There are many ways to integrate the arts into openings and closings. With younger children it is good to have a short ritual that has at least one element that repeats every week such as lighting a chalice and singing a special song....

Start by having children say their name with a movement that everyone copies. Have children keep doing their movement as they move through the space to some meditative music. They can use the same motions or start doing something else; the point is to become comfortable moving through the space.

Begin with drawing in a thin layer of sand on cookie sheets. Read or tell a peace story (such as The Terrible Things by Eve Bunting) while the children are moving the sand with their fingers and hands. Have a few minutes of silence when you finish the story. Ask them what they think is the most...

Find an interesting person to present to the children and connect an activity to that life. Example: Buckminster Fuller, a Unitarian who created the geodesic dome To create sacred space, gather photos of various natural or human-made sacred spaces. and a photo of a geodesic dome. Ask the children...

Purchase or make a blank puzzle from cardboard. Begin the session with a guided meditation to encourage the children to think about their personal gifts. Give each child a piece of the puzzle to decorate to represent themselves as individuals....

There are many ways to set up lessons to encourage connections between children's inner experience and arts activities. These are some general guidelines. Always begin with a practice which helps the children to center and get ready for the experience they are about to have. If you begin your...

Adult leaders need to serve as guides into the process and as witnesses to the children's unfolding. We have moved in educational theory from thinking of the child as an empty vessel that needs to be filled with knowledge to seeing children as unique human beings with differing intelligences and...

Spirituality and Creativity Briggs, John and F. David Peat. Seven Life Lessons of Chaos: Spiritual Wisdom From the Science of Change. San Francisco: HarperPerennial, 1999. Dissanayake, Ellen. Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000. Fox, Matthew.