WORLD OF WONDER
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 12: BEAUTY IN NATURE
BY REV. ALICE ANACHEKA-NASEMANN, PAT KAHN, AND JULIE SIMON
© Copyright 2013 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/9/2014 2:44:23 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Imagine a glorious full moon coming over the tops of the spruce, big and yellow, shedding a mysterious light on everything... the moonlight had colour, you could see to paint and be able to appreciate the colour of things. — Arthur Lismer, Canadian Unitarian artist, 1948
This session explores the universal need for beauty and cultivates children's appreciation of nature's beauty. Activities draw from the UU Source, "Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life." We experience great awe and wonder when contemplating the elegance of the systems and the beauty of the materials that sustain all of Earth's abundant and diverse life forms. Perhaps along with our survival needs, it is the love and appreciation for the planet's beauty that moves us to protect it.
If you are not able to go outdoors for Activity 3, Eyes on Nature, use Alternate Activity 3, Appreciating Nature Indoors.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Earth Ball Name Game | 5 |
Activity 2: Story — Treasure Stones | 10 |
Activity 3: Eyes on Nature | 20 |
Activity 4: Reflecting on Beauty | 15 |
Faith in Action: Sowing Seeds of Beauty | 60 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Welcoming Web Game | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Sensory Beauty Walk | 20 |
Alternate Activity 3: Appreciating Nature Indoors | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for several minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. Picture in your mind's eye your favorite places to play in nature when you were a child. If you did not grow up with such opportunities, choose a time from any period of your life. After you've got one or two places in mind, consider the following:
Think about the idea that what we love, we protect. Allow your own sense of reverence, wonder, and awe to be present as you lead this session.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The opening circle rituals reinforce the theme of interdependence and the web of life and provide leadership opportunities for participants.
Gather participants in a circle around the chalice. Using the Leadership Chart created in Session 2, assign roles for this session. Briefly describe each job. Explain that next time you meet the jobs will change and anyone who did not get a job today will have a chance during another session. Throughout the session, prompt those with leadership tasks at the appropriate times.
Remind the group that each session starts with the ritual of lighting the chalice. In these words or your own, say:
All around the world, Unitarian Universalists of all ages light chalices when they gather together. With this ritual, Unitarian Universalists are connected 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 chalice-lighting words.
As needed, help the designated leaders light the chalice and lead the chalice-lighting words:
We light our chalice to honor the web of all life.
We honor the sun and earth that bring life to us.
We honor the plants and creatures of land, water, and air that nourish us.
And we honor each other, gathered here to share the wonder of our world.
—adapted from words by Alice Anacheka-Nasemann
Point to the covenant the group created in Session 1 and briefly review it. Invite any newcomers to sign their name. You might have the Welcoming Leader or Justice Leader invite newcomers to sign the covenant, if those roles have been assigned.
Remind the children that each time we meet, we will explore something about our seventh UU Principle: respect for the interdependent web of life. In these words or your own, say:
Beauty can mean something that gives pleasure to your senses, like something that is not only wonderful to look at, but also listen to like the song of a bird, or smell like the fragrance of a rose. Today we will learn more about beauty in nature.
Including All Participants
At this age there is a very wide span in terms of reading abilities; point out words as you read them to the children, but do not expect them to be able to read.
ACTIVITY 1: EARTH BALL NAME GAME (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity engages active learners while helping everyone learn the names of participants and leaders.
Stand in a circle with participants. Say, in these words or your own:
One important way to make connections and help everyone feel welcome is to know each other's names. We will use this earth ball each time we are together to help create connections in our group. When someone throws the "earth" to you, catch the ball and say your name.
Demonstrate by throwing the ball gently to a co-leader. Have the co-leader say their name.
Then everyone says "Welcome, [co-leader's name]." Then, that person will gently throw the earth ball to someone else in the circle, who will say their name and be welcomed by the group.
Continue until everyone in the circle has been introduced.
Including All Participants
If throwing and catching the ball is difficult, do the activity seated with legs out and feet touching, rolling the ball instead of throwing it. If any participant cannot stand or sit on the floor, have everyone play in a circle of chairs.
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — TREASURE STONES (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the children in a circle in the storytelling area and show them the story basket. Say something like:
This is our story basket. I wonder what is in it today?
Take the story-related items from the basket, one at a time, and pass them around. Objects that are fragile or cannot easily be passed around can be held up for all to see and then placed on the altar/centering table or any table or shelf.
Take the chime or rain stick from the basket and say in these words or your own:
Each time you hear a story during World of Wonder we will use this instrument to get our ears, minds, and bodies ready to listen. Sit comfortably and close your eyes. When I sound the chime (turn the rain stick over), listen as carefully as you can and see how long you can hear it. When you can't hear it anymore, open your eyes and it will be time for the story to start.
Sound the chime or rain stick. When the sound has completely disappeared, read or tell the story, "Treasure Stones."
When the story is finished, lead a brief discussion using questions such as:
Including All Participants
Fidget objects, described in Session 1, Leader Resource 1, can provide a non-disruptive outlet for anyone who needs to move or who benefits from sensory stimulation.
ACTIVITY 3: EYES ON NATURE (20 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Bring the group outside. Tell the children they will have a chance to become both a "Camera" and a "Photographer." They will practice their observation skills and to view scenes from various perspectives as they try different ways of framing what they see.
Tell the children that when everyone has taken pictures, they will have a chance in the next activity to "develop the film" by creating the pictures on paper.
Have the children form pairs. Explain that they will take turns being a Camera and a Photographer. Once the children have partners, have them decide who will start as the Camera and who will start as the Photographer, reminding them that they will switch roles later.
Explain that the Cameras will close their eyes and the Photographers will gently guide the Cameras to a location to make a picture. Everything is done in silence (or with whispered instructions to the ear if necessary). The Photographer should gently position the body and head of the Camera to set up the picture. Encourage the Photographer to use different types of shots, including close-up, long shots, or even a tilt or pan, as with a video camera. You can demonstrate or explain examples such as tilting the Camera down low and crouching close to view a wildflower, or having the Camera lie down on their back and looking up, into the trees and sky. When the shot is set up, the Photographer gently taps the shoulder of the Camera. The Camera then opens their eyes, counts silently to 10, gazes at the shot, and then closes their eyes again. Then the Photographer sets up the next "photo." Ask the Photographer to make 2 to 4 "photos" depending on the time you have. Then have partners switch roles.
Including All Participants
Allow children who are not comfortable closing their eyes to simply lower their gaze when they are the Camera. Remind Photographers to be gentle in guiding the Cameras, taking into account any mobility issues.
If the group includes a child with blindness or significant visual impairment, ask your religious educator or ask a parent, directly, to learn parent preferences regarding activities in which the child cannot fully participate. Describe the activity to the parent. They may be able to suggest an adaptation that could be meaningful and comfortable for their child. You might suggest that a child who is blind can take a tactile approach to the Camera role, using their hands to feel the area immediately around them and then describing what they feel. However, it may be best to skip this activity.
ACTIVITY 4: REFLECTING ON BEAUTY (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
After each child has had a chance to be a Camera and a Photographer, gather all the children together to share their favorite nature “photo.”
Ask the children to describe the “photos” they took. Ask questions such as:
Offer the children paper and drawing implements and invite them to recreate their photos. You can also invite them to reenact a photo, especially if their framing captured motion or activity in nature.
Allow time for participants to share their art work with one another. Optional, but recommended: While most children will want to take their pictures home, you might invite them to give their pictures to congregants who are ill or receiving pastoral care. Ask the director of religious education or the appropriate pastoral personnel to deliver the pictures. Be sure to have the children sign their names.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather in a circle by the World of Wonder mural. Say in these words or your own:
Today we thought about how wonderful it is that the Earth provides so many things we find beautiful. Beautiful sights, beautiful sounds, beautiful fragrances. Unitarian Universalists believe that that all people and animals and plants are part of an invisible web of life, like the web on our mural. Each time we meet we add something new to our World of Wonder mural. Today we add a picture painted by Arthur Lismer, to remind us how important beauty is in the web of life.
Attach the picture to the mural.
Indicate the lyrics to the closing song "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands." Invite the Song Leader to start the song with accompanying hand motions. Participants can help each other remember hand motions or can create new ones.
Distribute Taking It Home. Thank the children for participating and invite them to return next time.
FAITH IN ACTION: SOWING SEEDS OF BEAUTY (60 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children make seed balls to give the gift of nature's beauty to their families, friends, and co-congregants.
Have participants sit at work tables with adult volunteers. Allow children to do as much of the work as is feasible. They can take turns measuring and mixing the ingredients. Include everyone in forming the seed balls. Have volunteers take pictures or video during the event.
To make the seed balls, mix together (with your hands) in a large bowl:
The mixture should be easily shaped into 1 inch balls (you do not want the "dough" to be too wet). Put the seed balls on cookie sheets or trays to dry.
Optional: Children may wish to decorate brown lunch bags with messages such as "spread beauty," or pictures of flowers.
Optional: Have a volunteer read Barbara Cooney's story, Miss Rumphius, about a woman who spreads beauty by sowing lupines.
In closing, ask the World of Wonder children to lead participants in the song, "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands." Distribute seed balls to the congregation, perhaps during coffee hour. If you have decorated brown lunch bags, provide these to congregants to hold the seed balls.
Plan to share the photos or video with the children next time the group meets.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few minutes to evaluate the session with your co-leader immediately after the session, while it is fresh. Share your thoughts with other team leaders and the religious educator. You might find it helpful to consider these questions:
TAKING IT HOME
Imagine a glorious full moon coming over the tops of the spruce, big and yellow, shedding a mysterious light on everything... the moonlight had colour, you could see to paint and be able to appreciate the colour of things. — Arthur Lismer, Canadian Unitarian artist, 1948
IN TODAY'S SESSION... we affirmed the value of appreciating Earth's natural beauty. We heard a story about Canadian Unitarian Arthur Lismer, an artist and art educator who was inspired by the natural world. We took turns being Cameras and Photographers, taking pictures of beauty in nature and "developing" them on paper.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about ways your family can enjoy the natural world even more often. On the Harvard Square Library website, read about Arthur Lismer's camping trips (at www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/lismer.html) and how they inspired his art.
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try... nature-inspired games, gardening, stargazing, or even cloud watching. Read Christine Rafal's brief article (at www.pbs.org/parents/creativity/np_outdoors.html), about how nature has always inspired people to express their creativity.
A Family Adventure. Turn the ideas you talked about into real explorations—take a hike! Pack a picnic! Swing into a swimming hole! Love the Earth and all the ways she supports and inspires us... because what we love, we protect.
Family Discovery. On the Art is Fun website (at www.art-is-fun.com/nature-in-art.html), explore artists who were inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Research famous paintings online and have each family member share their favorites. Better yet, visit a local art museum or photography exhibit together.
A Family Game. Ask your child to show you how to be a Camera and Photographer. Have all family members take turns creating pictures.
A Family Ritual. If you eat dinner together, perhaps designate one night a week to open the meal by hearing from each family member about something beautiful they experienced outdoors.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: WELCOMING WEB GAME (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity makes the concepts of interdependence and the web of life concrete with a web made out of yarn.
Tell the children that together you will create a web, like a spider web. Explain that, holding a piece of the yarn, you will roll the ball to someone else in the circle and welcome them by name. Then, that person will pass the yarn to someone else and the group will continue until everyone has been welcomed and is holding a piece of the yarn. Remind the children:
1. Do not let go of your piece of yarn when you roll the ball of yarn to the next person.
2. Pass the ball of yarn to someone who is not sitting right next to you.
Start the game. When everyone is holding a piece of yarn, point out that you have created a web together.
Ask everyone to hold their piece of yarn. Then, pull on your piece and ask the children what they noticed. Point out that everyone could feel the tug. Invite another child to tug the string and ask the children if they could feel that, as well. See if they can tell, by feel, who made the tug.
Now drop your string and ask the children what happens to the web. Ask the children what they think would happen if half of the group dropped their pieces of yarn. As needed, point out that the web might fall apart. At the end of the game, ask for a volunteer to roll the yarn back into a ball.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: SENSORY BEAUTY WALK (20 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Ask the children to get ready to go outside. Tell them each will have a turn to "spy" something beautiful outside. Remind them that beauty can please any of our senses, so when it is their turn, they can say, "I spy with my eye something beautiful," or "I hear with my ear something beautiful" or "I smell with my nose something beautiful," and pointing to the matching organ (eye, ear, nose). (These gestures will provide helpful extra information in case children have trouble hearing one another on the walk.) Tell the children they may only use three of their senses today (no touching or tasting).
You might walk to a certain place and sit or stand all together before you begin "spying" beauty outdoors. It is fine to walk continually and allow children to take turns "spying" beauty all along the walk. Depending on the size of your group and the place you are walking, determine a configuration (single file, two lines... ) that will allow all children to hear and see one another as they guess what the spy is noticing. After each successful guess, allow the "spy" to rotate into a new position and the next child to spy something.
At the end of the walk, ask the participants if they usually notice so many beautiful things when they are outside, or did this help them notice more beauty?
Including All Participants
Children with limited mobility may prefer help getting to just one location. Children with certain learning issues may be able to process the game better if the group stops walking when a spy is going to speak.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: APPRECIATING NATURE INDOORS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Drawing or painting an object requires careful attention, yet when we relate to something by drawing or painting it, we can truly connect with its beauty.
Indicate the arrangements of natural objects (or, ask the children to arrange the items themselves). Distribute drawing/painting materials, and give children time to draw an arrangement, or even just an interesting part of it.
Feel free to talk a little bit about the items. For example: "Isn't it amazing that gorgeous, deep purple eggplants, cheerful rounded red apples, and mysterious complicated pinecones all look so different and yet have the same function for the plants they came from: to protect its seeds?" Wonder at the different kinds of seeds in nature, and the variety of ways seeds are "packaged" in plants.
Afterward, ask the children if they saw the objects differently because they were trying to draw them. Cut open some of the fruits and let the children see for themselves the different arrangements of seeds inside. Do they notice designs or patterns? Ask if they ever have noticed the beautiful arrangements of fruits and vegetables if they have had a chance to go food shopping.
Including All Participants
Offer soft clay to a kinesthetic learner who might prefer to sculpt or a child with visual impairment who might like to explore and represent the arrangements in a tactile way.
WORLD OF WONDER: SESSION 12:
STORY: TREASURE STONES
By Janeen Grohsmeyer.
In a time not so long ago and in a place not so far away, there lived a boy named Arthur Lismer. Arthur always had a pencil in his pocket, because Arthur loved to draw. He drew clouds. He drew birds. He drew flowers. He drew many beautiful things. And he drew pictures of stones.
"Why are you drawing a boring old stone?" his friends would ask. "They're just... gray. They're just... rocks."
"Stones are beautiful," Arthur told them. "Just look. Some stones have gold flecks. Some have tiny crystals. In the rain, a stone can change color. In the sunshine, it can sparkle. Every stone is a treasure; every stone is beautiful. Just look!"
Arthur would draw pictures anywhere, anytime. He drew in the morning at the breakfast table. He drew during lunchtime at school. He drew on moonlit nights outside, surrounded by trees. He drew on train rides through the countryside. He even drew on Sundays in church.
"Put that away," his mother would tell him, and so Arthur would close his sketchbook and put his pencil in his pocket, and he would listen to their minister at the Unitarian chapel in Sheffield. But sometimes during the service he would still be thinking about drawing.
When Arthur was thirteen, he went to a special school for artists. After he was graduated, he sold his drawings to people. But he didn't make very much money at it.
So, when he was twenty-six years old, he decided to leave England and sail across the Atlantic Ocean, all the way to Canada. He got an ax and chopped up his desk, and he used its wood to build a trunk. He put some clothes and his drawing paper and his drawing pencils into the trunk, and he moved to Canada.
The trees and the flowers and the animals in Canada were all new to Arthur, and all of them were beautiful. He traveled to many places, going to the mountains and the prairies and the lakes and rivers of that great land, painting pictures of the things he saw.
People liked his pictures. They liked seeing the world through his eyes. Most people hadn't traveled very far, and Canada is a very big country. Arthur's pictures were like windows into a new world.
In his pictures, people could see a river of snow flowing down a mountainside. They saw trees with great gnarly roots all twisted together. They saw a church and houses surrounded by fields of grain. They saw gray rocks colored bright red by the setting sun. They saw a tree bowing in the wind, and above it little white clouds following each other across the sky like little ducklings in a row.
People hadn't seen that before. They hadn't realized just how magnificent Canada was. "Just look," Arthur said. "Look and see."
Many people bought Arthur's pictures to put in their homes. People put his pictures in schools, and in offices, and even on stamps.
Five years after Arthur came to Canada, he became a teacher in an art school, showing people how to create art. Not just with paper and pencil, but with wire and cloth and felt and feather and bits of rock and all kinds of things.
On Saturdays, he taught classes in a museum. People of all ages came, all in the same room. Parents learned right along with their children. Arthur would talk for a while about the paintings, about the artists who created them and about where and when they were made. And then, he would ask everyone: "What do you see in that picture? What do you think it means? What do you like? What kind of beauty is there for you?"
On Sundays, he taught children at his Unitarian church. "Let's go outside!" he would usually say. "Let's see what we can find. Let's see."
"I found a stone," a little girl said one day. "It's just gray."
"Let's see," Arthur said. He licked his finger to get it wet. Then he rubbed his finger on the little stone. The stone turned pink and then purple and then gray again.
"It's like a rainbow!" the little girl said.
Arthur took out his pencil from his pocket (he always carried a pencil) and drew two small dots on one end of the stone, and then a long curving line on the other.
"It's like a mouse!" the little girl said.
He turned the rock over so they could see all the little spidery lines in the cracks.
"It's a like a map!" the little girl said.
Then sunshine came, and the rock began to sparkle.
"Now it's silver and gold!" she said. "It's like treasure."
"It is treasure," Arthur told her.
The little girl nodded. She held the stone that was a rainbow and a mouse and a map and a treasure tightly in her hand. "It's my treasure stone," she said. "I can see that now."
What kind of treasures do you see?
WORLD OF WONDER: SESSION 12:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: MURAL IMAGE — LISMER PAINTING
Arthur Lismer, from Wikipedia. The Guides Home, Algonquin (1914, National Gallery, Ottawa) was an experiment in impressionism.
FIND OUT MORE
Arthur Lismer (1885-1969)
Arthur Lismer was born in Sheffield, England, in 1885. His parents and grandparents were Unitarians, and the family attended the Unitarian chapel in Sheffield. As a boy, Arthur would leave behind the factories and row houses of the town and walk in the woods and fields and on the shore.
Though his family was working-class and money was tight, his parents encouraged him to attend the Sheffield School of Art. A scholarship enabled Arthur to take classes there from age 13 to 20. He also studied in Antwerp.
At the age of 26, he emigrated to Toronto, Canada, leaving behind his fiancee, Esther Mawson. One year later, he returned to England to marry her in the Unitarian church. The newlyweds settled in Canada.
Soon, Arthur became part of the "Group of Seven (at www.groupofsevenart.com/)," artists who traveled through Canada and produced art that inspired pride in the country. He taught at the Montreal Museum of Art and at McGill University, and in 1916, at the age of thirty-one, he became the principal of the Nova Scotia School of Art. In 1929, he was the Educational Supervisor at the Art Gallery in Toronto. He wrote of the school, "The aim of the Art Centre is not to train artists, or teach art, or instruct in drawing, but to lead out from the child, encouraging every spark of feeling and originality and to aid in the extension and co-ordination of hand, eye and mind toward the development of a more emotionally active and alive little personality."
He and his wife, Esther, were active in the Unitarian churches in Toronto and Montreal. He died on March 23, 1969. A service was held at the Unitarian church on Sherbrook Street in Montreal.
Lismer paintings mentioned in the story "Treasure Stones" are Evening Silhouette (at bertc.com/subtwo/g35/lismer1.htm), The Glacier (at bertc.com/subtwo/g35/lismer15.htm), Bon Echo (at www.1st-art-gallery.com/Arthur-Lismer/Bon-Echo.html), Sunlight in a Wood (at www.galeriedada.com/arthur-lismer-sunlight-in-a-wood-00001213.html), and Quebec Village (at www.galeriedada.com/arthur-lismer-quebec-village-00001218.html)
Many books show nature's amazing patterns. One is Swirl by Swirl, Spirals in Nature (at www.amazon.com/Swirl-Spirals-Nature-Joyce-Sidman/dp/054731583X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336408639&sr=1-1) by Joyce Sidman.
Learn more about seed balls through the article, "Environmentalists Adopt New Weapon: Seed Balls (at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103129515)," by Margot Adler (at www.npr.org/people/2100166/margot-adler) from NPR, April 15, 2009.
Visit the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth (at www.uuministryforearth.org/) or the UUA's Green Sanctuary (at www.uua.org/leaders/environment/greensanctuary/index.shtml) program to learn how UUs are involved in taking care of the earth.