Religious Programming for Youth and Children

Ministry to
Children and Youth
2007 ~ 2008

Unitarian Society of Hartford - Religious Education Program

Grade Level K-1
Grade Level 2-3
Grade Level 4-5
Grade level 6-8

Spirit Play Overview (Grades K-1)

(The following is adapted from the description by UU curriculum developer Nita Penfold, D.Min.)

Spirit Play - Class Theme and Description:

A Unitarian Universalist adaptation of the Godly Play and Montessori Methods developed by Nita Penfold D.Min., Rev. Ralph Roberts, and Beverly Leute Bruce at the Winchester and Milton [MA] U.U. churches. A number of other churches are now using the adaptation.

Spirit Play uses the Montessori approach and Jerome Berryman’s morning-as-worship approach for the structure of the morning. As in Montessori, the key elements are the classroom environment and the teachers. These elements free the children to work at their own pace on their own issues.

Class time is broken into the following elements:

1) The Door Keeper helps the children get ready to enter the classroom as parents drop them off.

2) The Storyteller leads the circle in the story of the day, followed by wondering questions.

3) Children choose an art response or work with a story previously heard, helped by the Door Keeper.

4) Children clean-up, assisted by the Door Keeper and Storyteller.

5) Leave-taking is a formal process of saying good-bye to the Storyteller when parents arrive and children are ready.

Key elements from Montessori:

Teacher as guide into materials rather than leader;

Prepared environment (child-sized): everything in the room has an assigned place and is available to the child for work time;

Other elements: structure and order, reality and nature, beauty, materials in sequential order, sensorimotor materials (manipulatives);

Development of community life through mixed ages.

Key elements from Jerome Berryman and Sofia Cavalletti:

Teachers: Door Keeper and Storyteller;

Doorkeeper greets children to ready them at door, keeps art supplies organized and helps children find their materials, helps with work time and leave-taking

Storyteller checks on readiness of story baskets, manages circle time, tells story and leads wondering, helps children choose work, affirms children when saying goodbye.

Entering and getting ready for story;

Circle with song, story and wondering;

Work time: response to story in art or choose another story;

Clean-up and leave-taking.

2. Goals for Participants:

We see the purpose of religious education as helping children to discover their own answers to the existential questions, as in Jerome Berryman’s work:

            Where did we come from?

What are we doing here? What is our purpose? How do we choose to live our lives? What are our gifts? How do we use them?

What happens when we die? Why do we die? Why are we lonely and sad sometimes?

Also with this method:

v Present core stories of our faith and our particular church and its theology;

v Help children to make meaning through wondering and art;

v  Create a spiritual community of children;

v   Support multiple learning styles and challenges;

v  Create a strong Unitarian Universalist identity.

3. Stories and Lesson Themes:

Stories and Resources will be developed in the following categories:

Unitarian Universalist Focal Stories: Liturgical lessons pertaining to our central story of agreeing to live in community and right relationship, including our central symbol, the Flaming Chalice. This included stories of church history, U.U. history and U.U. figures.

Promises: Lessons pertaining to our 7 principles and stories illustrating each principle.

Sources: Lessons pertaining to the sources of our principles and our faith, including Judeo-Christian stories from Godly Play.

Stories of the Mystery: Stories relating to the Mystery that some people call God.

Beginnings and Endings: Stories from all cultures and science telling of our beginnings and what might happen when we die, including concepts of heaven, hell, and reincarnation. These will include materials on the Universe Story and the story of Earth.

Sacred Places: Table containing a Jerusalem Temple, and other sets of blocks representing those spaces religions hold sacred, including a labyrinth.

Art Shelves: Contains materials for art responses including paint, clay, paper, crayons, markers, glue sticks, templates for U.U. and source symbols, and easels.

Cleaning Supplies Shelf: Child-size materials for clean-up. There is also a hand-washing station, and a station for clean-up from painting.

Church Corner: Models our sanctuary space with an altar table and those materials needed for ceremonies at our church including child dedications, coming of age, marriage or union, memorial services, flower communion, water ceremony, etc.

Diversity & UU Identity (Grades 2-3) Overview
Rainbow Children & UU Superheroes

This year’s second and third grade class will focus on two themes: Racial Diversity, and Unitarian Universalist Identity. These themes will be illustrated using two different curricula, each combining classroom presentations, group discussions, and creative projects.

Rainbow Children: A Racial Justice and Diversity Program By Norma Poinsett and Vivian Burns

Theme and Description:

This is an anti-bias, pro-diversity curriculum that addresses racial and ethnic prejudice while affirming the inherent worth and beauty of the child, the family, the community, and the diversity of humankind. Beginning with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, it celebrates the differences and commonalities of all people.

Goals for Participants:

To see themselves and others as members of one "rainbow race" with the same human rights and needs;

To understand the concepts of prejudice, racism, and racial justice;

To recognize that racial prejudice exists and is wrong;

To know that society is multiracial and multicultural;

To develop positive attitudes toward people of racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds different from their own;

To affirm a diversity of families;

To feel good about themselves and others as loving, creative, and competent people.

UU Super Heroes By Gaia Brown, Illustrations by Terry Stafford

Theme and Description:

UU Super Heroes is a values-based Unitarian Universalist identity curriculum that encourages children to explore the lives of famous people who were Unitarians, Universalists or Unitarian Universalists.

Goals for Participants:

To introduce children to the stories of Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists;

To show how the lives of these people confirm the principles that Unitarian Universalists strive to promote;

To learn some of the traditions of both our Unitarian Universalist faith movement and our individual congregations;

To encourage the children to live their own lives fully and to use their own positive “super powers” to grow both spiritually and ethically.

Peace, Social Justice, Environmentalism, & Native American Spirituality (Grades 4-5) Overview
In Our Hands & Honoring Our Mother Earth

This year’s fourth and fifth grade class will focus on four themes: Peace, Social Justice, Environmentalism, and Native American Spirituality. These themes will be illustrated using two different curricula, each combining classroom presentations, group discussions, and creative projects.

In Our Hands: A Peace and Social Justice Program By Barry Andrews and Pat Hoertdoerfer

Theme and Description:

This curricula provides opportunities for children to explore their own knowledge and feelings about peace and justice. It helps children learn about various concepts of peace and justice and explore how to promote peace and justice within themselves, in their relationships with others, in their roles as Unitarian Universalists, and as human beings on our earth.

Goals for Participants:

To involve children in a holistic approach to exploring peace and justice issues;

To encourage children to express their visions of peace and justice in concrete actions and projects;

To identify their own understandings, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about peace and justice;

To explore how one promotes peace and justice within oneself;

To gain an understanding of the nature of conflict;

To experience working with methods of creative conflict resolution;

To see the earth as a precious, interrelated, and interdependent whole, and to see themselves as earth stewards.

Honoring Our Mother Earth: Experiences in Native American Spirituality By Tirrell H. Kimball with Gina Orlando

Theme and Description:

This program teaches young people the need to revere and preserve all living things. While it draws on the authors' understandings of Native American spirituality, it is not a study of Native American cultures and religions. Experiential in approach, it uses ceremonies and rituals, myths and stories, song and dance, and arts and crafts.

Goals for Participants:

To feel connected to nature and the earth;

To respect all living things;

To explore and appreciate aspects of Native American heritage.

Middle School Class (Grades 6-7-8) Overview

World Religions

This curriculum is a companion to the “Neighboring Faiths” lesson plan, and includes important global faiths such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Students are engaged by taking them out of the conventional classroom in order to develop interfaith ties between the UU congregation (and its youth) and other faith communities in the area.

This program is a cornerstone of Unitarian Universalist religious education. It explicitly addresses Unitarian Universalist Principles and draws from the UU Sources. It promotes understanding and respect for other cultures and valuing pluralism and diversity while nurturing Unitarian Universalist identity.

Theme and Description:

This year long curriculum helps youth learn about their own faith and other faith traditions through interactive experience such as field trips and interviews. These encounters with other religions are given meaning through periods of reflection and discussion about Unitarian Universalist and personal beliefs and values.

Goals for Participants:

To learn about other faith traditions;
To consider the universals of religious experience;
To deepen one's own faith;
To strengthen one's understanding of and respect for cultural diversity.

The Role of Parents in the World Religions Curricula

This lesson plan allows our youth to expand their experiences beyond their home congregation through multiple field trips throughout the year. Volunteers are essential to drive and chaperone the students during the outing. Parents are expected to volunteer for these tasks, and to help their children deepen the experience by discussing their reflections outside of the classroom setting.

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 08/27/07)

Ministry to Children and Youth 2007 ~ 2008

Ministry to
Children and Youth
2007 ~ 2008