WONDERFUL WELCOME
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 7: THE GIFT OF HELPING
BY AISHA HAUSER AND SUSAN LAWRENCE
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 9:15:11 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
Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
This session introduces the intangible gift of helping, and teaches children that they can help people they have never met, as well as people they know. While helping is an intangible gift, helping produces tangible results. Many organizations raise funds and offer assistance in many forms to people all over the world. Heifer International provides tangible help in the form of animals, and engages families in sustainable agricultural enterprise. Recipients help their families by feeding their children and selling the animal's milk, eggs, or wool, and also help their neighbors by sharing the animal's offspring.
The children will learn that when we help people, we affirm our seventh Principle, the interdependent web of all existence. We are all connected — to each other, to animals and to the Earth. Helping also affirms our first Principle, that each person is important, including people we may never meet, and our second Principle, that we work for peace and justice in our world.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Wonder Box | 5 |
Activity 2: Thread the Needle Hula Hoop Game | 10 |
Activity 3: Story — The Gift of Giving | 10 |
Activity 4: Making a Helping Hands Wreath | 15 |
Activity 5: Singing "Children Helping Children" | 10 |
Faith in Action: Help the Goat Climb the Mountain for Heifer International | varies |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Helping Hands Wreaths to Take Home | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
The opportunity to help presents itself in many ways. We may give money, food, or clothing — or literally a helping hand — to someone in need. Sometimes we empower others to help themselves. Sometimes we meet the recipients of our help, and sometimes we do not. Sometimes we are the recipients. Do you help by volunteering in person and therefore meeting people in need, for example, at a homeless shelter? If you donate to charitable organizations, how do you decide which ones to support?
In this session, you help children give the gift of helping to a person who lives far away, whom they do not know, will probably never meet, and whose name they may never know. Think about how you feel when you make a financial contribution to an organization that helps others. Do you feel part of the organization? What helps you understand that you have been helpful when you do not know the recipient? While the money you contribute and the help someone receives are tangible, the gift of helping is not. Help the children understand this intangible gift of the heart and the spirit. Bring your own positive energy around helping to this session.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants in a circle around the chalice. Remind the group that you start each session with a ritual. You might say:
All around the world, Unitarian Universalists of all ages light chalices when they gather together. With this ritual, Unitarian Universalists can connect to one another, even though they might never meet each other.
Now we will light the chalice, the symbol of our Unitarian Universalist faith; then say together our opening words.
Light the chalice and invite the children to repeat each line of the opening words.
We are Unitarian Universalists.
With minds that think,
Hearts that love,
And hands that are ready to serve.
Together we care for our Earth,
And work for friendship and peace in our world.
Extinguish the chalice.
ACTIVITY 1: WONDER BOX (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
With the children still in a circle, ask them to guess what could be in this big, beautifully wrapped box. Take some guesses. Then, open the box, take out the picture, and ask: What do you see in this picture?
Elicit responses. If the Wonder Box also contains toy animals, ask the children to identify the animals, and then say:
In a little while, you will find out how you could help a child you don't know get a farm animal which would, in turn, be a big help to their family.
Today we will be talking about the gift of helping. There are many ways to help and every day brings more chances to help.
Ask the children to name ways they have helped or could help someone else. They will probably talk about helping someone else in person. Affirm all answers. Then say:
You can help your mom or dad clean the house. You can help friends build something when you are playing. Today we will be talking about another kind of helping. We will talk about helping people who we have never met. How do you think we can help people we have never met?
Elicit some responses. Tell them:
An important part of being a Unitarian Universalist is we work for peace and justice in the world, which means we try to make the world fair for everybody. If things were not fair for you, you might appreciate some help, wouldn't you? Well, we can help make things more fair for other people. We can even help people we have never met. One way to help is to give money to an organization that helps others who live in another part of the world. Another way to help is to volunteer to work in a place that helps people or animals, for example, a food pantry, or an animal shelter. Today we will read a story about an organization that helps people by giving farm animals to families.
ACTIVITY 2: THREAD-THE-NEEDLE HULA HOOP GAME (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Including All Participants
If any participants have mobility limitations that would prevent them from being part of this activity, use a different cooperative game. If you have enough hula hoops, give one to each pair of children and choose one pair to lead this activity. Challenge them to balance the hula hoop between them in a creative way. Direct the rest of the group to try and imitate the leaders. Pairs that succeed continue; those that do not succeed are “out.” Then, choose another pair to lead. Point out that the cooperation of partners and the group’s ability to pay attention to the leading pair are two kinds of learning together.
If you skip this activity, you may wish to do Alternate Activity 1, Helping Hands Wreaths to Take Home in place of or in addition to Activity 4, Helping Hands Wreath.
If some children may be physically unable to do either version of this activity, skip it. You may wish to do Alternate Activity 1, Helping Hands Wreaths to Take Home in place of, or in addition to, Activity 4, Helping Hands Wreath.
ACTIVITY 3: STORY – PASSING THE GIFT ALONG (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the children in a comfortable circle and read or tell the story.
ACTIVITY 4: HELPING HANDS WREATH (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the children will join hands in a way that they can "keep." Say something like:
Today we are going to make a Helping Hands Wreath. We will trace each of our hands and put them together. We will hang our wreath when we are together to remind us of our commitment to helping.
Give everyone (leaders can also participate) a sheet of construction paper, varying colors to make the wreath look festive. Ask children to trace both of their hands and help them as needed. Once the hands are traced, ask them to cut them out and write their first name on them, again helping as needed.
Collect all the hands and gather the group around a work table as you assemble the hands into a wreath shape on the poster board base. Glue the hands so that all the fingers are displayed outward.
ACTIVITY 5: SINGING "CHILDREN HELPING CHILDREN" (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Teach and lead the song, "Children Helping Children."
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the children in a circle. Show the Wonder Box poster and explain that it looks like the Wonder Box to remind us about our intangible gifts. Invite a child to attach the picture of the earth to the poster. You may say, in your own words:
Today we learned that the gift of helping is one of the most important gifts we give. Whether we are helping someone right next to us, or helping someone we do not even know, we can make a difference in other people's lives when we give the gift of helping.
Tell the children you are happy and thankful you all could be together this morning. You may say:
Giving thanks for being together helps us remember that all kinds of friends are important, and we appreciate every one — including the friends we will never meet, but whom we were able to give the gift of helping. Let's say our closing words of gratitude together.
Invite the children to hold hands. Show them where you have posted the closing words. Ask them to say each line with you, and say the lines slowly:
We are thankful.
We are thankful to be here.
We are thankful to be here, together.
We are thankful to be here, together, now.
Then ask one child to very gently squeeze the hand of the person to their left, and have that person continue to pass the squeeze until the squeeze has returned to the person who started it. Tell the person who started the squeeze to signal that it has returned to them by raising their arms, still holding hands with the people on either side. When this happens, instruct everyone to raise their clasped hands, together. If you like, suggest a word for them to say at this moment, like "Good-bye!" or "Shalom!" or the name of this session's intangible gift — "Helping!"
Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home handouts. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: HELP THE GOAT CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN FOR HEIFER INTERNATIONAL
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Guide the group to initiate a fundraiser to see how many animals the congregation can purchase through Heifer International for people all over the world. Twenty dollars purchases a flock of chicks or populates a fish pond. One hundred and twenty dollars purchases goats, pigs or sheep. A Heifer costs $500 while $5,000 will purchase an " Ark " that includes two of every animal Heifer distributes.
On the bottom of the poster write the names of the animals or put their pictures, along with the fundraising goal for each animal. You could add the more expensive animals as the animal figure(s) climb the mountain. Post animals that you think your congregation could realistically purchase.
The children might have a table at coffee hour to tell people about the project and ask for their help to purchase an animal. No monetary gift is too small — make sure everyone understands that no one has to purchase a whole animal. As people contribute, have the cut-out animals, "climb" the mountain.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on these questions and discuss them with your co-leaders:
TAKING IT HOME
Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
IN TODAY'S SESSION...
The children learned about the intangible gift of helping. Although helping is intangible, the results of help are tangible. The children made a Helping Hands Wreath constructed of their traced hands — a metaphor for hands linked together to help others.
The opportunity to help presents itself daily in concrete ways such as helping to clean the house. However, this session focused on helping people whom we will never meet, people who live very different lives from our own. The organization, Heifer International, empowers people by giving them farm animals to raise. Before receiving an animal, each family agrees to pass on the offspring to other families in need, thereby passing along the gift of helping.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...
how you contribute to organizations that help others. This can include contributions made through your congregation. Often congregations collectively sponsor organizations such as Heifer or Habitat for Humanity. Talk about why you have chosen to help. How does it feel to know that people you may never meet can improve their lives with your help?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...
forgoing birthday gifts from one another so that family members can instead contribute money to a charitable organization. Point out that the birthday gift you receive is the gift of helping.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: HELPING HANDS WREATHS TO TAKE HOME (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the children they will make a wreath they can take home that represents their helping hands.
Give each child four sheets of construction paper in different colors. Show them how to place and then trace their right and left hands on each sheet. Then invite them to cut out all of the hands they have traced. Some children may like to cut out one pair of hands, and then use these to trace on the remaining three sheets of paper. You may need to help some children with tracing and cutting.
When a child has cut out eight hands (four left and four right), arrange the hands in a circle with the fingers displayed outward and glue the hands together to make a wreath. Have the children write their names on their wreaths — perhaps one or two letters per hand. They might also write (or you can write for them), "These are my Helping Hands!"
WONDERFUL WELCOME: SESSION 7:
STORY: THE GIFT OF GIVING
By Janeen K. Grohsmeyer.
On Steve's sixth birthday, many people gave him gifts. His mother gave him a chess set and promised to teach him how to play after dinner. His grandfather gave him a black rope that was twenty-five feet long and would be good for making forts and building bridges and all kinds of things. His friend Shanaya gave him modeling clay, his friend Tom gave him a toy racing car, his aunt sent him ten dollars with a birthday card, and his dad gave him a book about dinosaurs. Steve took cupcakes to school, and his classmates sang "Happy Birthday" to him. His teacher let him be first in the line when they went outside to play. Steve thought it was the best birthday he'd ever had. That night after dinner, Steve was waiting for his parents to finish watching the news on TV so he and his mom could play chess. He was busy making a dinosaur out of the modeling clay when he heard the man on the TV say, "It's his sixth birthday today." Steve looked up right away, but the TV man wasn't talking about him. On the screen was a picture of a boy in a T-shirt and shorts standing on dusty ground in front of a small building. It looked like the tool shed in Steve's back yard, except it was kind of crooked. The boy was barefoot and he wasn't smiling, even though it was his birthday, and Steve didn't see any gifts anywhere. "He lives here with his parents, his grandmother, and three brothers and sisters," the TV man said. "Usually they eat only one meal a day. Some days they don't eat at all." "Why don't they eat?" Steve asked. "There's been no rain," his dad answered. "Their plants won't grow." "Can't they go to a store and buy food?" "They don't have money," his mom said. Steve had money. He had the ten dollars his aunt had given him, plus a lot of coins hidden in his sock drawer upstairs. "How much does food cost?" he asked. The TV man answered that question. "Just a few dollars a day would provide food for this family of seven." While Steve and his mom were getting out the chess pieces, he said, "How long would ten dollars last, for food for that family on TV?" "About four days," his mom answered. "Can I send my birthday money to that boy?" "Oh, Steve," she said. "That's very nice of you! We could ask the TV people where they live." That sounded good. "But what happens after the four days?" Steve asked next. "When the ten dollars is used up?" He wouldn't have any more money to send, except the coins. His mom nodded. "That is a problem," she agreed. "But I heard about an idea at church last week. I'll ask your RE teacher if you can talk about it next Sunday." Sunday finally came, and Steve and his family went to church. In the RE room, pictures of animals were on the walls: bunnies and chickens and ducks, goats and sheep, a pig and a black-and-white cow, and a big animal that looked like the cow except it was all black and had bigger horns and sideways ears. "That's a water buffalo," his friend Shanaya said. "They live in China and Korea and places in the east." "That's right, Shanaya," said their teacher. Then it was time to gather in a circle and light the chalice and sing. After that, everyone sat down and talked more about the animals, how the birds laid eggs, and the sheep grew wool, and the goat and the cow gave milk. "People use all those things," said the teacher. "We get food and clothes and help from animals, every day." Steve nodded. Animals didn't get all used up in four days, like his money would have. They lasted for a long time. "What's the water buffalo do?" he asked. "They give milk, too," the teacher said, "and people also use them to carry things or pull plows and help farm the land." Steve wondered if a water buffalo would help the boy on TV. "One of the most important gifts these animals give," said the teacher, "is more animals. They have babies, and when those babies are grown up, they make milk or eggs or wool, too." "And those babies make babies!" said Shanaya. "Then after a while, everyone can have an animal," Steve said. That meant everyone would have food and clothes. This was great! "How do we give other people an animal?" he wanted to know. "We don't have any ducks or goats or pigs," said Shanaya. "And definitely no water buffalos." "We give money to an organization that does, and they give an animal to a family who needs one. Does everyone want to do this?" Everyone said yes, and then they started talking about what kind of animal to give. Steve and Tom voted to give a water buffalo, and two girls voted for bunnies, but Shanaya and five others all voted to give a goat, so the goat won. "A goat costs one hundred twenty dollars," the teacher told them. "How can we get that?" "I'll give my birthday money," said Steve. "Ten dollars." "I have five dollars to give," said Shanaya, and the other kids said they had money too. When they added it all up, they had sixty-two dollars. "We need fifty-eight more dollars," their teacher told them. "We could sell cookies," suggested Tom. So the next Sunday they used the church kitchen to make cookies and sell them after the service. They put out a donation jar, too, and some of the grownups put in five dollars or even ten dollars. When Steve told his aunt what he had done with his birthday money, she sent him twenty more dollars for the goat. Soon, they had the one hundred twenty dollars they needed, and the class sent the money to the organization that gave animals to people who needed them. "Who is the goat going to?" Steve asked. "What's their name? Where do they live?" "We don't know," answered his teacher. "There are many, many people all over the world who need animals. The goat may be given to a family in China or Uganda or Poland or maybe in our own country." Steve had wanted to give the goat to the boy on TV. And maybe the goat would live there. Or maybe the goat wouldn't. Maybe the family the goat lived with would have another six-year-old boy. Or a six-year-old girl. Or maybe they'd have all older children, or only babies. It didn't really matter. Because Steve knew that wherever the goat lived, and whomever she lived with, the family would take care of her. And when the goat had her kids, the family would take care of the kids, too. The people could drink the goat's milk or maybe sell some of it to buy clothes or other food. They would give the kids away to other families, and soon everyone would have a goat. And one of those people would probably be having a birthday, and maybe that person would be six years old. Or maybe not. And it didn't matter, because Steve knew those ten dollars were the best birthday gift he'd ever given away.
WONDERFUL WELCOME: SESSION 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: HELPING AROUND THE WORLD PICTURE
WONDERFUL WELCOME: SESSION 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: SONG
The song, "Children Helping Children," by Dana Clark, appears in the book, May This Light Shine (Charlotte, NC: Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network, 2006). Used with permission.
The author and copyright holder of this song, Dana Clark, can be reached at danapiano @ sbcglobal.net (at mailto:danapiano@sbcglobal.net). Or, view her website (at www.lewisandclarkmusic.com/).
Some lyrics of the song are:
Children helping children, all around the world,
Reaching out to every boy and every girl.
Children helping children, I wonder if you know,
Helping others give us what we need to grow.
Open your heart and hold out your hand.
Let someone know that you understand.
Each kindness you give will come back to you.
When you share with others they'll learn to share, too
WONDERFUL WELCOME: SESSION 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN ANIMALS
FIND OUT MORE
Beatrice Biira
A July 3, 2008 New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof (at www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/opinion/03kristof.html?_r=3&scp=2&sq=arkansas&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin) provides an update on Beatrice Biira, who graduated from Connecticut College , and describes how Heifer, International's programs have impact.
International Social Justice and Economic Equity Programs
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (at www.uusc.org/)is an affiliated organization of the UUA that is committed to social justice in the world.
On the Heifer International website (at www.heifer.org/), find information about the organization's programs, along with fundraising ideas, activities and curricula.
Global Giving (at www.globalgiving.com/)is another organization that connects people wanting to donate money to communities all over the world that need help.
Women for Women International (at www.womenforwomen.org/) helps women in impoverished and war-torn countries rebuild their lives. Through this organization, individuals sponsor women all over the world.
There are many, many more organizations committed to world social justice and economic equity. Surfing the web is one way to find a group that interests you.