Tapestry of Faith: Wonderful Welcome: A Program for Children Grades K-1

Closing

Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Wonder Box poster
  • Leader Resource 1, Guide Dog, and tape or glue stick
  • Copies of Taking It Home for all participants

Preparation for Activity

  • Print out Leader Resource 1, Guide Dog. Cut out the image to attach to the Wonder Box poster.
  • Display the Wonder Box poster.
  • Write the closing words on newsprint, and post.
  • Customize, print out, and photocopy Taking It Home for all participants.

Description of Activity

Gather the children in a circle. Show the Wonder Box poster. Explain that it looks like the Wonder Box to remind us of our intangible gifts. Invite a child to tape or glue the picture of the guide dog to the poster. You may say, in your own words:

Now we will see the guide dog when we are together. It will remind us that there are many ways we can help animals and they can help us. We can give and receive the gift of mutual caring with different animals we in our lives. When we feed an animal, when a guide dog helps someone get around, when we pat a dog and the dog licks our hand with affection, we are caring for each other as part of the interdependent web of life.

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 of us, humans and animals, are part of the web of life. 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 - "Mutual Caring."

Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home handouts. Thank and dismiss participants.