Integrating SPICES into our Day

Ms. Brandi

The SPICES-- the Quaker Testimonies of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship --  are the foundation of our school environment.  Every classroom has them posted along with a small age-appropriate SPICES curriculum.  How are they integrated into the lives of our students and staff? In the elementary classroom, we talk about them in our morning meeting, we read and discuss books pertaining to the highlighted SPICE of the month, and more than that, we discuss what the SPICES mean to us personally.  This way, my students have the opportunity to put it into their own words.

We also talk about what the different SPICES look like. The students have said that Simplicity means not having too many toys. This can be donating our gently used toys to other kids.  Peace means not fighting and working out problems with friends using our words. Integrity means doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. An everyday example for us is walking down the hall instead of running.  Community has a variety of realities for us.  We have our classroom and school communities, and we are a part of our larger Wichita community every December when we have a toy drive for the Wichita Children’s Home.  Equality means everyone gets treated the same -- that our teacher has the same expectations for everyone.  Stewardship means taking care of our classroom and our school. Stewardship can look like keeping our work area clean, keeping the classroom picked up, and picking up trash that we see along with keeping our building and our grounds in good shape.  

It is amazing to see how the children process and interpret what each SPICE means.