More information:
Much more can be found about Godly Play at the official website of the Center for the Theology of Childhood.
They can be found at http://www.godlyplay.org/
Godly Play
Godly Play at St. Anne's
Finding a way to engage children in Sunday School, rather than simply repeating a list of facts, can be difficult. Seeking to address to this challenge, St. Anne's introduced Godly Play into our church school in 1995 and it has been a part of our childhood education program ever since. We have seen the effectiveness of the program over more than a decade. For its work with the Godly Play program St. Anne's has been recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Center for the Theology of Childhood.
“In Godly Play... we hear the deepest invitation to all: an invitation to come play with God.”
How Godly Play Works
In the classroom, we work to maintain the threshold between the outside world and the classroom, our worship space. The children learn how to get ready by quieting their minds and bodies, to “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
As each child is ready, we ask him or her to enter the classroom one at a time and join the storyteller in the circle where the story will be presented. After the story is presented, the children will engage in a discussion with the storyteller guided by a series of “wondering questions.”
Afterwards, the children will be invited to respond to the story in a variety of creative ways including working with art materials or telling the story themselves. Each child will have a folder in the classroom where they can keep ongoing art projects. Each child may choose to bring home an art project or to keep it in the classroom. At the end of the year, all artwork will be sent home. Because of the open-choice nature of the response time, your child may not bring home a craft project that readily reflects a lesson of the day. We will have handouts each week to let you know about the day’s presentation. If you would like to know about your child’s work in the classroom, please ask one of the teachers.
Once the children have cleaned up their work, we return to the circle for prayers and the feast. Finally, the children will be dismissed from the circle one at a time as their parents arrive. Please meet your children outside the classroom. It is very helpful to us to have the adults wait in the hallway until the children come out at the end of class. We welcome adults to visit the classroom any Sunday, just ask. We also appreciate your help as substitute teachers and will bringing a snack for our feast time.
The Idea
Jerome Berryman, the Episcopal priest, teacher, and author who created Godly play says the following about it:
“In Godly Play, the invitation is given not for play in general but for play with the language of God and God’s people: our sacred stories, parables, liturgical actions, and silences. Through this powerful language, through wondering, through the community of players gathered together, we hear the deepest invitation to all: an invitation to come play with God.”
(From The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume I by, Jerome W. Berryman)