Worship
The experience of worship is important for the religious
growth of children and youth. To this end, children up to and sometimes
including the Junior High group are welcomed into our regular Sunday Worship
Service every Sunday for about the first fifteen minutes, where they experience
the opening readings, music, a hymn, the chalice-lighting, and a brief
“Time For All Ages”. They are then dismissed to their classes.
Parents of preschool children should please escort them to their class.
About five times a year, at Ingathering, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Easter, and in January for “Children and Youth Ministries Sunday”,
we hold an Intergenerational service which all children attend with their
families. Each year in April our high school youth lead an entire Sunday
Service. At other times, children youth and families are invited to help
in the leadership of the regular service by contributing music, chalice
lighting or by reading the children’s covenant.
NURSERY - Fahs Room
Care for our youngest children is provided by Stacy Gregor and Dean Steiner.
We are eager to provide nurturing care to make it as comfortable as possible
for small children and their parents to be in church. Child safety is
of utmost importance to us. We require parents who want to use the Nursery
to register their children and sign them in and out each Sunday. We
also ask that all parents who use the Nursery to volunteer as a parent
helper several times a year.
SUNDAY MORNING CLASSES
We offer classes during both our 9:30 and 11:00 am Sunday
services. At the 9:30 am service there are classes from preschool through
6th grade, and at the 11:00 am service there are preschool through Senior
High classes. Classes at both services run concurrently with the service.
Every Sunday at both 9:30 and 11:00 am children up to 6th grade attend
the first part of the service with their families and are dismissed to
class after 15-20 minutes.
The Children and Youth Ministries office is the first
room on the left in the Mason Wing. Jennifer Halperin, Director of Ministries
with Children and Youth, and Jennifer Parsons, Religious Education Administrative
Assistant, are available on Sunday mornings. Our teaching staff, with
the exception of the nursery caregivers, are all volunteers. Some are
veteran teachers, and some are newcomers. They are enthusiastic, dedicated,
and especially appreciated by all. Please consider joining a Religious
Education team as either a teacher or assistant.
CLASSES AND CURRICULA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
2009-2010 Theme: Social Justice and Stewardship of
the Earth
The following is available as a PDF.
PRESCHOOL (3-5 year-olds)
- 9:30 am
PRESCHOOL (3-5 year-olds) - 11:00 am
Gandhi Room
We Are Many, We Are One
This curriculum encourages young children to play and work cooperatively,
to appreciate how we are all alike yet different, to view nature as a
gift that needs our care and to celebrate different religions and cultures
of the world.
LOWER ELEMENTARY – Eliot Room
(K – 2nd GRADES) – 9:30 am
(K – 2nd GRADES) – 11:00 am
Rainbow Children and Experiences with the Web of
Life
Rainbow Children, is an anti-bias, pro-diversity curriculum that
addresses racial and ethnic prejudice. Experiences with the Web of
Life is a nature based curriculum that focuses on wonder and stewardship,
introducing children to the UU Principle of “respect for the interdependent
web of all existence of which we are a part.”
MIDDLE ELEMENTARY – High School Room
(3rd - 4th GRADES) - 9:30 am only
Worth and Dignity; Starting Small; and Sound of
Nature
Worth and Dignity helps children value diversity and develop
empathy for people who are different from themselves through trust building
exercises, understanding people with disabilities, understanding stereotypes.
Starting Small addresses social issues like housing, hunger,
homelessness and poverty with the goal of starting a community project
for children in poverty. In the Spring, the Sound of Nature curriculum
aims to develop appreciation and wonder for nature.
UPPER ELEMENTARY – Junior
High Room
(5th – 6th GRADES) - 9:30 am
Windows and Mirrors and Amazing Grace
These are two new curricula from the UUA's Tapestry of Faith series for
lifespan faith development. They can be found online at uua.org/tapestryoffaith.
Windows and Mirrors is a multicultural appreciation curriculum,
nurturing children's ability to acknowledge their own experiences and
to seek out, care about and respect those of others. Amazing Grace
guides younger youth through ways to determine right from wrong and how
to act on their new understanding.
(3rd - 5th GRADES) - 11:00
am
Toolbox of Faith and Mirrors and Windows
Toolbox of Faith invites participants to reflect on qualities
of our faith, such as integrity, courage and love, as tools they can use
in living their lives and building their own faith. Mirrors and Window
is a multicultural appreciation curriculum, nurturing children's ability
to acknowledge their own experiences and to seek out, care about and respect
those of others.
JUNIOR HIGH – Priestley
Room
(6th - 8th GRADES) - 11:00 am only
Amazing Grace with Compass Points
Amazing Grace is a new UU curriculum that guides younger youth
through ways to determine right from wrong and act on their new understanding.
It will be supplemented by Compass Points, which facilitates
exploration of themselves, the UU faith, and their relationships with
others and the world.
HIGH SCHOOL – Senior
High Room
(9th – 12th GRADES) – 11:00 am only
Senior High students will participate in multicultural small group ministry
and will explore theme-based ministry www.themebasedministry.org.
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