SPIRIT PLAY CLASSROOM

Spirit Play is a Montessori-based Religious Education (RE) program. Originally developed by Dr. Nita Penfold, Spirit Play encourages children to explore their own spirituality while learning about world religions, including Unitarian Universalism, through key stories and folktales. Spirit Play invites children to actively respond to and interact with the stories and traditions that compose our faith and commitment to social justice. 

MVUUC’s Spirit Play Program is a unique, one-room schoolhouse model in which children from PreK to 6th grade learn and explore side by side. After listening to a storyteller tell a “story basket,” a story illustrated with beautiful props, the children discuss the story’s lessons.  Storytime is followed by “work time,” in which children can choose to respond to the story with art, select a story basket off the shelves to “reenact,” or practice yoga or meditation in the “peace patch.” Work time is child-directed, which allows children to explore at their own pace through materials that speak to them.  After work time, children reconvene for a “feast” (snack time) and listen to each other’s “Joys and Concerns,” a coveted MVUUC tradition that builds community in our congregation.