Yesterday afternoon we had a meeting to work on our Spirit Play class for the fall. We’ll be putting together about 12 stories for the fall and 12 more for the spring. The women who were there each took a story or two to put together before our next meeting sometime in July. We have some really nice books we’re using including Belinda’s Bouquet (which we’re desperately seeking a copy of, by the way), Ghost Wings, The Lazy Bear, The Empty Pot and more. The book I’m working on is The Blessing, which actually is a stand-alone book called The Chanukah Blessing and a story titled “The Blessing” in an anthology of Hanukkah stories.
For those of you who don’t know, Spirit Play is a religious education program for Unitarian Universalism based on Montessori teachings. At each class, one story is selected and carefully told to the class using small props - either small toys and wooden figures, or laminated cut-outs of illustrations, or a combination of both. The props are laid out at appropriate times on a felt backing to illustrate the story.
Later in the class, the students choose their “work” which can include visiting a classroom altar, reading in the book corner, using clay, paint, blocks or other creative materials, or choosing one story basket that the class has already heard and retelling a story to themselves.
The story of “The Blessing” did not come with a photograph showing how other classrooms have put this story together. It did come with a list of materials.
cream colored felt underlay cut in a T shape, smaller basket with gelt, dreidel, Temple of Jerusalem, figures for story: man, woman, children, house, table, food, Maccabees, Antiochus, Greek statue, menorah, Star of David symbol, pig, Torah; large basket for whole thing, metal menorah with candles
Here’s where I get stuck: neither print version of the story actually illustrates Antiochus and the Maccabees or any of the story-within-a-story that the old man is telling. The Spirit Play committee may decide that any simple, featureless figures will work, but it might be nice to have a laminated illustration of Antiochus, since we’ll probably be using copied illustrations from the book for the old man, the woman and the children.
Anyone want to draw me the Maccabees? Or simpler yet, point me to a source?
