Friday, January 18, 2013

Taking It Home for Sunday, January 20, 2013

Taking It Home Information for Families
Sunday, January 20, 2013


Spirit Play (4-5 year-olds): 

This week children worked with the story “Little Penguin,” which focused on honesty, and the Red Promise of respecting all people by being truthful.

Wondering Questions:
I wonder if you have ever seen any of this before?
I wonder which part of this story is the most important?
I wonder which part you like the best? I wonder where you are in this story?
I wonder if there is a part of the story that we could leave out and still have a story?
I wonder if you have ever told an untrue story?
I wonder if telling an untrue story is the same as lying?
I wonder how you would feel if a friend told such stories to you?
I wonder if you know that being honest is part of being a person of faith?
I wonder if you know how being honest is part of being a Unitarian Universalist?
I wonder how it feels to change from telling untrue stories to the truth?
I wonder if this lesson reminds you of any of our other Unitarian Universalist Promises?

Grades K-2: Wonderful Welcome

Taking It Home, Session 1: The Gift Of Love


Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out. You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything.

– Annie Sullivan
IN TODAY’S SESSION…
This program uses a Wonder Box that contains different items in each session to introduce the children to a particular intangible gift. In this first session, the Wonder Box was empty to reinforce the idea that intangible gifts, such as today’s gift of love, cannot be seen. The story, The Real Gift is about a child who makes a blanket with his grandmother. The child is upset when the blanket is lost, but the grandmother explains that the real gift was the time they spent together and that gift can never be lost.
The children learned the song “Little Drummer Boy” and discussed the meaning of the intangible gift given by a poor boy who could not offer gifts of gold. The children also played with shadows to illustrate something real that they can see but not touch.

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about…
Talk about some special times you have spent together as a family and with friends. Identify some times when children gave or received material gifts and times when no material gifts were exchanged. Take turns trying to name the intangible gifts each of you gave or received when you were together with people you love.

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try… 
The Faith in Action activity for this session partners children with an adult in the congregation to make a craft together. The older partner takes the finished craft home. The children, however, know they, too, leave with a gift – the time spent making something together with someone in their community. You can find simple crafts appropriate for younger and older people to do together at home on the All Free Crafts (www.allfreecrafts.com/indexpage.htm) website.

FAMILY DISCOVERY
See if your congregational library has or wishes to order the book (www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=707) A Lamp in Every Corner: A Unitarian Universalist Storybook by Janeen K. Grohsmeyer (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2004). This is a collection of 21 short stories that amplify and explore the seven Principles through Unitarian Universalist history and traditions, including stories about famous Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist men and women. It includes helpful suggestions for the novice storyteller and a list of further storytelling resources. Take turns reading or performing the stories in your family. 


Grades 3-5: Windows and Mirrors

Taking It Home, Session 1: Looking In/looking Out

Unitarian Universalists seek always to discover deeper truth and meaning in our lives and in our experience of the world. — Gail Forsyth-Vail

IN TODAY'S SESSION...
The children heard the story of Charles Darwin, who followed his own path to become a naturalist despite his father's expectations that he become a physician. Darwin 's way of perceiving the world gave humankind the gift of his observations and conclusions about life on Earth and our place within it.
We talked about being true to oneself. We explored the unique and changeable nature of how we view the world. The children made an outer self-portrait (how others see them) and an inner self-portrait of thoughts, wishes and dreams.

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. 
Talk about what it means to observe carefully and why and how we each use a unique lens as we look at our world. What does it mean that each person sees things differently?

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. 
Try a family activity. Everyone gets a clean sock. Decorate the outer part of the sock with buttons, ribbon, and other materials found around the house. For the inside of your sock, write or draw on little pieces of paper your thoughts, wishes and dreams. Fold these and place them inside. You might like to fill each sock in a ceremonious way, with a candle-lighting to begin and words for each person's sock-filling such as:
Bless (family member), beloved inside and out.
Invite family members to share what they have written on the paper and talk about what it reveals.

FAMILY ADVENTURE
Walk through your home together and examine your windows. Are they framed as decorations or "dressed" in a way that encourages people to look outward? Or walk outside. Do your windows invite looking in or are they closed to outside passers-by?


Middle School: Riddle and Mystery


Taking It Home, Session 1: The Big Questions

Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt. — Paul Tillich
Talk about the quote. Paul Tillich was a religious philosopher who lived from 1886 to 1965. He seems to be saying that being religious means asking and trying to answer big questions. Do you agree with that? Do you think most Unitarian Universalists agree with that?

WHAT WE DID TODAY
We talked about big questions in general and one in particular: "Where do we come from?" We heard a song that includes the question and says "life is a riddle and a mystery." We talked about some of our own answers, and we heard a story that explains everything by saying it is "turtles all the way down." We set up our WCUU television studio and did a WCUU broadcast about some UU ideas about where we come from.

ANSWERING TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
What do family members and friends have to say about the question: "Where do we come from?"

HAVE FUN
Find your own way to have fun with questions. Play a question-based game, like Jeopardy. Try some riddles. Or, play Twenty Questions: One player thinks up the name of a person, place or object that others have to guess by asking "yes" or "no" questions. Whoever gets the answer (by asking "Is it so-and-so? (or such-and-such?)" is the winner and gets to think up the next challenge. Consider a round or two of Twenty Questions about people and things connected to your religion and congregation.

PHOTO CHALLENGE
Photograph something that makes you ask a question. What might that be? A grand piano in the middle of a field would make you ask, "What is that doing there?" Maybe you look out a window and see a bird feeder that makes you ask, "What kind of birds come there?" or "Does it need to be filled?" Bring your photo to the next session of Riddle and Mystery.

SHARED SEARCH
Visit a place that can help you answer big questions. What will it be? A church? A museum? Where else can you go?

FAMILY RITUALS
The sessions of Riddle and Mystery all begin with a chalice lighting ritual. Many other UU events also include rituals. Rituals are not just for religions. Families have rituals, too — ways they usually act together on certain occasions. You might have rituals that you follow together on holidays like Hanukkah or Christmas. Some families share the ritual of beginning each meal by saying grace, or thanks. What are some of your rituals? Where did they come from? Are they connected with your religious ideas? Do they help your family affirm or celebrate something else?

NIGHT WALK
Take a family walk to look at the sky on a nice, clear night. What do you see? What questions come to mind? Think if you were a cave person who lived many centuries ago and never saw a science book. Would your questions be different? Would the places you looked for answers be different?

TEACHING THE SONG
Share the song from the session with your family. It is ""Where Do We Come From?" Maybe you can borrow a copy of Singing the Journey to look at the music together; the song is Hymn 1003.

FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION
Look around your home for images of people working for economic justice. Include books, magazines and newspaper articles, as well as congregational and community service projects that involve your family members.



Family Information for Sunday, January 20, 2013



 Hello Friends and Families of Westside!

It’s the frosty winter season! But our Westside classrooms are warm and buzzing. This week, our K-2, grades 3-5 and middle school classes are starting a new curriculum. You can learn more about the spring semester focus for your child or youth in several ways:
·      
·      Our RE blog at www.wsuureligiousexploration.blogspot.com
·      A WSUU RE spring prospectus from the greeter table at church
·      The WSUU web site at http://www.wsuu.org/curricula.php
·      Your DRE! Contact me any time at 410-274-2018, or dre@wsuu.org

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1.    Visioning Session for WSUU’s Youth Programming: Look for a summary of our dynamic visioning session in the Order of Service on Sunday, February 26th. The youth are currently planning for the formation of a YAC (Youth Adult Committee) that will support the implementation of our vision priorities.

2.    Drum 'n Dine - Wednesday January 23, 6:30p.m. in the Social Hall (new time and new format!): This is a great opportunity for a mutli-generational experience – bring your children or youth!
Bring a potluck dish and come join this dynamic opportunity to participate in a drum circle, experience the joy and meditative connection of drumming with others, and build community! This month we will meet from 6:30-7:30 for a more introductory session that will be valuable for all ranges of experience. We’ll share dinner at 7:30, and we’ll begin a more advanced session at 8:00 led by Larry Jones, our Sunday percussionist. All are welcome to stay and join in – Larry will be teaching us several pieces for potential performance. (A suggested donation of $5 will support Larry’s time with us.) Bring a drum if you have one, and we’ll have extra drums and hand percussion instruments available. And bring a friend from your community! If you have questions, contact John Britt at johnwbritt@comcast.net or 206-323-3062, or Betsy Lowry at dre@wsuu.org or 410-274-2018.

THIS WEEK:

Story Time: Three and four year olds will work on learning our covenant of love and acceptance this semester. The young UUs in this class will learn through hands-on experience with the wonderful and wide world around them; stories about our faith that teach our history and principles; and play, which is the natural expression of the young child's heart and mind. We seek to teach children that the whole of their being is accepted as they are in this class.

This week our children will share a story and snack together. Please let the teachers in the class know if your child has a food allergy.

Spirit Play: Spirit Play is the Montessori approach to Religious Education. In each session, children will hear a story and then experience a time for art expression relating to that story or another story they heard earlier in the year. The stories have a Unitarian Universalist focus and seek to build a UU identity through liturgical lessons pertaining to our central story, our covenant, our religious symbol the Flaming Chalice, our church history, and UU heroes.

This week’s story is “Little Penguin,” which focuses on honesty, and the Red Promise of respecting all people by being truthful.

Kindergarten through Second Grade: “Wonderful Welcome”: In the first semester of this year the class worked on a program called “Creating Home,” in which the children learned about different kinds of homes and how our church is like a home. In this second semester, we will learn how we can welcome people into our home. The Wonderful Welcome curriculum engages and challenges leaders and children alike to explore how and why we are willing to welcome others into our lives.

·      Week 1: The Gift of Love – Empty Box
This week our children will be introduced to the Wonder Box, which will have a new gift to explore every week. For this first lesson, the box will be empty, and they will learn that some gifts, like the gift of love, can be intangible. They will sing the song, “Little Drummer Boy” about a little boy who didn’t have a gift to give, so he gave a song.

Third through Fifth Grades: “Windows and Mirrors”: We spent our first semester together hearing the moral stories of many cultures in our Moral Tales program. This semester, Windows and Mirrors nurtures children's ability to identify their own experiences and perspectives and to seek out, care about, and respect those of others. The program teaches that there are always multiple viewpoints and everyone's viewpoint matters. Children will be creating their own window/mirror panels this semester, showing the relationship between how we see things looking out, and what others see in us, looking in.

·      This week’s lesson will set the stage for the core focus of the Windows and Mirrors module. The class will talk about Charles Darwin, who was a Unitarian and whose father was Unitarian minister. His father wanted him to be a minister also, but instead he went to the Galapagos Islands and created the theory of evolution. There was some fear around what he found because it changed the relationship between religion and science.


Middle School: “Riddle and Mystery”: In our first semester, we explored Unitarian Universalism and the ways in which our faith can help us answer our ethical questions. We will go deeper this semester through our “Riddle and Mystery” program. The purpose of Riddle and Mystery is to assist middle schoolers in their own search for understanding. Each of the sessions introduces and processes a Big Question. We begin with Paul Gauguin’s famous triptych (Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?)  and end with the three Unitarian Universalist questions (Can we ever solve life’s mystery? How can I know what to believe? What does Unitarian Universalism mean to me?).

·      This week is an introduction to how to deal with big questions. The first question is “where do we come from” and the kids interview each other and talk about their lives. It’s a seemingly easy first question, though it can go deep, to get them thinking about how to address these questions and how they can actually go deeper and deeper. For example, the answers to “where do we come from?” could be “from Washington” or “from the earth” or “from the universe.”    

High School: “Our Name is Earl”:  On the first and third Sundays of each month, High School Youth are invited to explore religious concepts through the life of Earl Hickey as he goes on a spiritual quest to be a better person. Based on the television series My Name is Earl, youth will learn about our Unitarian Universalist values and Principles and clarify their ideas about important religious matters that become part of our personal credos.

·      This week our high school lesson from Our Name is Earl will be about Acceptance of One Another and Encouragement to Growth through the episode “Teacher Earl”. In this episode we are introduced to Ralph, an old crime buddy of Earl’s. This is Earl’s coming out story – he has to “come out” to Ralph that he lives differently. Youth will talk about self-differentiation, and learning to be true to ourselves, even in the presence of others who believe or feel differently. 

Youth Group will meet from 7PM to 8:30 PM in the Social Hall with Shelby Grenier and Cole Strauss, focusing on formation of the YAC and planning for their upcoming morning service.

See you Sunday!

Betsy