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

Alternate Activity 1: Wax-resistant Chalice Painting

Part of Creating Home

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Chalice Art
  • An assortment of color, wax crayons for participants to share
  • Blue, water-based paint for participants to share
  • Paintbrushes for all participants

Preparation for Activity

  • Print out and photocopy a few different chalices large enough to manipulate easily.
  • Set up worktables with crayons and paint for participants to share.

Description of Activity

The chalice symbols used by Unitarian Universalist congregations are line drawings that participants can individualize with color. Gather participants at worktables and distribute the photocopies you have made of one or both of these chalice illustrations.

Tell the group:

You can use the chalice drawing to create a symbol of your faith home, our Unitarian Universalist congregation. You can bring this symbol to your family home, at the end of our session today.

Invite participants to color hard with different colored crayons in each part of the chalice illustration (but not so hard as to tear the paper). As participants color, remind them that each part of the chalice picture is important to the whole faith symbol. Identify the two circles in the painting, the flame, and the chalice itself.

When the whole picture is colored, ask children to paint over the whole page with blue tempera paint. The results will be a beautiful unique chalice painting that tells the story of the faith symbol.