A Kindergarten Query for the beginning of the school year

Query writing: We took on a large job in kindergarten and wrote the first Query of the school year. 

A query is a Quaker kind of a question. It gives us something to think about and use as a tool to help us find ways we might grow, help each other, or help our community. 

How do we do this with 5 and 6 year olds? It begins with careful (almost radical) listening. As the children share ideas about our classroom, play with each other, work to solve differences, and manage our busy days, I listen and study and watch. I'm listening for "the thing" or a "thread." I am seeking the idea that pops up and seems to linger in our midst.

As we went about our learning, I noticed some interesting and beautiful ideas that felt like the beginning of a query. The excitement of the new year and all the newness of our classroom provided some joyful highs while also creating bumps along our path. My students are kind (an abundance of "please" and "thank you"), they are willing to include a new friend, and are happily sharing their individual ideas. Even so, we had some friends who did not feel "at home" in the classroom or within the group. We talked about how important it is to feel like you belong, to feel that you have a place in our classroom family. This sparked some ideas.

I wrote their ideas on the white board as we brainstormed ways to make the belonging happen. We can be respectful. We can make others feel happy. We can befriend others. We can play. (Absolutely!) 

We revisited our list day after day and added to it. One morning, I blended our ideas together as a question. I posed the question to the class as a Query and it was widely accepted. Some of the children made small suggestions abound words choices - is "everyone" better than "everybody?" We settled on a good draft. And that is how the Marigolds and Dandelions (my kindergarten class) wrote the first Lower School Query of 2025!

Query for September 9/9/25

How can we make sure everyone in our community feels that they belong? 

Marigolds & Dandelions )

Note about queries: Classes and groups of children/adults will write queries for the community throughout the year at my school. During this process, the children share their thinking through brainstorming, connecting, being inspired by each other’s ideas, and (in our case) allowing me to sum up, rephrase, and offer some vocabulary advice. Each class has their own process, however there are many similarities, varying by age and developmental phases.

I am proud of my Marigolds & Dandelions and their big ideas!

Meeting for Worship

Robert Smith describes in The Quaker Book of Wisdom:

 “Friends believe that each individual has access to God through the powerful illumination of the light within, they worship in silence, joined in waiting for God to speak to them directly…” 

This week my kindergarteners and I shared our first Meeting for Worship together. We learned that Meeting for Worship is a time for silence, for waiting, for listening to our still small voices for any messages, and for reflection. 

Meeting for Worship is a part of our school curriculum. We believe in its important contribution to the school community. We teach and practice ways to use moments of silence effectively. Our youngest learners begin this spiritual journey at Sidwell Friends School by learning how to be silent. What does it mean to be silent? What does it mean to be quiet? Are they the same? As we grow and learn, we add to our Meeting for Worship toolkit - lessons on speaking into the silence (discernment), radical listening to messages, and ways to listen more deeply to our still small voice.

Children and Grown ups enter the space and gather around a central table.  No one leads the group in ceremony.  Quakers believe people can guide themselves toward their own truth, and that silence is the context in which this process can occur.  A first-time observer of an adult Quaker Meeting for Worship might say, “Nothing is happening.  They just sit there.”  Likewise, a visitor to an elementary school Meeting for Worship might say, “The children are wiggling. They can’t possibly be getting anything out of this.”  We're on a journey. It's a long, thoughtful, challenge-filled journey. There are bumps and there are slides. We are learning about ourselves, our community, and striving for growth. It's a practice.

At our school Meetings for Worship, there is always a centering table with three elements on top:

- a plant or flower to connect us to nature, 

- a collection of rocks with various messages to remind us that we are waiting and listening for a message (a thought or idea to help us grow and learn), 

- a candle to show that we each have a beautiful and unique Inner Light. 

One morning each week, our entire Lower School is engaged in Meeting for Worship for a period of about twenty minutes.  During this time, the teachers or a designated student will read the monthly query. Queries are open-ended questions which are stated simply and have many possible answers.  Classes take turns carefully formulating a query each month for the entire school to consider and reflect upon.  Sometimes the teacher may choose to read a story or poem to their class before or during the silence in order to give the children an idea to focus on.  But the silence is cherished for its own power.

In addition to the weekly Meeting for Worship, each class begins each day with a period of silence.  During these times teachers help children become comfortable with silence and encourage them to make good use of it.  Simply establishing silence for a few moments is quite a powerful accomplishment for any class of 4 -10 year olds.  

The Meeting for Worship ends when a previously selected member of the group (Meeting for Worship clerks) turns to a neighbor and shakes their hand.

Meeting for Worship is a time for listening to that still small voice for vocal ministry. Quakers are waiting for messages from God that might give the Meeting something to learn or grow from. What aspect of your faith identity might be your still small voice? We hold a long silence between messages to give them (the message) time to “settle.”

 

Practical Notes around our expectations for and of Meeting for Worship:

• Meeting begins as soon as the first person enters the Meeting space – silence should grow from that (although we teach members of our community to transition into a Meeting for Worship frame of mind as we line up to head to Meeting for Worship.
• We are sharing active silence and expectant waiting as we wait to receive a message that is appropriate for the group – something we can all connect with or learn from.
• The reason we face inwardly is so that no one is the teacher/minister – we are in community together – we are all potential teachers/ministers.
• Someone will serve as the clerk to close the Meeting with a handshake or a wave, indicating to others that they should also wave and smile at each other – many members of our community follow the “gentle transfer of heart to hand” literally as the close of Meeting.

Marigolds and Dandelions in Kindergarten

I was inspired by a visit many years ago to a Quaker school in which the classrooms were named for important and inspirational Quakers. I immediately felt the desire for my own elementary school division to do the same... 

Fast forward years later and that didn't exactly happen. However, I did do something in my own class. We became the Foxes and the Fells. (We often need to split into half groups - hence the two names.) There was double meaning in that designation. We have George Fox and Margaret Fell and we have the animal which would eventually go on to become the school mascot (fox) and the little rocky outcropping in England that Fox stood upon Firbank Fell (fell). Later, my teaching partner would add the "Fell pony" (fell) as a way to give both groups an animal. 

I loved my little Foxes and Fells. 

Fast forward many more years and the school adopted Star the Fox as the school mascot and suddenly foxes were a little too "on the nose." Additionally, we split our larger classes into smaller classes so I left the Foxes and the Fells behind with my former teaching partner and moved to a new class and the possibility for new branding...

After way too much thinking, I settled on Marigolds and Dandelions. While not immediately connecting to Quaker history, this new naming connects in a more powerful way. It describes a way of being for my young students. It names our big class testimonies in flower format.

Here is how I describe that to families and caregivers:

Marigolds and Dandelions: 

This year, your children will join (my teaching assistant) and me as Marigolds and Dandelions in room #107. 

Why Marigolds and Dandelions? 

Marigolds are flowers that are excellent companion plants - we grow marigolds near other plants because they help protect against harmful critters. If you plant a marigold beside another plant, that plant will likely thrive - it will grow big and strong and healthy. It is supported and protected by the bold, sunny marigold. That makes a beautiful metaphor for who we will strive to be in room #107 - people who support each other and help them thrive while we bloom. 

Dandelions are equally cheerful and also persistent and resilient. They grow through the cracks in a sidewalk, they stand in small bunches in a carefully tended green lawn (their own form of activism). They remind me of my childhood (how about you?), made into flower crowns, pulled apart gleefully, and rubbed on our chins - playful! We make wishes on dandelions once they produce their fluffy white seed heads. Those little fluffs float and fly and spread throughout our yards and communities. Another powerful metaphor for who we hope to be - sunny, resilient, joyful, and hopeful beings who will spread it around! 

Feel free to become “marigolds and dandelions” with us this year.

And that is the story of how we became Marigolds and Dandelions in kindergarten.

Do you name your class? What do you call your students?

Growing a Garden of Peace (Testimonies for the Classroom)

Years ago, when I began working with elementary students and Quaker Testimonies, I created a graphic to help teachers and students remember the six testimonies commonly refereed to as the SPICES: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship.

At the time, I wanted to focus on those six. At my school, we had a beginning understanding of the Testimonies and the SPICES acronym served us well. For my graphic, I decided on a garden of six carrots, each with one of the SPICES written on it. At the time, I personally wanted this garden to have room for other carrots so I made blank carrots that I could use for our class testimonies.

Over time, my fellow Quaker clerk and I noticed that teachers embraced the carrots and those SPICES. They took that poster so literally that the idea or belief that those six are the only testimonies started to take hold. So I made two new posters. One with six colorful trees holding the SPICES and one that included the trees but added flowers with many more testimonies. Kindness, Truth, Love, etc. were added to the poster. My hope was that the carrots would give way to the trees, building our understanding of testimonies and their endless possibilities for growth and action.

Paul Buckley has done some wonderful thinking about testimonies and explains the thinking here (click here). (credit: QuakerSpeak and Paul Buckley)

 

The tree posters with the little blue flowers pop up all over campus, but the carrots are the OG. They are universally used and spread. I needed something new and better. Better than the carrots (tall order in my heart and mind) and better than the trees (which are "just okay" to me).

Note: I love my carrots poster. It is a tool that I still use myself (adding other flowers, plants, bees, worms to the garden in a way to make that first poster interactive and reflective of the specific group of children before me. While I love my carrots, I have also long felt that I needed to "right the wrongs" of that poster - the limits of the SPICES. But who has time to make new posters? And I really do love the carrots - a replacement has to be pretty spectacular to compete with my beloved carrots!

New year, new poster: This August was finally the time for a new poster. I created my better tool. A garden of testimonies. Carrots, radishes, beets, and garlic take root as some bumble bees pollinate the garden with those familiar SPICES. I've made two versions, one with the SPICES and one with a blank space for teachers to add their own classroom testimonies - changing them as the needs of the group grow and shift. I've captured my process so that you can all join me in starting this garden.

choosing colors

creating a background

root vegetables and layout

Here is the finished Poster:

Quaker / Peace Garden with Testimonies

Why I use "testimonies" in my teaching practice and not "norms"... I've not ever been comfortable with "norms." The idea that certain behaviors or expectations are made "normal" by exclusion has always bothered me. Who decides what makes "normal." Who is made to conform? Whose way of being is lifted up as normal or desired? Whose identity might face discrimination in those traditional meeting norms? I have instead preferred "agreements," "ways of being," or (in the past few years) "testimonies."

Quaker/Peace Garden with space for classroom agreements and testimonies

Want a copy for your classroom? I would love to share my posters with you. You can order them here:

QuakerEdAdventures

A cooler version here: The SPICES - a garden of Peace

Meeting for Worship 101

It’s time! Shake off the sand and log into the devices… Let’s get ready for the new school year. 

My first task this week is to prepare for Meeting for Worship at Lower School. How do you prepare for this in your context? Send me all the tips and tricks! Here is how I prepare:

1. Meeting for Worship Schedule

Schedule the meetings, meeting locations, and the roles that we’ll need students and grown ups to take on. At my school, we meet in a variety of contexts over the course of the year.

• We meet as a singular class family in our own space. (every 6 weeks or so)

• We meet as three or four classes together in our Meeting House. (4 times during the year)

• We meet as a whole Lower School community. (once each month)

• We meet as two classes, paired in one of our classroom spaces - one class hosts and the second class visits. (every remaining week)

This is done largely by random draw, making sure that the locations and meeting partners are varied and everyone gets to meet in the Meeting House an equal amount of times. 

Side note: A few years ago we began holding as many of our whole Lower School Meetings outside on our small field. Everyone takes yoga mats or picnic blankets and sets up in a giant circle. Our grown ups join us with their own mat or camp chair. It’s lovely.

2. Query Writing Schedule

On the Meeting for Worship schedule, Query writing classes are noted (drawing class names from a hat). We have a query writing class once every two weeks. Of course we welcome additional queries as students, groups of students, classes, or faculty/staff feel moved to share a query. It’s a great critical thinking skill practice to write these powerful, open ended, thought provoking questions. We say keep them coming! The more the merrier! 

Queries are:

• Submitted in a designated Meeting House mailbox

• Copied/shared in paper copy with each class and learning space on our campus

• Are read at our Meetings for Worship (the hosting class is the clerk and selects the Query reader)

Sample Meeting for Worship schedule (please note that the number/letter code is the indicator for each class:

Lower School Quaker Meeting Schedule

Friends:  Here is the weekly Quaker Meeting Schedule for this year.  Please review it carefully.  If you need to make any changes, please let your partner class know ahead of time.  If you are scheduled for the Meeting House and cannot attend, please let Denise or Kathleen know.  If there are any mistakes, please kindly let us know☺

Please note that the clerk class for the Meeting House is noted. Clerking class should plan to bring a copy of the Query and select a reader. Clerks will also center the meeting, sit on the facing bench, and offer the silent transfer of heart to hand in order to close the meeting. If you are hosting MfW in your space, you are the clerk (choose a Query reader).

Be sure to note your Query writing time, highlighted in pink. You may submit your class Query in the Quaker Query mailbox on the Quaker table in lower Groome. Friends are invited to submit queries as individuals, small groups, or large groups at any time during the year by placing their Query in the mailbox and raising the red flag. Whenever possible, please ask students to add their name in case clarification or questions arise.

Key:  The “>” symbol indicates guests/hosts.  For example, “PK>3x” indicates that PK will travel to the 3x classroom for meeting that week. There is a list of classes and their class name at the end of this document.

December	Meeting House	Classrooms	Multi-purpose Room
Tues 12/2 Query: 2X	1X, 4Y, 3Z, 2Y Clerk: 2Y	3y>PK   4x>KC 3X>KQ   4Z>2Z KN>1Y   1Z>2X
Tues 12/9		Meeting for classroom community - on your own, outside, a place of meaning, etc.
Tues 12/16 Query: PK			All LS Meeting with attention to the Winter Solstice

3. Gather the stuff that everyone will need

Now that the schedule has been prepared, I move onto the practical items that we use at our Meetings for Worship. We use some cueing tools to support our practice. These tools will show up at just about every one of our meetings and help as a visual reminder of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. They are inspired by my own visit to many Quaker Meeting Houses in the UK ten years ago. I noticed that each Meeting had a small table in the center. These tables had three things in common. I re-versioned those items for a Quaker school context.

Centering table:

• Bible - Our version is a small tealight which we think of as our inner light.

• Faith & Practice book - Our version is a small tri-fold card that we use as a discernment reminder (stay tuned for more on how we introduce and teach discernment in our Speaking into the Silence course) and/or some small rocks with selected testimonies written on them (because Testimonies Rock! 😉).

• Vase of flowers - Our version might be flowers but also might be anything that connects us to nature and the earth.

We teach our community that these items on the centering table are tools that we can use to deepen our practice and remind us of our purpose in the gathered group. Feeling distracted? The testimony rocks remind us to listen to our still small voice for ways to grow and take action. Mind is wandering? The little light brings us back to our own power to make change.

Once we’ve made sure that all the teachers on campus have these items, we’re ready to begin our silent practice.

4. Meeting for Worship 101

There is one final thing that is perhaps the most important preparation... My Quaker Education committee partner and I teach Meeting for Worship 101 to everyone at school. We host each grade level individually (ie. the entire 4th grade and their classroom teachers join us for their version of the course and we work our way through each grade level).  We use the first two weeks of school to lead each grade level through this course. Everyone participates whether they are new to school or have been here since prekindergarten

This is an opportunity to refresh our practice. The course is a 30 minute session in which we:

• Review why Quakers meet in silence (a smidge of Quaker history), 

• Teach (re-teach) how we travel to, join, and participate in our Meetings (these are the behavior expectations), 

• Share a little bit about what we’re doing (this is the spiritual stuff - listening to our still small voice, settling into silence, etc.). 

• And review the centering table and what is on it, how to clerk (our students clerk our meetings), and how to read the query should it be your job to do that (clear, strong, slow and steady (no racing please) voice)

It’s important that faculty and staff join these courses so that they can “grab” the language and the ideas. Hopefully, they will feel that they can then take those back and continue the teaching on their own.

Now that I’ve cleared that off my to do list, back to a little last bit of summer… See you in August!

Want a little more? Here are some teaching videos that my partner and I made a few years ago.

Meeting for Worship

Centering Table - This video was created to support Meeting for worship during the beginning of the pandemic when we were at home.