Sept. 25: Principle 2, Chalice, and Fairy Tales

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This week the K-2nd and 3rd-6th graders learned about Principle 2, the preschoolers made clay chalices, and the toddlers blew bubbles and read fairy tales.

During the Children’s Conversation this week, Kaia mentioned a boy in her school that was mean to her even after her best attempts to befriend him. Larry began the 3rd-6th grade class by asking the older kids what advice they would give Kaia and how they would handle the situation themselves. Then he performed a Jekyll and Hyde sketch – or in his case, Larry and Lorenzo! Lorenzo was a bully, who put everyone down and made everyone feel badly. Larry, his much nicer brother, was distressed by his brother’s attitude and actions. The kids talked about what Larry could do to help his brother treat other people more nicely. This sketch lead into the topic of the day: Principle 2 (justice, equity, and compassion in human relations). Larry used famous UU, Fannie Barrier Williams’ story as an example of the principle. Every kid was assigned a role and as a class they acted out her life story. As a child, Fannie was excluded from art and music classes because of her skin color. She did not let this deter her. Instead she joined the All Souls Church in Chicago and, with her husband, started her own music and art groups which accepted everyone. She then went on to champion women and African Americans’ rights. After acting out and discussing Fannie’s story, the kids learned the next verse of Hymn 114. They concluded the lesson by going outside and doing the human knot, once without talking!

In the K-2nd grade room, they warmed up by singing and acting out the 7 principles song. Then Molly started the lesson with a story called, “I like your buttons,” about kindness passing from person to person. After the story, they created a kindness choo choo train: the person at the front got to wear a crown (as the king or queen of kindness), face the next person on the train, and say something nice about them. Once everyone had “conducted” kindness, Molly told the kids about the life of Gandhi. They talked about the belief that kindness and ideas are strong forces and Gandhi believed that you don’t have to fight to get your point across. Then she showed them pictures of his salt march. After Gandhi’s story, they took a break and played “red light green light,” but instead of the normal rules one person stood alone and yelled “Forgiveness!” and the other kids ran toward them yelling “We forgive you!” The kids loved it! The lesson ended with a super fun art project. The kids made representations of Gandhi on the salt march using torn paper and blue colored salt. As they worked, Molly asked what they had learned during the lesson. Lauren’s awesome answer: “don’t fight, use ideas instead!”

In the pre-K room, the lesson began with a welcome song: “We are Chalice Children, welcome to our classroom, we are Chalice Children, clap, clap, clap! We are Chalice Children, let’s all welcome______, we are Chalice Children, clap, clap, clap!” We have some new friends in the pre-K room, and now everybody knows each other’s names. After the welcome song, the kids focused on the project of the day: making clay chalices. Sandy brought in some clay for them to sculpt. The kids worked the clay into a chalice shape and then Sandy gave them a candle to put in the middle. As they worked, Sandy talked about the significance of the chalice. When everybody was finished, they lit their candles together. The lesson concluded with eating a snack and admiring their beautiful chalices.

In the nursery, the toddlers took advantage of the “not too hot, not too cold” day and went outside to blow bubbles. It was beautiful to see the bubbles floating in the air catching the sun’s light. Then they went inside and read Goldilocks and the Three Bears along with some other favorite nursery rhymes. The lesson ended with free play!

At home with your children, you can continue the lessons started this week. For the K-2nd and 3rd-6th grade kids, talk about the importance of kindness and fairness even when faced with adversity. Are they always kind to their classmates? Even the bothersome ones? Have they excluded kids before? When is it ok to exclude and when should you include? For the pre-K kids, light their chalices at night and reflect on their days. And for the toddlers, continue to read fairy tales or come up with your own! There are so many adventures to be imagined!

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