Tag: STORY OF ABDU'L-BAHA: LOVE OF CHILDREN

Discussion: A Pure Kindly & Radiant Heart

How Do You Practice it?
You practice kindness by noticing when someone or something needs care.  You have become sensitive to the world around you.  Use your imagination to think of things that give others happiness – your parents, your friends, your teachers, your brothers and sisters, and even people you don’t know very well.  Find out what habits harm or help the environment and choose kinder ways.
When tempted to be cruel, to criticize, or tease, you decide not to do it You accept people who are different or handicapped instead of ignoring them or teasing them.  When you are practicing kindness, you take really good care of your pets.

What would kindness look like if:

1. A new child comes into your class and she looks lonely.
2. You start teasing your brother/ sister and they are getting upset?
3. Some kids you have been playing with start ridiculing a boy who has big ears.
4. Your pet got some dirt on them?
5. Your mother seems tired lately.  

Signs of Success

Congratulations! You are practicing kindness when you… Give tender attention to someone who is sad or needs help. Do things that give others happiness. Practice habits that help the earth (reduce, reuse, recycle) Resist the temptation to be cruel in your words and actions. Accept people who are different. Take good care of animals. Remember your connection to all creation.

Keep trying! You need more practice when you… Always put yourself first. Don’t pay attention to the needs of others. Don’t think about how you can help the environment. Tease and play tricks on others. Ignore or ridicule someone who is different. Hurt animals. Neglect your pets. Forget that you are part of God’s creation and that all of it deserves to be cared for with kindness.

AFFIRMATION
I am kind.  I look for ways to help others.  I show kindness to any person or animal I see.  I do all I can to take care of the earth.  I remember my connection to all creation.

Note: All of the 24 lessons for grade 1 can be found here: Grade 1

Some of the activities may be around being clean and tidy in our life. This is not the main theme, (its PURITY OF HEART ) but general cleanliness can be used if the class is of mixed ages.

SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

Watch the video with the class or prepare your own demonstration for the class.

THE WATER GOES FROM: Pure – Then impure – Then pure again (symbolizes purifying our heart. ) 

You need: 2 clear cups (one labeled “sin” and one labeled with a cross), food coloring, bleach, baking soda, and water

How you do it: 

• Fill one glass about 3/4 full of water
• Stir in 1 tsp of baking soda
• Add food coloring
• Next pour about 1/4 cup of bleach into the colored water

To begin, let us attract divine blessings and create a spiritual atmosphere by reciting a prayer.

Prayer To Memorize

Here is a link with pictures to help memorize the prayer.

Listen to the prayer:

Want to send this prayer as a postcard? Print it from this link and post it to a neighbor or a friend!

There are so many lovely songs to choose from. Here are a few suggestions

O SON OF SPIRIT! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly, and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable, and everlasting.

Bahá’u’lláh

My First Counsel

MEANING OF WORDS

Pure heart
1. Cathy became angry and screamed at Susan.  Susan was sad but quickly forgave Cathy.  Susan possesses a pure heart.
2. Jorge likes to share his cookies with all the children, even with Gustavo, who throws stones at him.  Jorge possesses a pure heart.

Kindly heart
1. When people in need come to her house, Ming Ling always takes care of them.  Ming Ling possesses a kindly heart.
2. Mr. Robertson is very old. Jimmy helps him carry his fruit harvest to the market.  Jimmy possesses a kindly heart.

Radiant heart
1. When I feel sad, my mother always cheers me up and makes me happy.  My mother possesses a radiant heart.
2. Obuya became ill and has to spend all his time in bed.  He says many prayers, does not become sad, and continues to show forth happiness.  Obuya possesses a radiant heart.  

To memorize the quote, try taking out keywords in the sentence. Have the children have to work out together to find which word would best fit that gap.

MEMORIZATION AID

Access the word document memorization aid here

Before we leave the quote for today, here is one more short video from Spiritual Cookies to help with the meaning of the words

STORY OF ABDU’L-BAHA: LOVE OF CHILDREN

Story of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá –  Purity Of Heart.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá could always tell what was in a person’s heart, and He greatly loved people whose hearts were pure and radiant. There was a lady who had the honor of being the guest of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at dinner. As she sat listening to His words of wisdom, she looked at a glass of water in front of her and thought, “Oh! If only ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would take my heart and empty it of every earthly desire and then refill it with divine love and understanding, just as you would do with this glass of water.”

This thought passed through her mind quickly, and she did not say anything about it, but soon something happened that made her realize ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had known what she was thinking. While He was in the middle of His talk, He paused to call a servant and said a few words to him in Persian. The servant quietly came to the lady’s place at the table, took her glass, emptied it, and put it back in front of her.

A little later, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, while continuing to talk, picked up a pitcher of water from the table, and in a most natural way, slowly refilled the lady’s empty glass. No one noticed what had happened, but the lady knew that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was answering her heart’s desire. She was filled with joy. Now she knew that hearts and minds were like open books to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who read them with great love and kindliness.

The online platform has more stories with video content. If you can’t access coach zippy, I do apologize: the site is having ongoing issues but I am slowly moving content here to the blog! Sign up here

ACT OUT THE SENTENCES 

•  Use soap to clean your hands after coming home from outside, and before eating.
• Make sure to cover your mouth and nose when sneezing (cough into your sleeve or a tissue).
•  Keep your distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing Activity Two
• Clean your room or an area of the house where you spend time so that you can have a clean area to spend your time in. Cleanliness brings us closer to God.
• Find a mirror in the house and clean one-half of it, then compare the difference between the clean side and the dirty side.

STORM OF KINDNESS

Explain that kids will make a “rainstorm” of kindness. Being kind is contagious (ask them what contagious means). It may start off with one small act of kindness, but soon that one act with spread to someone else, and so on and so on. It will lead to other acts of kindness, and when those all get added together, they create an amazing “storm” of kindness.

Have kids stand in a circle. Tell them to each do what the teacher does when he/she looks at them and nods. Don’t do it until the teacher looks and nods. Starting at one spot in the circle, the teachers will have the children:

• Rub hands together (sounds like rain starting to drizzle) 
• Snap (or slap backs of hands, alternating) (bigger drops)
• Clap out of rhythm (even bigger) 
• Slap thighs (heavy rain)
• Stomp feet (very heavy rain/thunder)
• Then reverse steps, slapping thighs, then clapping, then snapping, then rubbing hands.

EAST WIND BLOWS

Begin with all the children in a circle, on chairs or cushions (can also take off their shoes and use them as markers). Each round begins with the teacher, who is outside the circle, calling out the following phrase: “The west wind blows on everyone who…”, continuing by referring to some characteristic that more than one child shares, such as blue eyes, black hair, blue pants, and so on. All the children who share that characteristic must then get up and switch places with each other. Each child must find a different seat from the one he or she was occupying before the call.

Care should be taken so that children do not push or collide with each other when switching seats. The circle should be wide enough to give all the children space to move when they are called.

THE BURNING THIRST

Tie sticks to the children’s arms so they cannot bend their elbows, and then tell them to pretend that they are walking in a desert and are very, very thirsty. When they come upon water in cups, they have to find a way to drink it. They will discover that the only way is to help each other, being careful not to get each other wet.

There are many craft and activity suggestions for you to consider. When you choose what you would like to do with the class, make sure all the required supplies are available for the children.

Folded heart with quote

GET TEMPLATE HERE

Make a kindness jar

Download here

Add A Kindness Jar activity to your notebook/lapbook

Kindness jar

Magnets

Use salt dough or premade dough to make fridge magnets. You can also use a material like felt, heave cardboard or even a small wooden heart and attach the quote.

THE ONLINE COACHZIPPY PLATFORM ALSO USES THESE CRAFTS AND OTHERS IN AN INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK.

Here is the Google drive link with most of the activities, quotes etc

WEBSITE FOR A DIFFERENT LESSON

Here is a link to another blog for this lesson

Here is another site with lesson for grade 1