Fruits of the Spirit Early Years The Spirit Alive in the World Purpose: Students will come to understand the role that the Holy Spirit plays in our lives today, and will be able to identify the presence of the Spirit in our world by recognising when others in their class demonstrate these qualities. Activity overview:  

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Students will identify some of the qualities regarded as Fruits of the Spirit by listening to stories from the Gospels They will then be introduced to the story of Pentecost through role play, where they will learn about the power and actions of the Holy Spirit as a source of courage and strength to be more like Jesus. To identify the continued presence of the Holy Spirit alive in the world today, students will listen to the story of „How to Heal a Broken Wing‟ by Bob Graham, and discuss how the characters showed love, patience, gentleness, kindness, peace and faithfulness. In recognising the Holy Spirit as a source of courage and strength, the students as a class or in groups will create a prayer of intercession to the Holy Spirit to be prayed in class prayer time or at other suitable times. To demonstrate their understanding, and recognise that the Spirit is Alive in their everyday lives, students will be encouraged to award a „Holy Spirit‟ card to fellow class members when they observe students showing love, patience, gentleness, kindness, peace or faithfulness. When giving the card, they will be asked to tell the student why they have given the card, and what quality they have recognised.

Resources Required: Minimal resources are required beyond what has been supplied to implement this unit. 

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Digital projector/interactive whiteboard for „Jesus Shares the Fruits of the Holy Spirit‟ PowerPoint learning object (alternatively students can access this via individual computers, but for shared discussion viewing as a whole class is preferable). Various craft materials, dress up items, electric fan for role play Music for role play – see suggestions below „How to Heal a Broken Wing‟ by Bob Graham „You Who Do Through‟ prayer cards (supplied) printed onto coloured card „Holy Spirit‟ cards (supplied) printed onto coloured card, laminated if desired

Suggested Learning Strategies: 

Students navigate simple Learning Object created in PowerPoint - „Jesus Shares the fruits of the Holy Spirit‟ individually or as a group via a digital projector or interactive whiteboard. Students choose a particular quality from the second slide by clicking on it and are directed to a slide that gives a brief overview, audio and visuals for a simple Gospel story where Jesus models or teaches about that quality. Sharing this PowerPoint on an interactive whiteboard or data projector would be preferential to develop class discussion, although it does require speakers for the sound files to be played. The Learning Object is available by clicking on the Learning Object button on the SharePoint ResourceLink portal.

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After reading the story of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13), students re-enact the story through simple role play. Encourage the students to depict the change of emotions the Apostles experienced – from fear and anxiety to joy and confidence as the Holy Spirit came upon them. Provide crepe paper in flame colours to symbolise the tongues of flame, and experiment with an electric fan to provide a strong wind. Play music that reflects the different moods of the apostles. Further ideas may be found HERE.

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Read „How to Heal a Broken Wing‟ by Bob Graham. This book won the Early Childhood Book of the Year Award last year, so your school library should own it. While reading the story, pause to identify when the characters demonstrate the qualities the Holy Spirit brings - love, patience, gentleness, kindness, peace and faithfulness. A guide to the story may be found HERE.

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Introduce the idea of praying to the Holy Spirit to ask for strength and guidance when facing difficult choices. Remind students that the Apostles at Pentecost were afraid before they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Reflect on how we might ask the Holy Spirit to help us. A very simple way to create prayers is using the „You Who Do Through‟ strategy. Additional information on this may be found HERE.

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Discuss the idea that the Holy Spirit is with us today, and can be seen through our actions. Present the pack of Holy Spirit cards (template is HERE) and explain that when they see someone in the class showing one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit you have discussed (love, patience, gentleness, kindness, peace or faithfulness) they are to take a card from the pack, give it to the student and identify why they are giving them the card, and what they saw the student do. E.G. “I am giving you this Holy Spirit card, Jane, because you showed gentleness when you helped Chris when he fell over”. Make sure the students know where the cards will be kept, and model using the Holy Spirit cards with the students by giving cards out also.

Suggested Evaluation: 

Students:  discuss times in Jesus life where He taught/modelled fruits of the Holy Spirit;  with support retell the story of Pentecost ;  use prayer cards to share a prayer to the Holy Spirit with the class or group;  identify examples from their own lives when they have seen the Spirit alive in the world – in their own or others‟ actions.

Ideas for role playing the story of Pentecost Share this simple story of Pentecost, adapted from ‘The Big Bible Storybook’ Barfield, M. (2007). (available through St Paul’s Bookstore Brisbane, $34.95). A few weeks after Jesus had returned to Heaven, lots of Jesus’ friends were together in a room. Jesus had asked them to continue His teaching, but they were afraid. They knew it would be hard. (Play solemn music; have children gathered together, looking worried and sad) Suddenly, they heard a noise like a strong wind blowing. They could hear it all around them. Something special was happening. (Turn on fan; children look around, trying to find source of wind. Music softly fades) Next, the friends saw what looked life flames dancing above people’s heads. But they were not hot like ordinary flames. (Have other children move around the group, waving crepe paper streamers in flame colours; music fades in, this time more joyful) Then they all started talking in lots of different languages. People from other countries were amazed because they could all understand what the friends were saying.(Turn fan off; children with flames continue to move among group; children move out and start miming speaking actions; cupping their ears to demonstrate listening; music volume increases slightly) Then Jesus’ friends knew that God has sent his Holy Spirit to help them. They were no longer afraid! (children show joyful faces, sing song of praise) (Acts 2:1-4)

Useful songs: Pentecost: Peter Kearney from ‘Celebration’ Pentecost Song: John Burland from ‘As One Voice for Kids Disc 4 The Spirit Song: from ‘Get Ready’ (All available from ResourceLink)

There are many other songs you could choose, particularly for the final part of the role play, when the children are showing how happy they are that the Holy Spirit has come upon them. Any song with the themes of joy or celebration could be suitable.

How to Heal a Broken Wing – Bob Graham. This gentle story follows Will and his family, as they work together to care for a pigeon Will finds lying in a city street. There is minimal text, and the story is mainly told through the images, which are laid out in a graphic novel style with frames and gutters. There are many themes and ways you could work with this book, but this guide directs readers to identify the qualities of the Holy Spirit including Love, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Kindness and Faithfulness in the actions of the family. Before reading: View the front and back covers; read the blurb; what could the story be about? How has Bob Graham use colour to denote the key characters? Examine the end papers (the inside of the front and back covers); discuss why they might be the same front and back; come back to these endpapers after reading – do they help tell the story? Reading: High above the city, no one heard a soft thud of feathers against glass. No one saw the bird fall. No one looked. Except Will. Will saw a bird with a broken wing.. and he took it home. A loose feather can’t be put back... but a broken wing can sometimes heal. With rest...and time...and a little hope... a bird may fly again. Will opened his hands...

Questions to consider – breaking open the story... Why did no one see the bird fall? Why did Bob Graham use grey colours in these images? How has Graham used colour on these pages? Does the fact that Will stop echo the actions of The Good Samaritan? Is there a double meaning re the loose feather? Could he be implying that actions/words that have hurt someone cannot be taken back, but forgiveness (healing) may be sought? During the time the bird recuperates how does the family show love? patience? gentleness? kindness? faithfulness? How is this shown in the images?

and with a beat of its wings, the bird was gone. Is this a story of peace and hope? After reading:  Discuss with students - identify times when you or a friend or family member has cared for another person. Did they show kindness? gentleness? love? patience?  Did the family’s patience show faithfulness to the bird? Have we ever felt like giving up and not persisting when something has proven time-consuming?  Sometimes it is hard to show these qualities; recall the story of Pentecost, prior to the Apostles receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit – they were afraid and lacked courage to do what Jesus had asked – can we also call on the Holy Spirit in times of challenge? (This leads into following activity, creating a prayer of intercession to the Holy Spirit). Additional Teachers’ Notes are available online at http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/statics/dyn/1266193418787/How-to-Heal-a-Broken-Wing-PB-ClassroomIdeas.pdf http://www.elit.edu.au/mediaLibrary/documents/membership/Exploring%20the%202009%20Short%20Lis t%20Complete%20FINAL.pdf (scroll to page 10)

Praying to the Holy Spirit A simple structure for composing prayers for use as an opening or concluding prayer, or „collect‟, or in this case to pray to the Holy Spirit is to follow the YOU-WHO-DO-THROUGH pattern. YOU- begin by addressing the Holy Spirit, or naming the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit”, “Spirit of Jesus”, “Breath of God”. WHO- name „WHO‟ the Holy Spirit is for us, for example: “You fill us with love”, “You are always with us”, “Our strength and hope”. DO- we ask the Holy Spirit to act, to „DO‟ something: “Give us courage and strength”, “Be with us in difficult times ”. THROUGH- We pray to the Holy Spirit in and THROUGH Christ, so our prayer concludes with a simple “Through Christ our Lord Amen”, or “In the name of Jesus your Son, Amen.

Suggested strategies: There are many ways you can create this type of prayer with students, including: 

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Present pre-prepared cards (see below for examples) to the students, work through each part of the prayer and use a different combination of cards each morning as chosen by the students Work as a class to create one prayer following this framework Divide the class into small groups and allocate one part of the prayer to each of the groups – write on cards and use these cards to create a variety of prayers Brainstorm different images that symbolize each of the pray parts and add these to the cards to assist visual recognition for less confident readers

The following pages provide templates that you can use as is or use as inspiration for creating your own „You Who Do Through‟ prayer cards. If using these cards as is:  Photocopy each set of cards onto different coloured paper e.g. You cards yellow, Who cards red, Do cards orange, Through cards blue. This will enable students to quickly see if they have all parts of the prayer.  Cut out cards and group together. Encourage students each day to select one „You‟ card, one „Who‟ card, one „Do‟ card and one „Through‟ card, and use their selection as the prayer for the day. The following prayer time, a new prayer can be created with a new combination of cards.

Further information about this and other prayer strategies, as well as a prayer ritual for Pentecost may be found on the Religious Education portal, in the Prayer and Worship area: http://ri.bne.catholic.edu.au/ree/RE/PW/Pages/default.aspx

YOU cards….

Spirit of Courage Spirit of Peace Holy Spirit Breath of God

WHO cards…

You are our helper and friend You fill us with love You bring peace to our hearts You help us to show our goodness

DO Cards….

Help us make good choices Give us courage to do what we know is right

Calm our fears Give us strength

THROUGH Cards…

Through Christ our Lord, Amen. Through Jesus, God’s Son, Amen. Through Jesus our friend, Amen. Through Jesus our teacher, Amen.

How to use Holy Spirit Cards:  Copy this template onto red, orange and yellow A4 paper/card and cut the cards out. Laminate if desired.  Have pack available on prayer table/teacher‟s desk  Teacher and students give a card when they observe another showing a „fruit of the spirit‟ – love, gentleness, kindness, patience, faithfulness, peace etc  When they give the card they are to name what they see e.g. “I am giving you this Holy Spirit card, Jane, because you showed gentleness when you helped Chris when he fell over”.

The Holy Spirit is with you!

The Holy Spirit is with you!

The Holy Spirit is with you!

The Holy Spirit is with you!

The Holy Spirit is with you!