Integrating children's literature into the classroom religion program

With its capacity to captivate and ignite the imagination, story is often central to the classroom religion program offering students opportunities to engage with and develop spiritual, moral and religious concepts and the language to express such concepts. Children’s literature may provide doorways into the life-worlds of others. It offers glimpses of how others interact with life and all life has to offer. Children both relate to and identify with characters, events and issues and in the process can learn a little more about themselves and their own life-worlds. This article explores a number of children’s literature titles and specifically outlines how each can introduce religious concepts and language to students. Introducing students to such language and concepts using contemporary picture books immediately captures their imaginations, as they are able to relate to the characters, events and ideas conveyed in the books. It also affords students opportunities to explore sensitive and personal issues from a safe distance, as they do not have to declare their own involvement.