Tapestry of Faith: World of Wonder: A Program on the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism for Grades K-1

Taking It Home: Nature's Partnerships

Part of World of Wonder

Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation. — Charles Cook, founder and director of Wild Earth Adventures

IN TODAY'S SESSION... we learned about some interesting partnerships in nature, discussing how very different creatures can be helpful to one another. We played an active game in which participants pretended to be sea anemones and clown fish, working together in partnerships. We created and played with Nature's Partnerships puppets. We added a sea anemone and a clown fish to our World of Wonder mural and sang "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands."

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about... partnerships in your family and congregation. Are there times when you work as a team? What is easier about having a partner? Are there times when having a partner makes things harder? What makes someone a "good" or helpful partner? Are there things you can do together with your family or your congregation that you would not be able to do alone?

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...

A Family Adventure. Help keep the ocean clean for clown fish and sea anemones by volunteering for the international coastal clean-up, described on the Ocean Conservancy website. If you do not live near the ocean, volunteer to help clean up a local river or lake. A good book to read together about trash and the oceans is Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion by Unitarian Universalist Loree Griffin Burns.

Family Discovery. With your child, search online for the terms "animal partnerships," "mutualism," and "symbiosis." (You can also contrast these with parasitism, in which one animal benefits but another is harmed.) Print out pictures of partnerships in nature. Create a partnership mural.

A Family Ritual. Foster awareness of the ways each family member contributes to the well-being of the family. Begin a dinnertime ritual in which each person takes a turn naming something they did during the day to help someone else in the family, and expresses gratitude to another family member for the help they provided during the day.