmark in the Bible so that it hangs out at both top and bottom. Take the Bible back to its place.Now watch carefully while I put this story away, so you will always know where to find it: Put the story tray and the basket containing the People of God on the Old Testament shelves, to the right of big bookshelves.

Response (about twenty minutes)

Wonder Leader: We are going to have some work time now. If you want to tell today's story for yourself using the desert bag you may. Or you may choose to work with paint and brushes and paper. If you want, you may work with the Bible and re-read the story we just heard. You may choose what work you want to do. While you are working, you need a place that is just for you. I will show you how to make that place. Go to the rug box and take a rug. Pick it up and put it over your shoulder, hugging it, and carry it to an empty spot in the room . Kneel down and unroll it, smoothing it out. Then sit on it. After you make your own place you can go get your work, and bring it back to your place. No-one will bother you when you are in your own place. If you need to go somewhere, walk around the rugs so you don't bother anyone. Like this: Get up, and walk slowly and deliberately around the rug. Then sit down on it again. When it is time to clean up, put your

work away where it came from. Then you can put your rug away again. Like this: Roll up the rug and put it over your shoulder, hugging it, and carry it to the rug box and put it in. Now, what work do you want to do today? Go around the circle, asking each child what work they would like to do. If they choose paints, send them to the Door Keeper to help them get a tray, paper and a paint set; because they have not learned yet where the paints are. Later they will be able to get these things for themselves.

Sending

Clean-up (about ten minutes)

Wonder Leader: We need to take a break from our work now. You do not need to finish your work. We can put it safely on a shelf and you can finish it on another day. Help the children to store any unfinished work, to wash and dry their hands and rinse their brushes and to put away the paint sets away. When the first child is finished, the leader can show the child how to come back to the circle and sit down. As each child finishes, the Door Keeper guides the child to join the others in the circle.

Sending Song (about five minutes)

At future lessons, we will have a different Sending Song. Since this is the first lesson and we have already learned one new song, we will just practice it. Wonder Leader: Thank-you all for working so hard today. I am looking forward to next week! For now, let's practice our song one last time. Can you remember it? It goes:

Let's sing it together. One, two, three and ...

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Hallelujah Glory to the Lord

Well done! This time, let's sing it while we line up at the door. Then you can follow (Door Keeper's name) who will

lead you back into the church. The Door Keeper gets the

cross and stands at the door.

I will sing, I will sing, a song unto the Lord

Hallelujah Glory to the Lord

At or near the end of the song, when all the children are lined up, the door person leads them to the foyer. If worship is still in progress, the door-person reminds them to go quietly to their parents, and then opens the nave door for them.

Some comments about the lesson plan you have just read:

The bookmark is the symbol that the story comes from the Bible. It is coloured for the liturgical season, and it has a picture on it that represents the lesson's manipulatives. By seeing it next to the story manipulatives, children will associate it with the story, even when it is placed into the actual Bible. We will do this with every lesson, adding a new bookmark to the Bible each week, so that each week the children are reminded that they can access any of the stories they have already heard, just by going back to the Bible.

Paging through the bible and naming the books in order is important to helping children build a mental picture of the shape of the bible: its different parts and where to find the different stories. We will always page into the bible to find our place. Later we might search from the middle, or from the back, or section by section, but early in the programme we will repeat the order in the same way each lesson, to build familiarity.

The children should feel ownership of their worship expression, including of their Journeying songs. We give them that ownership by

repetition and familiarity, focusing on having a few songs that the children know well, and introducing new songs very slowly. We sing the same song every week for six months.
appropriate choice of song: not “kiddie” songs that are cute but often inappropriate for worship or aesthetically trite, nor traditional children's hymns that have poor theology and dated wording. We choose Taize-style worship songs that use simple words and repetition so that the children can focus on the meaning of the words, and their feelings, instead of focussing on remembering the words.
giving the children the song before it is given to the adult congregation. When we do change to a new song, we spring it on the adults as a “surprise” that the children have been working on for weeks.

We teach five songs each year: 1) in September, we teach a song for Journeying back to the church from the Story Room. This is a quiet contemplative song, as the children are going in for communion and we are trying to maintain the deep peacefulness they entered into during their worship response. They begin using this song immediately.