Tapestry of Faith: Moral Tales: A Program on Making Choices for Grades 2-3

Faith In Action: Long-term - Parrots For Pennies

Part of Moral Tales

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • List of ideas for generating pennies, created in previous session
  • Large clear plastic jar for fundraising and/or money collection tin for bake sale
  • Small change for bake sale
  • Optional: Small clear plastic jars for each child
  • Optional: Poster board and markers for bake sale posters
  • Tables for bake sale
  • Table cloths for bake sale
  • Napkins and paper plates
  • Index cards and markers or pens to make signs for bake sale prices
  • Optional: Parrots for Pennies Letter to Parents

Preparation for Activity

BAKE SALE FOR PARROTS FOR PENNIES

  • Put an announcement in the newsletter informing parishioners of the date of the sale.
  • Ask the minister to announce the bake sale to the congregation one week in advance and on the day of the sale.
  • Ask the refreshments committee if you can have a table during refreshments following the service on the date you choose.
  • Have the children make posters using the construction paper and markers in class.
  • Put up the posters announcing the bake sale at least one week prior
  • Customize Leader Resource, Parrots for Pennies Letter to Parents to request help in baking goods for the bake sale and bringing the items to the bake sale table before worship.
  • Arrive early enough to set up bake sale table with table cloth and to put out signs, paper plates and napkins.
  • Cover all bake sale items brought before church.
  • Make a sign(s) with prices of baked goods.
  • Enlist the children to stand behind the baked goods table to take money and talk about their project.

PARROTS FOR PENNIES ANNOUNCEMENT WITH CHILDREN DURING WORSHIP

  • Inform the minister and director of religious education that you would like to do this activity during announcements or at another part of the worship service.
  • Ask them for the best place to put the plastic jar following the service, and on following worship days. (You may want to secure the jar at other times.)
  • Remind parents that the children are invited to participate in the announcement during worship. Give any instructions for where and when you would like the children to meet before worship to "rehearse."

Description of Activity

This Faith in Action project began in Session 15, where you will also find Leader Resource, Parrots for Pennies Letter to Parents. You will already have chosen the recipient(s) and set a timetable or other goal(s) for your fundraising in this project. If the group began planning a bake sale or other Parrots for Pennies congregational activities, in this session you will implement these activities.

If this is the last session of Moral Tales and you wish to close out this Faith in Action project, invite the children to add their contributions to the jar and give them an opportunity to talk about ways in which they were (or were not) able to gather pennies or coins. The goals of this activity are to reinforce their understanding of the power of perseverance and to give them an opportunity to share how it felt to work hard to advance goodness and justice (in the form of helping the recipient of the pennies that the children had chosen).

You can also give the children an opportunity to continue the experience of persevering beyond the life of the Moral Tales program. Give each child a small clear plastic jar for pennies and spend time now helping the children decorate these to take home. Encourage them to work on their own and with their families to fill the jar in the best ways they can find. In your Taking It Home message to parents for this session, mention the continuation of this Faith in Action project about perseverance. Offer families the option of donating the money they collect to a cause of their choice or bringing it back to you when religious education programs resume, to add to the larger jar for a common cause.

If this Faith in Action project can continue after this session, use today's time to plan further actions to fill the group's Parrots for Pennies container. If the children chose a bake sale in the last session, plan this with them today. In this session, children can make signs announcing the bake sale. If they have chosen to ask the congregation to donate coins to the jar, plan a small Parrots for Pennies presentation for the children to make during worship, during coffee hour, or at another time.

To help the children ask the congregation for money toward their cause, you may suggest to them that they think like the "Brave Little Parrot." She wanted to help her friends in the forest and she didn't give up. One idea would be for you to stand up during the announcements in congregational worship, holding the microphone, and briefly describe the story and the children's Faith in Action project, Parrots for Pennies. Have the children "fly" from their seats around the congregation, dropping a penny in the jar and taking a turn at the microphone asking for help. If the children like this idea, then practice it first in your meeting space. Setting a place for the jar as you will in the worship space, use a prop for the microphone, and have the children "fly" from various places around the room, each dropping a penny (that you provide) in the jar and saying, "Please help," into the microphone.

If the group chooses this project, be ready to tell the congregation at the end of the activity where they can find the jar after the service and how long you will be collecting pennies.

Including All Participants

If you find that you do not have enough children from the group at worship on the day you plan to announce Parrots for Pennies fundraising, you can ask other children in the sanctuary if they would like to join in on the flying and dropping pennies in the jar.