Pathmaps: "Off the Cuff" Speeches

In this activity, students prepare a succinct speech in very little time about something that reveals part of their identity, values or beliefs, or what they find meaningful. For upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: "Spiritual" Vocabulary Building

This exercise addresses the difficulty of discussing spirituality and religion in everyday conversation by helping students explore a common vocabulary. The discussion is designed to develop an awareness for the variety of definitions we have in relation to spirituality and religion, and where those definitions come from. Students explore their own definitions and compare them to those of the rest of the group. For upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: A Life of No Regrets

This Pathmaps Activity is designed to identify personal goals, dreams and desires.  Suitable for Middle and Upper School students, the activity addresses the Spiritual points of Meaning and Purpose, Values and Beliefs, and Self Knowledge/ Self Worth. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Activities for Spiritual Exploration

A small booklet of activities to help nurture spiritual growth in schools. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Aids to Meditation and Prayer

An exploration of images and objects used in Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist and Muslim traditions to facilitate prayer or meditation.  For lower school. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: “Ultimate Reality” Vocabulary

This exercise seeks to explore the multiple ways of experiencing, or trying to describe, one's sense of or beliefs about Ultimate Reality. For upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Centering and Mindfulness

Pathmaps: Circles of Interconnectedness

This activity, adaptable for lower, middle and upper school students, explores relationships-- especially those points of connectedness that are overlooked. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Constructing Sacred Space

This activity looks at Awe & Mystery, Relationships and Intentional Action through identifying and creating sacred spaces. Suitable for lower, middle and upper school students. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Death of a Pet

This activity, for lower and middle school students, explores the transformative experience of losing a loved one. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Discovering Prayer

A range of activities to help lower and middle school students begin to explore ways of praying. The suggestions given come from the Christian tradition, but some may be adapted appropriately for other traditions. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Essay: How to Live

This is a written assignment designed to promote self-reflection. The key concepts were pulled from Victor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Forgiveness

This lesson involves discussion and reflection on the topic of forgiveness, based on the movie The Power of Forgiveness.  For upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Group Meditation and Prayer

This activity explores the spiritual points of Relationship, Awe and Mystery, and Intentional Action, for lower and middle school students. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Growing through times of Gain and Loss

This activity asks questions (can be adapted for lower school, middle or upper) revolving around the gain of a loved one and the loss of a loved one. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: ID Me

For upper school and upper middle grades, "ID me" is an activity designed to uncover and explore how pervasive and invasive stereotypes are for high school students. It is a process of acting toward others rather than acting out. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Identity Collage (Mask Project)

Pathmaps: Journaling: Group Communication

This journaling activity is designed to foster a sense of awareness for what it means to listen and speak thoughtfully. For upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Labyrinths as Tools for Reflection

Labyrinths have been used for centuries throughout the world. There are several ideas about how and why they were used in different cultures, but there is a long history of the use of labyrinths for spiritual growth. The focus of this lesson is on their use as a medium for meditation and prayer and a way into silence and reflection. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Life Line

This exercise is designed to develop an awareness for the variety of experiences that have contributed to our meaning-making process. It addresses differences in how we view the unfolding of life: is it linear? is it circular? Where do we begin and where to we end? For middle and upper school students.
For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Lost

This activity is designed to utilize nature in creating a challenging environment to face fears or uncertainty, and probe the mystery of how the mind works when it is disoriented. For middle and upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Love Your Neighbor?

Three readings from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and a classroom activity, about what it means to be a neighbor. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Meaning & Purpose

This activity explores Meaning and Purpose, for upper school students. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Meeting of the Minds - A Sages conference

The “Meeting of the Minds” is an exercise where we "give a voice" to important figures or great “minds” as we imagine them meeting to discuss current issues and address enduring philosophical questions.  For upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Nature Visualization

This exercise helps lower, middle, and upper school students evaluate and develop their connections to the natural world by invoking their memories as a springboard. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Practicing Stillness

Children - both younger and older - can become acquainted with silence and can learn to calm their bodies. This exercise helps children learn the skills of silence. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Prayer slips at the Western Wall

While students are learning about the Hebrew Scriptures, they may learn how Jewish people pray when at the Western Wall and have a chance to develop a meaningful ritual of their own. This exercise was developed at a school where most students were not from Jewish backgrounds, but it could be adapted for other groups. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Reflections on Human Nature

These questions, for upper school students, prompt discussions on human nature. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Right or Wrong?

This activity, for middle and upper school students, explores values and beliefs through the complicated issues of what is right and wrong. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Setting Ground Rules

This activity explores the value of the group’s collective wisdom and helps the group develop trust to share with each other about sensitive matters.  For middle and upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Solo Time in Nature

This activity gives students an opportunity to reflect and be by themselves in the outdoors.  This activity works well with a unit on ecology or transcendentalism.  It is most useful if it is done multiple times over the course of a semester rather than a one time occurrence. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Story of My Life

The Story of My Life is an icebreaker activity for individual identity development in a group context. Interviewing and sharing brings a deeper level of exploration and integration into the exercise, helping to build a group dynamic.  For middle and upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: T-Shirt Study

Share and design T-shirts with upper school students, as a way to explore values and beliefs, relationships, self-knowledge and expression. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Ten Phrases

This activity is about organically developing a list of ten words, mottos, catch phrases or precepts that will serve as focus points or goals for the year. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: The Lorax and al-Mizan

This is a lesson introducing the concept of environmental sustainability in the light of the Qur’anic concepts of al-mizan (balance or due measure) and ‘adl (justice), and the pivotal role of people in sustaining the world around them.  For middle and upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: The Story of Your Name

This simple icebreaker exercise is designed to develop an awareness of personal history and heritage, and the power of naming things in developing significance in our lives. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Urban Vision Quest

This activity explores the tradition of Vision Quests, and how to seek answers in metaphoric and symbolic ways. Read more here.

Pathmaps: Visualizations

This is a guided visualization activity to explore what makes a human being happy, healthy and whole throughout life. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Walking the Comfort Line

This exercise is an active way to explore diversity and the many dimensions of it. Discussion and sharing brings a deeper level of exploration and integration into the exercise, helping to build a group dynamic. For middle and upper school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: What Makes You Happy?

For lower, middle and upper school students, this activity touches on the spiritual points of Meaning & Purpose, and Self Knowledge/ Self Worth. Read more here.

Pathmaps: What Makes You You? (Speeches)

This assignment and speaking exercise is designed to probe student understanding of what makes them who they are and how to own that by telling others.  For upper school.
For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Who Am I? (Self Portrait Collage)

The goal of the collage is for the student to see his or herself beyond their physical appearance and what activities they do.  This is a chance for them to explore and understand themselves better.  For middle school students. For Members: Read more here.

Pathmaps: Who Are You? Who Do You Want to Be?

Who are you? Who do you want to be? What is stopping you? This interviewing exercise is designed to probe student understanding of what makes them who they are and how they answer to someone else when they are asked these questions in way that encourages deeper reflection than normal.  For middle, upper school. For Members: Read more here.