Pre-School - 6th Grade
Religious Education 2011-2012
9:30 a.m. & 11:00 a.m. Classes
If you're interested in teaching or assisting any of these classes, please e-mail Tracy Beck, DRE, or Wendy Sullivan, RE Assistant.
Preschool: Chalice Children
Ages 3-4 (Children must be potty-trained)
Chalice Children is designed to help young children learn about their church and their congregation. The program offers children concrete experiences through rituals, rhymes, chants, stories, and activities. The experiences and messages of Chalice Children are intended to affirm young children in their spiritual growth, creativity and connection to their Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Kindergarten: Creating Home & Wonderful Welcome
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. Creating Home helps children develop a sense of home that is grounded in faith. Together with your group, you will ask questions about the purpose of having a home and the functions a home serves, for us as humans and for other animals.
Grades 1 - 2: Free to Believe
The Free to Believe curriculum is an experiential program designed to nurture the emotional, social and spiritual life of children. The curriculum is centered on our seven Unitarian Universalist principles and seeks to increase children’s sense of religious identity. Free to Believe also introduces some “big questions” through the perspective of our Unitarian Universalist sources.
Grades 5 - 6: Neighboring Faiths
This curriculum invites youth and parents to actively encounter the traditions of other religious groups in our community. Together they explore what members of other faiths believe, value, and practice as religious people. Neighboring Faiths gives participants and parent leaders a chance to be creative and to venture beyond the classroom.
Some of the possible faith traditions that may be explored in our community are: Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Quakers, Unitarian Universalist, Religions of the Goddess, Native American Traditions, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism.
*Please note, field trips to other faith communities will occur about once every 3 weeks. Service times at other faith communities will vary.
9:30 a.m. ONLY
Multigenerational: EnviroScouts
This hands-on class will teach children how to walk more lightly on the Earth. They will also learn how small changes can add up to big differences in our effect on the environment. Imagine elementary school fire safety (“stop, drop, and roll!”) replaced with environmental protection (“stop wasting water, drop those incandescent bulbs, and roll that bottle into the recycling bin!”). EnviroScouts will come home every week with a broader understanding of their world and new ways to take small but important steps.
11:00 a.m. ONLY
Grades 3 - 4: Moral Tales and Faithful Journey
Every day our children go forth into a world where they are often faced with difficult decisions and situations. Moral Tales attempts to provide children with the spiritual and ethical tools they will need to make choices and take actions reflective of their Unitarian Universalist beliefs and values. In Faithful Journey, participants embark on a pilgrimage of faith, exploring how Unitarian Universalism translates into life choices and everyday actions. In each session, they hear historic or contemporary examples of Unitarian Universalist faith in action.