Session II: Valuing Family Identity
What is passed down in your family—which activities, traditions,
holidays?
How can you tell you are with your own family?
What makes your
family unique?
Preparation
- Read the entire session plan. Make sure you have all the needed materials for your group’s plan by obtaining them or requesting them by Wednesday afternoon.
- Make sure you have a name tag for everyone on your (evolving!) class list and extra blank name tags for newcomers.
- Be conscious of who the sixth and seventh graders in your group are. How could they help with the leadership this week? Call in advance!
- Choose an extra game from the games section to use if you have extra time. Make sure you have the supplies you need for it.
- Make sure you have a pretty cloth to place under the chalice for the closing circle. This can be the same every week, or it can change.
Session Plan
Opening Worship (in the Community Center)
Story: “Moving Mountains” by Gretchen Thompson
“A family learns to be reflective by carrying a pebble over a stream and this custom is passed through generations. In time, they move a mountain.”
Welcome
Welcome the kids, pass out name tags and re-introduce yourself. Say that you will be thinking about family identity this week, and share some of the guiding questions from above.
Game
Choose a game from the games appendix to share this week. I would recommend “I like people who come from families that ...,” which asks the kids to identify themselves using bits of information about their families (i.e., …have moved more than once, … have five people , … ski together, etc.), but use any game you like!
Introductions
Gather the kids in a circle and ask that they introduce themselves by telling one thing that makes their family unique. If time permits, have everyone repeat the name and unique attribute of each person mentioned before, so the list gets longer and longer as they go. Help the kids who need help BEFORE they get embarrassed! (Cover name tags or not, as you see fit!) Mention last week’s home task—that they try to learn something new that each member of their family loves. Mention something that you learned. Ask if anyone did the task, and if anyone would like to share. Be especially appreciative if anyone did—doing church-school homework isn’t required, but it DOES enrich the church-school experience a lot! Encourage kids, especially those who didn’t do the task, to think about it in the coming week.
Main Activity
Consult the list below for your group’s plan. Don’t hesitate to supplement with another group’s activity if you would like to!
Crafts
Continue the mobile project from last week. Connect up family members by crossing all the wires (or branches) that represent individuals in the family (and the things they like) in the center. Tie them firmly together using fishing line or finer-gauge (#20 or #22) craft wire. You can use this same line or wire to hang the finished mobile. If any arm fails to balance, simply lengthen the thread or fishing wire on the shorter side until it is even with the longer side.
Cooking
Talk about how choosing different foods to eat is one way in which each family is unique, and mention that types of foods and times for serving them are often passed down in families. Make several newsprint sheets and have the kids share the following:
What does your family serve you when you are sick? What does your family eat for breakfast on weekends or holidays? What does your family eat when you need something in a hurry? What are your family’s favorite picnic foods and lunch-box foods? What is your family’s favorite cold food? What is the weirdest food/food combination your family likes? What are your family’s comfort foods?You’ll use these lists as resources for your class later on. Choose a couple of favorite foods from your class list from last week and prepare them. Encourage the contributors to share the story of how the food is used in their family. If the food requires time to bake time, plan to cook first and talk later!
Drama
Ask the kids to reflect upon their families and choose something that they do—like a family tradition—that is quirky or interesting and different. Write them down, and be sure to help the non-writers! Gather groups to act out families doing these things. Ask the kids to guess whose family does that! If there is extra time, dramatize the story from the worship circle or do some of the drama exercises from the appendix.
Outdoors
Using kite kits, have the kids create family kites showing members of their family or things their family loves. If weather permits, go outside and fly them. Alternately, or in addition, go outside and invite the kids to gather enough pebbles to make a small cairn. How long does it take? Ask the kids if they think family traditions are enduring, the way a small stone monument (cairn) is? Are there any practices in their families that they can trace to previous generations?
Writing
Distribute writing materials and the kids’ manila envelopes, then encourage them to complete this sentence once, twice or several times: “You could tell you were with my family if…” Be sure to remind them to accentuate the quirky, positive aspects of their family life! In addition, if they didn’t write family name poems last week, they could do that now, using the family last name(s) to try to convey something of their family’s identity. Encourage the kids to share their work if they are willing. Affirm all of their different families. Collect the envelopes and keep them for next week.
Clean-up and Closing
Once again you should try to leave enough time at the end of the class for the group to clean up together—both because it makes things easier for you and because it’s a good lesson for them. When the room is clean, gather in a circle, place your chalice cloth and chalice in the center, and light it. Say something about the week and the topic like: “We light this chalice in honor of each of our unique families.” Remind them that this is the time they have an opportunity to share something they didn’t like and something they especially liked with the group, and to place a river stone near the chalice.
Remind them also that anyone who chooses to can pass on one or both parts. Pass the basket of objects, and begin by modeling the activity yourself, e.g., “I didn’t like the rain, which kept us from going outside. I especially liked meeting all of you for the first time.”—then place your object near the chalice. When everyone is finished, remind the kids that they get to take home the things they worked on in church school. The task for the week will be to note family traditions. Say, for example, “Pay attention to the things that your family does this week. Are there things that you do the same way every time? Do you have a ritual for bedtime, for dinner conversation, for saying good-bye? Where did it come from? Ask, if you don’t know!” Invite questions about the task, then conclude by saying something like: “May the light of this chalice remain in our hearts until we meet again” and blow out the chalice.
Snack Time
Distribute the snack to the children. Enjoy it together! Collect their name tags for safekeeping before they go. Distribute family handouts.
Last updated on Monday, March 5, 2007.
