Session

Worship opening: Silence with candle showing on screen. 

Game/opening activity: One leader explains to the children that we’re going to pretend we’re going back in time to meet some special people - a Quaker woman, and one of the people she helped.  Ask children if they’re ready to pretend. 

Sharing: Dramatic role play

Leaders put on costume items that match the late 18th century.  One is Elizabeth Fry, the other, a convict woman.  They set the scene - the imaginary setting is a ship docked in the Thames, full of convict women.  Each leader introduces herself and explains who she is, then they talk about how they met and what their relationship is. “Elizabeth” explains that she wanted to help women and children who had had a very difficult life.  She talks about the practical gifts she has given the women on the ship.  The convict woman, Jane, says that no one has ever given her anything before and that Elizabeth’s gifts have given her hope.  (*script)

Craft: 

• Show a photo of the Rajah Quilt and explain how it was made by women on the convict ship, the Rajah, for the women in England who had given them “useful gifts”.  

• Introduce today’s activity: making our own “patchwork quilts” using fabric, paper or paint.  Demonstrate different ways to draw the outline of a quilt, then encourage children to chat while they draw their quilts.  

Closing: Show one another our quilt drawings. 
Possible questions:

• Do you have a real patchwork quilt at your house?  They take lots of work!  The detail in a patchwork quilt can be a sign of the love and care of the person who made it. (children could show their quilts if they have them). 
• It was pretty strange for a woman in the 18th century to visit people in prison.  Do you know anyone who visits people in prison/hospital/refugee detention?  (if yes, tell us about them).   

Worship opening: Silence with candle showing on screen. 

Opening activity: Name round - and tell us something noisy you do - or show us with your body, without making the noise.

Brief discussion: How does it feel to be noisy?

Now, we’re going to get quiet

Guided quieting - get yourself still and comfortable

• Listen to the sounds in your head, the thoughts the ideas, then let them go

• Listen to the sounds your body is making, then let them go

• Listen to the sounds in the room, then let them go

• Listen to the sounds in the rest of the house, then let them go

• Listen to the sounds outside the house

What did you hear? Go round the circle, invite everyone to share something they heard.

Sharing: 

Watch The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood.

After watching the book, introduce the following  Wondering Questions, one at a time. Give children a chance to respond to each one. You may not need to ask every question, and may spend longer on some questions than others.

• I wonder what part you liked best?
• I wonder where you saw yourself in the story?
• I wonder if you know of another kind of quiet the author didn't write about?
• I wonder what happens in the Meeting for Worship quiet? 

Activities: 

• Draw a picture that shows Meeting for Worship quiet.
• Go for a walk around your house and look for a quiet spot - draw this, or make it into a quiet spot for you to be in
• Go for a quiet walk around your house - carry the quiet in you
• Write your own ‘quiet book’ including different kinds of quiet you know

Closing: 

Sit together in silence for a couple minutes, then closing question - what did that quiet feel like to you?