- To use the “Godly Play” Curriculum to enter the sacred stories of the Bible in a spirit of play and to encourage an imaginative and personal engagement with the tradition:
- To observe a weekly structure which helps encourage a sense of ritual and worship
- To nurture intrinsic spirituality through play
- To teach Christian values in a way that is relevant and current:
- To encourage questioning and original thought
- To observe, when appropriate, the liturgical year and Christian Holidays as well as holidays that may be spiritually and socially relevant for the children in the context of their faith journey. (MLK Day, Thanksgiving, etc)
- To incorporate into Religious Education knowledge of other religious traditions
- To provide an atmosphere of encouragement and spiritual nurturance:
- To ensure that the presence and contributions of each child are recognized and validated
- To make every effort to provide for unique styles of learning and behavioral styles
- To teach cooperation, conflict resolution, and empathy
- To maintain high standards of respectful treatment
- To bring attention to the needs of the community and the wider world through service
- To integrate the children’s program into adult worship through children’s messages, plays, songs, and other activities; and periodic updates.
- To conduct CC using a “team approach” and to conduct open communication with parents about their children’s needs in the CC Program
Godly Play Curriculum Principles
- “Re-sacralizes everyday objects” thereby teaching a “sacramental worldview,” wherein the “sacredness in the ordinary” is recognized.
- Teaches that there is Kairos time (significant time) as well as chronos time (chronological) Kairos time is not concerned with the clock but with seeing God at the center of daily life.
- Teaching quiet and deliberation, “care and patience”
- Using verbal and non-verbal learning
- Uses a “discovery” rather than a “transfer” method of learning
- Encouraging the creation of meaning through responses in art, drama, and play
- Teaches story as an elemental way of knowing and learning
- Demonstrates biblical model of “action and reflection”
- “Teaches kindness and mutuality through its rituals and by the way it organizes physical space, objects and a group of children.” Embodies “the biblical ethic of how people are to live together”
- Offers a contemporary child’s version of “lectio divina” or holy reading, wondering, and meaning making. Instead of cognitive analysis alone, kinesthetic and artistic learning is used.