Monday, June 4, 2012

Gather the Spirit

VID00098

We've just done the UUA Tapestry of Faith curriculum "Gather the Spirit" with our 3rd-4th grade class, a program that looks at one specific issue (water stewardship) through a UU spiritual lens.

You won't find it in the Children's programs on the website, though, because it was written to be multigenerational.  I loved the idea of doing a multigenerational program, but when I offered the class as a multigenerational one through our Adult Education catalog, we didn't have enough people sign up and it had to be canceled.  So I don't know how it would have been in a multigen group.


The program got a second shot with us for our Spring "Faith in Action" pillar with our 3rd-4th graders, and there it has been an excellent program.  I felt like the water chalice was a very creative idea, and the mural that gets added to each week was fun and popular with the kids.  Going outside on an animal scavenger hunt for one of the activities, and making aquifers in cups for another, were also big hits. DSCF6912

We'll definitely do this program again, and it works well for this older-elementary age group.  I wish I had organized the class to do a larger-scale social justice/water stewardship project in conjunction with the program, so that will be important to add in next time.

And, why do all these Tapestry of Faith programs have to have names that don't mean anything to parents?  "Gather the Spirit" is a hymn, and each individual workshop is named after lyrics from that hymn - it's clever but it means nothing to the kids and parents.  Titles that would actually draw them in, tell them why they want to get to church today, or what they will be doing, would be much better.

(Like all Tapestry of Faith programs, the whole thing is available for free on the UUA website.)

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