Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Creating Home: A Program on Developing a Sense of Home Grounded in Faith for Grades K-1

Faith In Action: Spreading The Word - Short-Term

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Newsprint on which you recorded children’s comments in Activity 1: Guided Labyrinth Meditation
  • Tape
  • Optional: Computer and internet access
  • Optional: Congregational publication(s) featuring children’s comments

Preparation for Activity

  • Discuss with your director of religious education the idea of using children’s comments in a congregational publication. Determine how you will ask parents’ permission, if you need it.
  • Identify someone in the congregation responsible for publicity, publications, or the website and offer them use of the children’s comments. Plan together how the children’s comments will be used.
  • Once a plan is in place, invite the publicity, publications, or website contact to visit the group. Set the date and time. If possible, schedule the visit after children’s comments have been printed in a bulletin or posted on the web. Plan to show the children their comments online or in print.
  • Write a notice to families about the project, providing the date/time of the visit. Distribute by email or as a handout.
  • Compile children’s comments as a text document and provide the document electronically to your contact. Follow your congregation’s policy about the use of names of minors on the website or in publications. You may like to use only the child’s first name and age, or list the comments as “Quotes from the Kindergarten/First Grade Religious Education Group.” Do not post or publish children’s full names on the web or post or publish children’s photos together with their names.
  • Post the newsprint with children’s comments from Activity 1: Guided Labyrinth Meditation.

Description of Activity

If you have done Activity 1: Guided Labyrinth Meditation and recorded children’s comments about what they like about their Unitarian Universalist faith home, you may like to compile the comments for inclusion in a congregational publication or on its website. You will need permission from your director of religious education and possibly permission from parents.

When your visitor arrives, introduce them. Explain:

They help let people know about our faith home and the activities we do here. This work is helpful for people who might be looking for a new faith home. When you want to find out about a faith home, a good way is to look on the internet, or to read a bulletin about what’s going on at a congregation.

Direct the children’s attention to the newsprint you have posted. Remind the children what they said after the guided labyrinth meditation, by reading aloud some of the comments.

Engage the children in relating the comments they made after the meditation with good things others might like to know about their Unitarian Universalist faith home. Then, invite your visitor to tell and show what he/she has done with the comments.