Faith & Play Stories™
With the need for social distancing, the Faith & Play group offers support in adapting lessons to the virtual classroom. Please read more, here.
Faith & Play Stories™, created by Friends (Quakers), is a Montessori-inspired resource that helps children find words and images for expressing their experiences of holy mystery and wonder in their lives. The Faith & Play collection includes 16 stories that explore Quaker faith, practice, and witness. Like Godly Play®, with which it is designed to be used, Faith & Play™ is designed for children 3 to 12 and is suitable for multigenerational settings, is deeply respectful of children and their spiritual lives, employs highly visual storytelling and open-ended questions, and requires training to be used effectively.
Godly Play® was created by Rev. Dr. Jerome Berryman and his wife Thea Berryman. Its origins are in the Episcopal Church, although its reach today is ecumenical. Friends use this resource and method to teach stories from the Bible. Bible material is presented in a way that invites children to experientially find themselves in the stories and makes space for continuous revealing of Truth. While we might not use all these stories in a Quaker First Day School program, this helps many Friends to see this as a welcoming and Quaker-friendly way to approach the Bible and the Judeo-Christian heritage.
In the Faith & Play™ classroom, an experiential framework for exploring Quaker faith and practice with children is provided through regular use of story in a structured environment, careful pacing, including periods of silence, community building, mutual sharing and creative play.