SIGNS OF OUR FAITH
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 2: WE LEAD
BY JESSICA YORK
© Copyright 2013 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 12:27:33 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Our leadership is just ourself. — Claudette Colvin, civil rights activist
A community is like a ship: everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. — Henrik Ibsen, playwright
This session sets a stage and expectations for children to grow in Unitarian Universalist leadership. Participants share what they already know about leadership. They discover ways they can become faithful leaders in Unitarian Universalism and in other communities to which they belong.
The Faith in Action activity introduces a chart of revolving, shared leadership duties to use throughout the program. It is highly suggested that you include this Faith in Action in this or another early session.
This session also introduces the stoles children will wear, beginning with this session, to symbolize that they are a Unitarian Universalist worship leader. See the Program Introduction, Before You Start, for guidance on obtaining, decorating, and working with the stoles.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 3 |
Activity 1: Follow the Leader | 10 |
Activity 2: Leadership | 15 |
Activity 3: Story — Belling the Cat | 15 |
Activity 4: Receiving Stoles | 15 |
Faith in Action: Sharing Leadership | 20 |
Closing | 2 |
Alternate Activity 1: Leadership in Action — Appreciating Congregational Leaders | |
Alternate Activity 2: Leadership in Action — Leadership Skit | |
Alternate Activity 3: Game — Belling the Cat | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Who are the leaders that have helped shape your notions about leadership? Have you intentionally developed some of their characteristics? What do you think they were faithful to in their leadership? Some of our most famous models of leaders have been religious women and men. Other leaders might have been faithful to science, the gaining of knowledge, building a just world, or the future of all people. How has the faithful leadership of others affected your life?
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome all participants. Gather everyone in a circle around the chalice table. Ring the centering chime. Ask a volunteer to light the chalice, and recite together:
We gather together as Unitarian Universalists and members of the Signs of Our Faith community.
Together to learn, together to share faithful leadership, together to celebrate the traditions of our faith.
ACTIVITY 1: FOLLOW THE LEADER (10 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Play Follow the Leader. Have one co-leader be a poor leader. Poor leading might include moving too slowly or too quickly or making movements that are hard to follow. For example, a tall leader might reach a height the children cannot.
Every participant who wishes to lead should get a turn.
After the game, process with these questions:
Say:
Today we will talk about how leadership can be a sign of our faith.
Including All Participants
Make sure the game stays accessible. If a leader does a movement that any participant cannot safely follow, suggest a different movement.
ACTIVITY 2: LEADERSHIP (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children brainstorm qualities of a good leader.
Part One
Say, in your own words:
When we played Follow the Leader, we took turns being the leader. Unitarian Universalists think it is important that everyone gets a turn at being the leader. Why? [Affirm that it is important because it is more fair, because no one person should have to assume all the responsibility, and because different people bring different talents and skills and different ways of being a leader.]
Because we believe in shared leadership, taking a turn at being a leader is a sign of our faith. Our congregation has many people who provide leadership and service. Here are some of them.
Show the group the poster of congregational leaders. Help the children identify the leaders and what they do in the congregation that is leadership.
Part Two
Ask: "Can children be leaders, too? Invite volunteers to tell about their leadership at home, at school, at the congregation, or in the community. They might be scout leaders. Their classroom at school might designate daily or weekly leaders who help the teacher, collect papers, or lead lines. They might have helped lead a food drive at the congregation, been the lead in a holiday pageant, or sang a solo in the choir. Ask if any are role models for younger siblings or family friends.
Part Three
Post the newsprint of the human outline. Invite children to think of their experiences in leading, other leaders they know, and think about playing Follow the Leader. What qualities make a good leader? If you wish, invite them to consider movies or stories they know that feature a good leader. What qualities does that character have?
Invite children to be quiet for one minute to think.
Then invite them to share "popcorn style," popping up as they name a quality for you to write inside the human figure. Alternately, if any participants wish to, they may write the qualities on newsprint themselves. Tell them not to worry about spelling, but if they have spelling questions, they can ask you and co-leaders.
Read the qualities aloud. Make sure the list includes:
Leaders listen to everyone.
Leaders are fair.
Leaders also know how to follow at times, and to take turns. Add other qualities you think are missing.
Post the newsprint where you can refer to it throughout this session and in future sessions.
ACTIVITY 3: STORY — BELLING THE CAT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children respond to a fable about failed leadership.
Read or tell the story.
Process the story with as many of these questions as time allows:
Tell the group that every time the Signs of Our Faith group meets, children will discover more ways they can be good leaders: in their family, at school, among their friends, in their congregation, and with sports teams or music groups and other communities to which they belong.
Point out the newsprint with the human figure filled with leadership qualities. Read the qualities aloud again. Say that participants might already hold some of these qualities. Other qualities might be ones they want to develop. Say:
In our Signs of Our Faith group, we will support each other as we each find our own, individual ways to be leaders. Sometimes, the entire group will be leaders together. Everyone will get opportunities to practice leadership skills: not just at the congregation, but in their everyday life. Taking It Home has suggestions for ways to practice faithful leadership at home, school, at play, with friends, and in the world at large.
Variation
After the discussion, if you have time, invite children to act out "Belling the Cat" as a skit. Choose actors, assign parts and let the cast rehearse away from the group for several minutes.
Including All Participants
Support beginning readers who wish to be actors in the play.
If you are telling the story, you may wish to make fidget objects available to children who find it difficult to sit still while listening or can focus better with sensory stimulation. For a full description and guidance, see Session 1, Leader Resource 2.
Consider using rug squares in the storytelling area. Place them in a semi-circle with the rule "One person per square." This can be very helpful for controlling active bodies.
ACTIVITY 4: RECEIVING STOLES (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children make a commitment to be the best congregational leader they can be and receive stoles as a sign of their leadership.
Remind the children that Unitarian Universalists believe in sharing leadership. Say:
We will continue to share leadership when we are together, and you will keep learning ways to share leadership here in our UU congregation and in your everyday life. We have a stole to give each of you. It is a symbol that you are a leader.
Distribute the stoles. If someone from the congregation made the stoles, tell the group and add that person's photos to the poster you introduced in Activity 2.
Tell the group that stoles have been a symbol of religious leadership for a long time. Ask if anyone has seen others in the congregation wearing stoles. If you have examples, provide them.
Indicate the newsprint that shows qualities of a leader, and tell children that when they are wearing their stole, they should practice these qualities because the congregation will look to them for leadership. Say that you know they will take the responsibility seriously.
Let them know that people wear stoles when taking part in rituals and that is how this group will wear them, too. Tell them when, during the sessions, they will wear the stoles. Also let them know that they will wear stoles when they participate in rituals with the wider congregation. Tell the children anything they need to know about taking care of the stoles, including where they will be kept.
Today they will initial their stoles. In some future sessions, they will add decoration and, at the final meeting, they will add a chalice patch to their stoles. That patch will be a symbol of the work they have done together in the Signs of Our Faith group. Show the children a chalice patch.
Help the children apply their initials to their stoles.
CLOSING (2 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute stoles and invite participants to put them on.
Distribute Taking It Home. Tell participants that at the end of every session, they will receive this guide to fun activities they can do with family or friends. Read it aloud to give participants an idea of activities suggested.
Gather everyone in a circle around the chalice table. Lead the group to say:
We end as we began: together.
May we remember to be UU not just when we are together here, but every day and in every way.
Ask all participants to blow out the chalice together. Have them store their stoles in the place you have designated. Stoles should stay at the congregation and not go home with children.
FAITH IN ACTION: SHARING LEADERSHIP
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children adopt shared leadership as a practice for future sessions.
On blank newsprint, brainstorm a list of duties for the time the Signs group is together. This can include lighting the chalice, writing down chalice lighting words or posting the newsprint where they are already written, helping serve a snack, and helping clean up after activities. Engage the children to help you set up a schedule so leadership can be rotated.
Remind the group that following through is an important part of being a leader—a lesson from the story, "Belling the Cat."
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Evaluate the effectiveness of today's activities, especially the conversation on leadership and the stole activity. Do children understand the importance of the stole? Do they understand it is a sign that they are leaders? Do you have a good plan in place for using and storing stoles? How did all participants react to the concept of shared leadership? Who do you think will need to step back? Who will need to step forward? How will you and your co-leaders help children recognize and live into their own, distinct leadership abilities?
Assign preparation needed for the next session.
TAKING IT HOME
Our leadership is just ourself. — Claudette Colvin, civil rights activist
A community is like a ship: everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. — Henrik Ibsen, playwright
IN TODAY'S SESSION... we said that, as Unitarian Universalists, we provide leadership and service to our congregation and other communities to which we belong. We talked about different ways to provide leadership and the qualities of a good leader.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about... ways family members provide leadership at your congregation. How have they served in the past? How are they serving now? How would they like to serve in the future? Consider roles, and potential roles, for all ages.
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Chores are an opportunity to share leadership of your family. Do some of chores allow the person who does them to make a unique contribution to the life of your family? You can try this in groups other than your family, too. If you think sharing leadership is important, volunteer to do something you normally do not do. Gather equipment at the end of a sports practice. Help fold laundry at home. Ask for instructions, if needed, to perform the service well. Let the people around you know that you think shared leadership is important and you are doing your part. After all, as the quote says, "Leadership is just ourself."
Family Game. The Laughter Yoga Institute (at www.lyinstitute.org) website includes fun variations for the game Follow the Leader. (at lyinstitute.org/resources/) Play with your family and friends.
Family Discovery. Play Leadership Mix-Up. Let family members change leadership roles. Perhaps the children should make out the grocery list and parents should feed the pets. Invite each person to see how well they can perform services normally d by someone else. Perhaps you will discover new talents.
Family Ritual. Start a leadership check-in. One way is to start or end a weekly dinner by putting out a bowl of grapes. Everyone should share a way they have provided leadership to a community (congregation, school, scouts, dance class, sports team, or other groups) and take a grape. You can substitute other items for grapes, such as little candies, stickers, or pennies.
Family Adventure. Watch the Disney movie, "Finding Nemo," in which creatures of all ages and species have chances to lead—some well, some not so well. What does it have to say about leadership. Is "Just keep swimming?" a mantra leaders might use? What other movies are about leadership? Watch this cartoon (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfSdhwqPqw&feature=related) about leadership and forgiveness. Who shows good leadership? Is apologizing when you are wrong a good trait for a leader?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: LEADERSHIP IN ACTION — APPRECIATING CONGREGATIONAL LEADERS
Description of Activity
Children show congregational leaders their appreciation. Leadership in Action activities invite children to take the lead in an activity that engages with the congregation and begin to see themselves as leaders of their faith.
Ask the group if they have ever shown a leader appreciation. The leader might have been a teacher, a coach, or scout leader. How did they show appreciation: a gift, a certificate, a thank-you, or a hug?
Appreciating people who provide the service of leadership in your congregation is a way to show that you are a leader, too. Leaders are people who make a special effort to lift up caring, service, and gratitude for the whole group to appreciate.
Brainstorm ways the group could thank congregational leaders. They might bake cookies, create thank-you cards, or add special stickers to the leaders' name tags. Make plans. Notify families, if their help is needed, and the leaders whom you wish to appreciate.
Afterward, ask the children:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: LEADERSHIP IN ACTION — LEADERSHIP SKIT
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children present "Belling the Cat" to the congregation.
Gauge children's interest in performing the play for the congregation. Adapt the script to include more roles to feature more children, if needed.
Leadership in Action activities invite children to take the lead in an activity that engages with the congregation. Through these activities, young people will start to see themselves as leaders of their faith.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: GAME — BELLING THE CAT (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children play a derivation of Doggie, Doggie, Who's Got the Bone with a cat and bell instead of a dog and bone.
Choose a volunteer to be the cat. The cat sits in a chair, isolated from the group, with their back to the group and eyes closed. A volunteer from the group, (the mouse) is silently picked to sneak up and place a bell beneath the chair of the cat. After they sit back down with the group, everyone sings: "Cat, cat, you've got a bell. Who put it there? Can you tell?" Give the cat one chances to guess the identity of the mouse (or two or three chances, depending on the size of your group).
Give everyone who wishes a turn at being the cat. Let participants take turns choosing the mouse.
Variation
To make the game harder, allow the cat to turn around while the bell is being placed and try to catch the mouse before the mouse returns to its seat.
Including All Participants
Do not play the game if you are not able to make it accessible to all participants.
SIGNS OF OUR FAITH: SESSION 2:
STORY: BELLING THE CAT
Adapted from an Aesop fable.
OPTION 1 — Story
Once there was a family of mice living on a farm. They had a pleasant life and all the food they could eat.
Then, one day, the farmer brought a cat to live on the farm. The cat was very good at one thing: chasing mice! The cat could move so quietly, the mice did not know it was there until it pounced on them. The mice became desperate. They were afraid to venture out into the grain because of the cat and they were hungry.
The mice held a meeting. They decide they could not stop the cat, but it would be good to at least know when she was approaching. This would give them enough time to run and hide. Many mice offered suggestions, but none that everyone thought good enough. Then, a mouse said, "I have listened to all your suggestions, but they are no good. I know what to do. This will be successful. We must hang a bell around the cat's neck. When the cat is on the move, we will hear the bell and can run to safety."
The mice became excited. This was indeed a very good idea. In the midst of their excitement, the wisest mouse spoke, "It is indeed a good idea. But tell me: who will bell the cat?"
All the mice became silent.
OPTION 2 — Play
Cast:
Cat
Mouse One
Mouse Two
Mouse Three
Mouse Four
Scene One
The four mice run and play in the fields, stopping to eat grain now and then.
Cat sneaks up on the mice and chases them away.
Scene Two
The four mice huddle together. They are hiding from Cat. Cat prowls around outside where the mice hide.
MOUSE ONE: We have had a good life here on the farm.
MOUSE TWO: We would eat and play and sleep in the lovely field all day.
MOUSE THREE: Now, the farmer has a cat.
CAT: Meow!!
MOUSE FOUR: The cat sneaks up on us all the time.
ALL MICE TOGETHER: This is bad!
MOUSE ONE: We must think of a way to protect ourselves from the cat.
ALL MICE THINK.
MOUSE TWO: Perhaps we should ask the farmer to take the cat away?
MOUSE ONE, THREE, and FOUR: No, no. Fine idea, but it will never work!
CAT: Meow! Meow!
MOUSE THREE: Perhaps we should give the cat some cheese. It will know we want to be friends and will leave us alone.
MOUSE ONE, MOUSE TWO and MOUSE FOUR: No, no. Fine idea, but it will never work!
CAT: Meow! Meow! MEOWWWWWWW!
MOUSE ONE: I do not think we can stop the cat from chasing us. If only we knew when it was coming so we could quickly hide.
MOUSE FOUR: I know! I have the best idea. Your ideas would not work, but mine will! We could put a bell around the cat's neck. Then, it could not sneak up on us because we would hear the bell as it approaches.
MOUSE TWO and MOUSE THREE: Great idea! Hurrah! Hurrah!
MOUSE ONE: A fine idea, but who volunteers to put the bell on the cat?
ALL MICE LOOK SCARED, STAY SILENT, AND HANG THEIR HEADS.
CAT (pouncing on mice): MEOWWWWWW!!!
THE END
FIND OUT MORE
On the Buzzle website, read an article by management guru Peter Drucker on Qualities of Leadership in Children. (at www.buzzle.com/articles/qualities-of-leadership-in-children.html) The article encourages adults to motivate children to develop leadership qualities.
This short article (at www.interpretermagazine.org/interior.asp?ptid=43&mid=8928) in the United Methodist Church's Interpreter Magazine suggests ways to include children in congregational leadership.
The website Teach with Movies (at www.teachwithmovies.org/) offers lessons based on many movies and TV shows. Lesson plans for eight year-olds include the movies "Babe" and "A Bug's Life," both of which feature characters growing into leadership. If you purchase a membership, you can have film-based lesson plans available on short notice.
Growing Field Books (at www.growingfield.com/home/index.php) publishes books to recognize and build leadership skills in children.
For Adults
The Tapestry of Faith program Harvest the Power (at www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/harvest/index.shtml) provides a faith-based journey for adults into congregational leadership skill development.