SING TO THE POWER
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 13: THE POWER OF WATER
BY REV. LYNN UNGAR
© Copyright 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 2:51:24 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
Can we be like drops of water
Falling on the stone,
Splashing, breaking, dispersing in air
Weaker than the stone by far, but be aware
That as time goes by the rock will wear away. — Holly Near, singer/songwriter and activist
The power of water is the power of flexibility, creativity, and persistence. Water finds a way through the tiniest available channel. Water creates change over time. Participants learn how the force of water carved the massive Grand Canyon, over millions of years. A game, Rocks vs. Water, demonstrates water's ability to move past obstacles. Participants explore the real-world power of flexibility and creativity by working on scenarios in which two groups have opposing goals. In the Human Knots game, participants physically experience the water power of working together to explore options and find solutions.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — The Power of Water | 10 |
Activity 2: Adding Water Symbols to the Circle of the Elements Mural | 10 |
Activity 3: Rocks vs. Water Game | 7 |
Activity 4: Designing Flexible Solutions | 23 |
Faith in Action: Exploring Ways to Exercise Water Power | 30 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Sharing Joys and Sorrows | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Building a Water Channel | 30 |
Alternate Activity 3: Knots Game | 7 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for about five minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. When you feel settled and relaxed, consider:
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The opening ritual invites children to practice leadership and experience the power of a group coming together in sacred space.
Gather the children in a circle around the chalice. Invite them to take a deep breath and release it, and create a deep silence for a moment.
Invite the opening worship leader to select a reading from the Opening Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Place the water symbol on the cloth—or invite the volunteer opening worship leader to place a symbol they have brought. Say, "I bring this symbol of water, of flexibility and creativity, of always moving forward, whatever the obstacles might be."
As needed, assist the worship leader to light the chalice.
Sing "Sing to the Power." Include the zipper words from previous sessions and add today's zipper words, "flowing deep within."
Invite participants to hold hands in a circle. Explain, in these words or your own:
Each time the group meets, we focus on ways we find and express our power. As part of each opening circle, we send a pulse of energy, or power, around the circle.
Begin the power pulse by squeezing the hand of the person to your left, who will then squeeze the hand of the person to their left, followed by each person in rapid succession. Send the power pulse around the circle several times.
Conclude the power pulse. While still holding hands, ask the group to take a deep breath together, bringing their hands up as they breathe in, and bringing their hands down as they breathe out.
Return the reading to the Opening Words Basket and extinguish the chalice.
Including All Participants
Some participants may be uncomfortable being touched. Offer the opportunity to opt out of the circle during the time when participants are holding hands for the power pulse.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — THE POWER OF WATER (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story to the group.
After the story, invite the group to be silent for a moment to think about the story.
Then, ask participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.
Say something like:
It's hard to imagine how something a yielding as water, which generally moves around obstacles rather than through them, could carve something as enormous as the Grand Canyon. But people exercising the steady power of water have managed to accomplish amazing things.
Lead a discussion using these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: ADDING WATER SYMBOLS TO THE CIRCLE OF THE ELEMENTS MURAL (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity adds to the Circle of Elements mural. You may have chosen to display the complete quartered circle in Session 1, or you may be adding the final, bottom right quarter of the circle in this session. In either case, for this activity, invite participants to decorate the "water" quarter with symbols of water.
Invite participants to create their water pictures, symbols, or collages on a sheet of paper or fabric, which you can then attach to the water quarter of the mural, indicated on the Circle of Elements Mural Instructions (Session 1, Leader Resource 3). You may invite or assist participants to attach "found objects" directly to the mural using hot glue. Explain how you will help participants use the glue gun, if you have one.
Post participants' artwork or help them do it. Save several minutes to engage the group in clean-up.
ACTIVITY 3: ROCKS VS. WATER GAME (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The game, Rocks vs. Water, invites participants to physically explore the concept of water power. "Water" players must use flexibility, creativity, and persistence to overcome obstacles as they try to cross the room, past the "Rock" players, without being tagged by a Rock.
Form two groups and have the Water players line up on one side of the playing area. Place pillows or mats for the Rock players, across the playing area with no more than 8 feet in between. Instruct the Rock players to sit on a pillow or mat. Tell them they may move their limbs to tag a Water player, but they may not get up from their location. Invite the Water players to try to cross the room without being tagged.
As you play the game, adjust the number of Rock players or the distance between them to create a situation in which it is challenging but not impossible for Water players to get past. When all Water players have managed to get past the Rocks, reverse roles.
After the game, reflect on the experience with questions such as:
Including All Participants
When you form groups, make sure you assign children with limited mobility to play the game as Rocks.
ACTIVITY 4: DESIGNING FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS (23 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants exercise creativity, flexibility, and persistence as they seek solutions to real-life situations in which people have opposing needs.
Form two groups, Group A and Group B. Let them know that they will be working together to come up with solutions to some real problems that people encounter in the world. Remind them that water power involves creativity and flexibility, and that they will probably come up with the best solutions if they think in terms of working with the other group, rather than against them. Point out that two possible strategies are compromise, in which each group gets part, but not all of what they want, and cooperation, in which groups work together to come up with something that works for everyone, which neither group might have thought of on their own.
Have the children count off as "A" and "B." Then, read the first scenario you have chosen from Leader Resource 1, Scenarios for Flexible Solutions. Clarify which position is "A" and which is "B," and make sure each individual understands which group they belong to. Now lead a discussion. First invite some "A" and some "B" participants to state what their group wants, and why. Then ask participants to suggest possible solutions. Let them work together to come up with a solution that everyone feels they can live with. If you wish, use the newsprint to jot down concerns and possible solutions as participants discuss ideas. Making notes on newsprint is also a good way to ensure that everyone's comments are heard and noted.
After the groups have come up with a solution, discuss the process.
Engage with as many of the four scenarios as time allows.
Including All Participants
Make sure that participants who are quieter or slower to process have the opportunity to speak. Children who have a hard time focusing and/or sitting still may benefit from having quiet, manipulable objects to hold during the discussion.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and the group will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone to clean their own area and put away the materials they were using, then clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
Gather the group in a circle. Tape the "flexibility" circle (Leader Resource 2) outside the "Water" quadrant of the Circle of Elements mural, in the position shown on Session1, Leader Resource 3. Say:
Water power finds its way through flexibility and creativity. It keeps on moving toward its goal, even if it has to take detours along the way.
Invite each participant to take a bead and string it on the elastic and, as they do so, to take a deep breath and then let it out.
Ask the the day's closing worship leader to choose a reading from the Closing Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Ask for (and record) volunteers to lead the opening and closing readings for the next session. Offer the volunteers a copy of Session 1, Leader Resource 1, Opening Words for Basket or Session 1, Leader Resource 5, Closing Words for Basket to take home so they can choose and practice a reading. Tell them they are also welcome to choose their reading from a basket when they come next time.
You may wish to invite the opening worship volunteer to bring a symbol of water for the centering space as well.
Invite participants to put the bracelets in the Closing Words Basket. Distribute copies of the Taking It Home handout. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: EXPLORING WAYS TO EXERCISE WATER POWER POWER (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In keeping with this program's theme of building leadership, the Faith in Action projects build skills in identifying, planning, executing, and reflecting on work for the common good. Rather than offering a detailed project for each session, Sing to the Power provides structured ways for participants to voice their interests and follow through on their commitments. As in the "Earth", "Air" and "Fire" units, the "Water" unit's Faith in Action activities comprise a four-session block.
An action project begins with identifying a need. Begin by explaining that the group will create and carry out a Faith in Action project based on the theme of "water power." Offer, and write on newsprint, some examples of local groups or individuals whose work connects with water power. Invite participants to share any other examples of people working with water power that they can think of. Record these contributions. Then ask participants to brainstorm ideas of projects they might be able to do within a month (or, the time frame of the water power sessions). On a fresh sheet of newsprint, write all suggestions (including any ideas you might have).
Give each participant three stickers or dots. Ask them to vote for the suggestions they like best using their dots. They may put all three dots on one idea, or distribute them among up to three ideas. When voting is complete, identify the three ideas that got the most votes.
Now lead a discussion about what it would take to successfully complete each of the "top three" projects. What would be involved? What resources would you need? How much time would it take, and when would you spend that time? Who would you connect with? What might you learn? How might you contribute to the world?
When you have discussed all three projects, give each participant one more sticker/dot. Have them vote by placing their dot by the project they prefer. The project with the most votes will be your Faith in Action project for the month.
Including All Participants
Make sure you encourage quieter/more shy participants to share their views. Do not allow children who think the quickest or speak the loudest to dominate the discussion. Offer to place dots for a child who has mobility limitations, or have another participant place dots for them.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach the religious educator for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
Can we be like drops of water
Falling on the stone,
Splashing, breaking, dispersing in air
Weaker than the stone by far, but be aware
That as time goes by the rock will wear away. — Holly Near, singer/songwriter and activist
IN TODAY'S SESSION... we began talking about the power of water by learning how the Colorado River carved out the Grand Canyon. We played games that involved the water power characteristics of flexibility and creativity, and worked to resolve scenarios in which two groups wanted opposing results.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. How does your family resolve differences, particularly when genuine needs conflict? In what ways have members of your family been flexible and creative in coming up with solutions for family issues in which different people wanted different things?
FAMILY GAME. We played Rocks vs. Water in class today. The goal of the game is for "Water" players to get past "Rock" players to the other side of the room without being tagged by a Rock. Rock players must sit on a cushion or carpet square, and not move from their location. These rock bases should be placed in a line across the room, with about 8 feet between the bases. You might wish to have only one family member be a Water player, while the rest are Rocks, or chose a narrow enough field of play that one or two Rocks have a chance to block the way without getting up from their base.
FAMILY ADVENTURE. Go on a family adventure to a river or creek. How has the river shaped the environment around it? What does the power of the water feel like when you put your hand in it? What does the power of the water feel like if you actually step out into the flow? How does the power of the water carry a stick or another floating object?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SHARING JOYS AND SORROWS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say:
Our community is like a bowl that holds all of our lives. The joys and sorrows which affect each person's life send ripples through all of our lives.
Invite participants, as they are moved, to pick up a stone, drop it gently (!) in the bowl of water, and share aloud a joy or a sorrow which has affected their life in recent days. Say they may drop their stone in silence, instead; tell them it is okay to keep their joys or sorrows private. You might go first, to model.
Once all who wish to have shared, affirm all the words people have spoken and the thoughts and feelings that remain inside each person's head and heart.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: BUILDING A WATER CHANNEL (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children explore the power of water in a hands-on experiment. They work together to construct a channel through which water can flow—a challenge which uses cooperation, creativity, and flexibility as participants negotiate which ideas to use and how to combine ideas.
Invite the children to work together to use the materials you have provided to plan and then build a path where water can flow.
Have them construct the channel. Then, place a large bowl at the bottom of the channel to capture water, and use the pitcher to pour water in the top and see where it goes. Engage analysis of the experiment with these questions:
Including All Participants
Engage participants who lack manual dexterity for building in planning and analyzing construction.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: KNOTS GAME (7 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
River water finds its way by flowing and giving way, all the while moving on its downward course toward the sea. Participants experience the water power of flexibility, moving forward and giving way as they work together creatively to untangle a human knot.
This game works best with five to ten people. If you have a very large group you might wish to break into smaller groups. However, if you have a very small group you may wish to spend more time on other activities and bypass this game.
Have participants stand in a circle. Everyone puts their hands into the center of the circle and grabs hold of two different people's hands. Once everyone is holding hands with two other people, the group must work together to untie the knot without ever letting go of hands, so that the group is in a simple circle. For an additional challenge, you might want to try playing the game again, but this time in silence, so that participants have to use eye contact and gestures of the head and linked hands to work together to untie the knot.
After the knot has been untied, invite participants to reflect on what worked and what didn't work. Was it possible to untie the knot if you just focused on yourself and decided what you needed to do without regard for what other people were doing?
Including All Participants
Knots can be resolved with some participants remaining seated, as needed to accommodate mobility or balance issues. Children who are uncomfortable being touched or in close physical proximity can participate by making suggestions from outside the circle as to possibilities for untying the knot.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 13:
STORY: THE POWER OF WATER
Imagine that you are in a glider, soaring over the Grand Canyon. You see layers of rock, red and yellow, brown and black. You see a deep gorge, as if someone has cut a trench a mile deep out of the layers of rock. Some places the cut is narrow, the walls steep, and some places the canyon widens out so that the walls stretch wide apart. And at the bottom, through the 277 miles of the canyon, runs the Colorado River.
Mostly, the river looks rather calm and quiet from above, oozing along the bottom of the great channel. But it's not quite right to think of the canyon as being the route that the river follows. In fact, the river is what carved the canyon.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, changes in the earth's climate brought changes to the environment where the Grand Canyon is now. At different times, deserts, swamps, and inland seas covered the area, alternately, for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years apiece.
With each new environment a new layer of sediment was deposited on top of the previous one. The weight from each new layer pressed and compacted the ones below, cementing each layer into rock.
Tectonic plates, blocks of the Earth's crust, shifted these layers of rock around. When the Kula and Farallon plates slid under the North American plate 75 million years ago the movement forced the land to push up, creating the mountains we now call the Rocky Mountain range. A similar movement 60 million years later formed the flat rise of land we call the Colorado Plateau.
The first uplift created the path of the Colorado River. And as the river ran through the layered rock, the water began to erode the relatively soft sandstone. As the river flowed along, bits of rock moved along with it, carried to the river's end at the Gulf of Mexico. The second uplift increased the Colorado's already steep slope, causing the river to flow faster and erode the rock more quickly. But it wasn't until the Ice Ages, a little more than 2 million years ago, that the Colorado River did most of its work. During this period of the Earth's history the Colorado ran high from snow and rain, carrying more rock and soil than ever before. Boulders as big as trucks went crashing down the river's length, as the power of the water cut the canyon deeper and deeper.
There's a dam across the Colorado River now, and the river flows more slowly. But still, gradually, the Grand Canyon continues to be carved deeper and deeper. So you might want to ask yourself this: Which is stronger, rock or water? If you pour water on a rock, the water will flow away, while the rock stands firm. But given enough time (lots and lots of time!) it is the power of water that carved the Grand Canyon out of the rock.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: SCENARIOS FOR FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS
1.
Group A. You are a group of parents who would like your babies and toddlers to be with you during the worship service.
Group B. You are a group of older people who have a hard time hearing the service, and think that noisy babies and toddlers should stay in nursery care during the worship service.
2.
Group A. You are a group of vegans who think that eating any animal products is wrong, and who think that at your upcoming overnight camp no animal products should be served.
Group B. You are a group of omnivores who think that eating protein is important, and that people should eat what they like. You know marshmallows contain gelatin, an animal product, but it won't feel like camp if you don't roast marshmallows.
3.
Group A. You are high-energy kids in a religious education group who love to run, play, and move. You think your curriculum should be entirely active games that are fun and not boring.
Group B. You are verbal and artistic kids who like to talk about things, learn new things from books, and create beautiful arts and crafts projects. You think your curriculum should be entirely things you can do sitting down.
4.
Group A. You are dog lovers who know how much your dogs love to run and play off leash. You think that dogs should be allowed to enjoy themselves off-leash in your big local park.
Group B. You are parents who take your small children to play in your local park. You think that off-leash dogs are dangerous, and that having dogs in the park at all makes the park less of a place that you would want to take your children to play.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: "FLEXIBILITY" CIRCLE
FIND OUT MORE
The Tapestry of Faith (at www.uua.org/tapestryoffaith) curriculum Gather the Spirit is an eight-session, wide age span program focused on water ecology and stewardship. Browse Gather the Spirit online (at www.uua.org/re/tapestry/multigenerational/gather/index.shtml) for water-themed activities, readings, and stories to enhance this unit of Sing to the Power.
"Water. stewardship, and justice" was the theme of the Tapestry of Faith Family pages in the Summer 2010 issue of UU World magazine. Download the insert in PDF format (at www.uua.org/documents/uuworld/families/10_summer.pdf). It offers a story about Pete Seeger's environmental projects based on the ship The Clearwater, and activities and reflections to use at home or with the RE group.
Durango Bill's website (at www.durangobill.com/Paleorivers_preface.html) provides links to detailed and scholarly information on the formation of the Grand Canyon. This YouTube video (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktf73HNZZGY) shows the history of the canyon's formation, in just under four minutes.
See a video of singer/songwriter Meg Christian singing the lovely song "The Rock Will Wear Away," (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCQZoaI2Uo) words by Holly Near and music by Christian, the source of this session's opening quote.