FAITHFUL JOURNEYS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 14: HONOR LIFE
BY BY ALICE ANACHEKA-NASEMANN AND LYNN UNGAR SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE, DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR JUDITH A. FREDIANI, DIRECTOR OF LIFESPAN FAITH DEVELOPMENT
© Copyright 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/7/2014 4:55:39 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again. — Beatrix Potter
The session introduces our seventh Unitarian Universalist Principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, through the story of British Unitarian Beatrix Potter. The creator of Peter Rabbit not only wrote and illustrated children's books featuring animal characters, but also related to nature as a dedicated amateur biologist, a professional farmer and the donor of many acres of countryside to England 's National Trust. In this session, the children identify connections that form the interdependent web of an ecosystem and explore their own relationship with the natural world. We add the signpost "Honor Life" to our Faithful Journeys Path.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 2 |
Activity 1: Faithful Footprints | 5 |
Activity 2: Move It! Knots | 5 |
Activity 3: Story Basket and Centering | 5 |
Activity 4: Story — Honoring Life: A Story of Beatrix Potter | 8 |
Activity 5: Ecosystem Guided Meditation | 8 |
Activity 6: Ecosystem Mural | 20 |
Faith in Action: Get to Church by People Power Day | |
Closing | 7 |
Alternate Activity 1: Nature Conversation Journal | 12 |
Alternate Activity 2: Writing in Code | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
If it would be helpful in creating sacred space, light a candle or chalice.
Beatrix Potter had a strong everyday relationship with the natural world. Consider the ways you connect with the nonhuman world. Do you relate most to pets? To a garden? To the food you prepare and eat, and its plant and animal sources? To wilderness experiences, such as camping or hiking? Have you ever had an experience in which you felt an animal or plant was speaking to you, or was your friend?
How do the connections you feel or understand with the nonhuman world affect your daily choices about sharing the Earth with other beings? On a daily basis, how do you use natural resources? Interact with animal and plant life? Choose your food? Explore ways you might live more consciously as part of the interconnected web.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (2 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the children in a circle. Light the chalice. Point out the chalice-lighting words on the newsprint and invite the group to read together:
We light this flame for the light of truth, the warmth of love, and the energy of action.
Indicate the poster(s) of the Unitarian Universalist Principles. Or, give each child a copy of the handout. Ask a volunteer to read the seventh Principle in the adult language. Ask a second volunteer to read the children's version of the seventh Principle. Then, say:
Today we will learn about this Unitarian Universalist Principle — what it means, and what kinds of actions show it. Let's get started.
Collect handouts for reuse.
Including All Participants
If not all participants are fluent readers, take the time to teach the group to say the opening words from memory.
If the group has children who are sensitive to perfumes or other chemicals, use unscented candles or an electric or battery-operated flame. An electric flame is also recommended if you may not use open flames or if any participants are afraid of fire.
ACTIVITY 1: FAITHFUL FOOTPRINTS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity reinforces children's learning as they model translating faith into action for one another. To strengthen children's Unitarian Universalist identity, help participants see how their own behavior demonstrates specific Principles.
Gather in a circle. Point to the Faithful Journeys Path and say:
Together we are taking a journey to learn what it means to live as Unitarian Universalists. Each time we meet, we have a chance to talk about ways our actions show our beliefs about what is right and good. This is called "putting our faith into action."
When you share about something you have done that shows what you believe, you can choose a footprint or tracks for us to put on our Faithful Journeys Path.
Hold up the footprint you made of your own faithful action. Tell what you did and how it represents your Unitarian Universalist beliefs. If you can connect your action to a Principle, briefly explain. For example:
Ask the children to think of an act they have done, since you met last, which reflects Unitarian Universalism. You may wish to prompt:
As participants name their actions, write a word or phrase describing the action on a footprint or wheelchair cutout. Invite children to write their names on their cutouts and post them along the edge of the Faithful Journeys Path. Have them progress along the path over the course of the program.
To stay within the time frame for this activity, use these guidelines:
It is very important to avoid judging participants, either with criticism or praise. Avoid phrases like "Great job!" or "You're fantastic!" which might suggest that acts of faith vary in their value or encourage children to compete to share the "best" act.
You should, however, respond to each child's contribution. Listen carefully to what a child tells you. After each child shares, say something like, "Thank you for sharing," followed by a summarizing sentence, such as:
Identify the Unitarian Universalist Principles their act represents; refer to the Principles poster if the room has one or indicate a relevant signpost on the Faithful Journeys Path. By responding specifically to each child's faithful actions, you will help them feel pride, a sense of accomplishment, and their own empowerment as agents whose actions and choices reflect Unitarian Universalist beliefs and values.
Including All Participants
Along with cut-out footprints (Session 1, Handout 3, Faithful Footprints), provide wheelchairs (Session 1, Handout 4, Making Tracks for Faith) in the same colors of paper. Encourage all the children — not just those who use wheelchairs for mobility — to sometimes use a wheelchair instead of footprints to represent their faithful actions.
ACTIVITY 2: MOVE IT! KNOTS (5 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain to the children that today we will be talking about our seventh Unitarian Universalist Principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. You may say:
This game will give us a taste of what it feels like to all be connected, and to remember those connections as we work together to solve a problem.
Gather the children in a circle. Ask everyone to extend both hands in toward the center of the circle. Invite them to each take the hands of two different people who are not next to them in the circle.
When all are connected, tell the children they have now formed an interdependent web. Invite the children to untangle the knot into a circle, without anyone letting go of the hands they are holding.
Give the group a few minutes to try to turn the knot into a simple circle, still holding one another's hands. You might suggest they loosen their grip so their linked hands pivot easily but don't lose touch entirely. As they move, affirm children for paying attention to the ways they are connected to the others.
To conclude, ask the children:
You can point out how important it was to pay attention to the specific ways they were all connected.
If you have time, try the game again.
Including All Participants
Children with mobility issues can participate from a chair or wheelchair, with others moving around them. Watch for children who may be uncomfortable being touched or crowded, and give them the choice to observe instead of play.
ACTIVITY 3: STORY BASKET AND CENTERING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the children in a circle in your storytelling area. Show them the storytelling basket. Say something like, "Let's see what's in our story basket today."
Tell the group the items in the story basket will be placed on this altar or table after the children have passed them around the circle. Take the story-related items from the basket, one at a time, and pass them around. Objects that are fragile or should not be passed around for any reason can be held up for all to see and then placed directly on the altar.
Briefly name the various objects. Show pictures of Beatrix Potter and explain that she was a Unitarian a long time ago in England .
As items come back to you, display them on the altar for children to look at as they listen to the story.
Now remove the sound instrument from the story basket. Tell the children that every time you tell a story in Faithful Journeys, you will first use the instrument to help them get their ears, minds, and bodies ready to listen. Invite them to sit comfortably and close their eyes (if they are comfortable doing so). You may tell them that closing their eyes can help them focus on just listening.
In a calm voice, say:
As you breathe in, feel your body opening up with air. As you breathe out, feel yourself relaxing.
Repeat this once or twice. Then, say:
Now you are ready to listen. When I hit the chime (turn the rain stick over), listen as carefully as you can. See how long you can hear its sound. When you can no longer hear it, open your eyes and you will know it is time for the story to begin.
Sound the chime or other instrument. When the sound has gone, begin telling the story.
Including All Participants
If anyone in the group is unable to hold or pass items, or cannot see the items, make sure you or a child in the group offers the person a chance to see and touch each object, as needed.
Some people do not feel safe closing their eyes when they are in a group. If any children resist, respect their resistance and suggest that they find a single point of focus to look at instead.
If you have a basket of fidget objects for children who may listen and learn more effectively with something in their hands, make the fidget object basket available during this activity. Remind children where it is before you begin the "centering" part of this activity. For a full description of fidget objects and guidance on using them, see Session 2, Leader Resource 2.
ACTIVITY 4: STORY — HONORING LIFE — A STORY OF BEATRIX POTTER (8 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The story about Unitarian Beatrix Potter, who spent her isolated, younger years observing and drawing nature and who grew up to write and illustrate children's books about animals, exemplifies our seventh Principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
Before you begin, look around the room and make eye contact with each person. Read or tell the story.
Sound the instrument to indicate that the story is over.
When you have finished the story, guide the children in a brief discussion using these questions:
ACTIVITY 5: ECOSYSTEM GUIDED MEDITATION (8 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the children that we, like Beatrix Potter, can experience our connection with the web of life by both observing and imagining. Say, in your own words:
We will try using our imaginations to explore the connections that happen in nature. In different places where people, animals, and plants live, we are all connected because every living thing needs others to survive.
Ask children if they can think of examples. Suggest: When birds eat insects, that protects some plants that people and other animals eat. When rain falls from the sky, trees grow big enough to feed and shelter birds. Then say:
Scientists call these connections an "ecosystem." There are many different kinds of ecosystems, with different kinds of animals, different kinds of plants, and different connections. A rain forest is an ecosystem. A riverbank can be an ecosystem. A desert can be an ecosystem.
Let's imagine what it might feel like to be part of an ecosystem. Since Beatrix Potter spent so much of her life on the hillsides of the English Lake Country, we will try becoming a meadow.
If there is room, it may be most comfortable for children to lie down on the floor. Invite the children to close their eyes, if they are comfortable doing so. Say:
Make yourself quiet in your body and mind. Become aware of how it feels and sounds when your body breathes.
You may wish to guide them to relax and quiet each part of their bodies, from feet to head. Then, continue:
Imagine that you are in a meadow, a grassy area with only a few trees. It is a cool day, but sunny. What would it feel like to be the grass? Not to be on the grass, but to actually be the grass? Feel the sun and the breeze on your blades, your roots going down into the ground, pulling water and nutrients up into your body. Who else is around you?
Now, in your imagination, change. You are no longer the blade of grass. Now you are an ant, or another kind of bug, scurrying on or around the grass. What is your relationship to the grass? Do you eat it? Walk on it? Hide beneath it?
Once again, you are changing, becoming another member of this meadow community. Now you are a bird. Imagine spreading your wings and taking flight, ending up in a nearby giant oak tree. How does it feel to ruffle your feathers? How does the breeze affect your flying? What will you eat? Might it be the bug that you were just a minute ago? Where will you sleep?
Now change again. You take another shape, becoming much, much larger, until you are the oak tree the bird was sitting on. Feel the sun and the breeze in your leaves. How does being a tree feel different from being a blade of grass? How do your long, strong roots feel different from the little, hairlike roots of the grass? Who lives among your leaves and branches? Do they help you or hurt you? You have lived in this place for a hundred years — how has the world changed around you? What might you know that none of the other beings in the meadow know?
One last time, feel yourself change into another being, this time a squirrel running down from the branches of the oak tree. What do you gain from the tree? What might you give to it? Enjoy your ability to bound effortlessly across the ground, to scramble and leap through the trees, your fluffy tail providing balance behind you. What makes you happy? What scares you? Who might you see around you? As a squirrel, look around the meadow, and then say good-bye to the meadow as you return once again to your human form, back in this human community.
Invite the children to share what they saw or felt during the meditation. Was anything surprising? What other plants and animals might they have seen or been? How would the ecosystem of the meadow have been different if one of the beings was missing? Invite them to consider particular interactions, such as if the bird had not been there to eat the bugs, or the squirrel had not been there to bury acorns (which grow into new oak trees).
Including All Participants
Fidget objects (Session 2, Leader Resource 2) may help some children stay quiet through the meditation.
ACTIVITY 6: ECOSYSTEM MURAL (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the children they will create a mural of an ecosystem. Ask for a definition of an ecosystem. Affirm that the mural will portray the different plants and animals that together form the interdependent web of a particular place.
Tell the group about the ecosystem they will portray. You may wish to have the children depict the meadow they experienced in Activity 5, the guided meditation. Or, allow the group to choose (by vote or consensus) an ecosystem to depict, such as your local ecosystem, a rain forest, a coral reef or a riverbank. Encourage children to depict plants and bugs as well as birds and mammals. Suggest they sketch the mural in pencil before using paint or markers.
If you like, indicate pictures and information you have brought to help children choose subjects to draw or paint. As the children work, guide them with questions about the relationships between various plants and animals in the ecosystem. Who eats what? Who uses what for shelter? Who helps other things to grow? When the mural is complete, you or the children may wish to visually indicate these connections with lightly penciled dotted lines.
Including All Participants
Whether you are using a wall, table or floor, make sure the mural paper and art supplies are accessible to all participants.
CLOSING (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity helps children get used to practicing a closing ritual as a way of affirming their belonging in the faith community.
Gather the group in a circle. Thank the children for participating and sharing their stories and ideas in this session. Tell them something you liked about the way they worked together as a community.
Point out the Faithful Journeys Path. Say, in your own words:
Our Faithful Journeys Path shows our journey to live our lives and act in ways that reflect our Unitarian Universalist beliefs and faith. The signposts direct us by reminding us about our Principles.
Today's signpost is "Honor Life." It stands for our seventh Unitarian Universalist Principle: respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. It means that we remember that all beings of the Earth, human, plant, or animal, are connected, so we need to act in ways that care for our planet, Earth, and everything that lives here with us.
Attach the signpost to the Faithful Journeys Path.
Remind the children that they will have a chance to add Faithful Footprints to the Faithful Journeys Path the next time they meet. Encourage them to try to do an action before your next session that shows respect for nature and the web of life. Take a few minutes to brainstorm some actions together. If the children have difficulty coming up with ideas, you might suggest helping their families recycle bottles and paper at home, spending time outdoors paying respectful attention to the different life forms they find in their own ecosystem, and asking parents or teachers or looking in books to learn one new thing about interconnections in their local ecosystem or another one.
Point out the words to the UU Principles Song. Tell the children it is sung to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm." Lead the children in singing the verse about the seventh Principle. Then, sing the entire song together. Explain that you will learn about all of the Principles during your time together in Faithful Journeys.
Distribute the Taking It Home handout. Thank the children, tell them you look forward to seeing them next time, and dismiss the group.
FAITH IN ACTION: GET TO CHURCH BY PEOPLE POWER DAY
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
To do something beneficial for our ecosystem and foster connections between individuals and nature and among congregants, engage the Faithful Journeys group to sponsor a "Get to Church by People Power" day. People power could include sharing rides or joining together in using public transportation or literal human energy, such as walking or bicycling.
Lead the children in promoting the event. Participants might make and display posters, write a piece for the congregational newsletter, make an announcement during a worship service, create an invitation to photocopy or scan to send to members, and/or personally invite congregants to participate. Include the message that participating in Get to Church by People Power Day is a way to take faithful action that is particularly expressive of our seventh Principle.
On Get to Church by People Power Day, the group might provide cool drinks or light snacks for those who walked or rode.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few minutes to evaluate the session with your co-leader while it is fresh. Share your thoughts with any other team co-leaders and your director of religious education. You might find it helpful to consider these questions:
TAKING IT HOME
Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again. — Beatrix Potter
IN TODAY'S SESSION... We introduced Beatrix Potter, author of Peter Rabbit and many other children's classics, who was a naturalist and farmer, an author and illustrator, and a Unitarian. We talked about our seventh Principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, imagined ourselves as various parts of an ecosystem, and created a mural depicting the connected nature of an ecosystem. Our signpost to help guide us in faithful action was "Honor Life."
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about... Talk with your child about encounters with nature that stand out vividly in your own life. When have you felt especially connected with nonhuman life? What have you learned from animals or plants? How can observing or listening to other beings in our interdependent web of life teach us how to care best for the Earth we share? Encourage your child to share their own responses to these questions.
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try... Our session centered on the interdependent web and introduced the concept of ecosystems. How would you describe the ecosystem your family belongs to? Where does your food come from? Where do you get shelter? Who beyond your family shares food or shelter with you? You may wish to expand your family's role in your ecosystem by building a bird house or bird feeder, composting, planting a butterfly garden or planting vegetables you can harvest and share.
FAMILY ADVENTURE
A family camping trip or hike can be a great way to connect both with nature and with one another. Even a picnic in the park or backyard can bring your family in closer contact with the natural world. While you are outdoors, talk about the various life forms you find around you.
A FAMILY RITUAL
Mitakuye oyasin is a Lakota Sioux phrase that is generally translated as "all my relations." It is a prayer of oneness with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, and even rocks, and expresses much the same concept as the interdependent web of all existence. You may wish to use mitakuye oyasin or its English translation, "all my relations," as a prayer of gratitude and appreciation, particularly when you notice beauty in nature or evidence of nature's interconnections. The words can also serve as a closing phrase for other prayers, such as table grace or prayers at bedtime.
A FAMILY GAME
Play a game based on the connections of an ecosystem. Have one family member self-identify as a plant or animal. The next person self-identifies as another plant or animal and tells how it relates to the first. For instance, if the first person said, "I am a bear," the second person might say, "I am a salmon that was eaten by the bear." The game continues as each person self-identifies in connection to the previous beings: "I am a bug that was eaten by the salmon that was eaten by the bear." / "I am a shrub that sheltered the bug that was eaten by the salmon that was eaten by the bear." A player who cannot add to the list of beings in relationship may start the game over by introducing a new animal or plant.
FAMILY DISCOVERY
An extensive Beatrix Potter website (at www.peterrabbit.com/)has information about Potter's life and world, as well as games for children, and you can find many of her books (at wiredforbooks.org/kids.htm), complete with pictures, online. Your family may enjoy watching the 2006 movie, Miss Potter (at www.misspotter-themovie.com/), or the 1971 movie, Tales of Beatrix Potter, featuring the Royal Ballet.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an excellent Environmental Kids Club (at www.epa.gov/kids/)with environmental information and games for children. Fans of Dr. Seuss's environmental children's book, The Lorax, will enjoy this Lorax Save the Trees game (at www.seussville.com/games/lorax/). On the BBC website (at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/science_6_7.shtml), find interactive games for elementary-school-age children that explore interconnections in the natural environment and other science, health and ecology topics.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: NATURE CONVERSATION JOURNAL (12 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Beatrix Potter's stories grew out of her observations of nature, combined with her active imagination that filled in the animals' sides of a conversation. Guide children to initiate conversation with something in nature, such as a plant, an animal, a stone or a twig.
Bring the group outdoors. Distribute pencils and notebooks or clipboards and paper. Ask children, without speaking to one another, to find something in the natural world that they can greet as an old friend or that they would like to get to know better. Invite them to ask questions of their conversation partner, and to use their imaginations to fill in what the plant/animal/stone might say in response. This, of course, will not be an actual conversation, and should be conducted without speaking aloud.
Explain that they can record their conversation any way they like — word for word, or by taking notes or drawing pictures to help remember the questions and answers.
Back indoors (or in a circle outdoors, if the weather is nice), invite volunteers to share what they chose to talk with, and what was said.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: WRITING IN CODE (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
For many years, Beatrix Potter kept a diary, which she wrote in a special code that she created. No one figured out the code until twenty years after she died. In this activity, children create their own code to write out an instruction on caring for our planet, such as "Walk to school" or "Don't litter."
Gather participants at work tables, seated a bit apart so everyone has a private space. Invite the children to think silently about a brief message they might like to give to others about how to take care of the ecosystem of our planet.
Distribute paper and pencils. Ask the children to write down their message, without showing it to anyone — except a leader, who may be able to help with phrasing or spelling. Then, direct the children to write the alphabet as a list along the side or bottom of their page. Demonstrate on newsprint.
When their alphabets are finished, explain how children can create their own secret code by assigning each letter its own symbol. A code symbol might be a different letter, a number, or an invented symbol or picture. Tell the children they do not need symbols for the entire alphabet — only for the letters that are actually in their secret message.
As children finish creating their codes, give them a fresh sheet of paper. Tell them this will be the solving sheet another child will use to decode their secret message. Instruct the children to make a small line for each letter in their message, leaving extra space between words. Again, demonstrate on newsprint; for example, "Save Water." would look like: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
Then, below these spaces in which the decoder will write the message, the children should write the key to cracking the code, showing which symbols stand for which letters. Suggest they scramble the order of the letters in the key, so the answer to the coded message is not obvious.
When all the children have composed a coded message and created a solving sheet with a key, collect the solving sheets and redistribute them. Make sure no one gets their own sheet back.
Give the children time to decipher the codes, and read aloud the conservation messages they have decoded. You may wish to post these messages as new signposts on your Faithful Journeys Path.
Conclude by sharing that learning how to treat the nonhuman beings in our world can seem a little like decoding a message. You might say:
It may seem that we can't communicate with the nonhuman beings of the world. But every living being, human and nonhuman, does communicate. If we pay attention, perhaps we can decode the messages we receive from the beings that share the Earth with us. We can learn what animal and plant life needs us to do so they can survive and keep our ecosystem balanced. And we must make sure our actions communicate the thoughts and beliefs we really care about.
FAITHFUL JOURNEYS: SESSION 14:
STORY: HONORING LIFE — A STORY OF BEATRIX POTTER
You might think that Beatrix Potter was a lonely child. Perhaps you would be right. True, she lived in a large city: London, England . True, the only child she had to play with was her brother, Bertram, and he was usually away at boarding school. Beatrix had no school friends, because she didn't go to school; instead, a governess taught her at home. There were no other children her parents would let her play with in their London neighborhood.
But Beatrix was not as lonely as you might think. She had the friendship she felt for all the animals and plants she met on her rambles through the countryside. Beatrix's family took long vacations in Scotland and the Lake District of England. She brought the countryside back to London by taming wild rabbits as pets. She kept country mice in a cage, and also lizards, snakes, and even a pet bat! In the countryside, Beatrix loved to spend hours out of doors. She drew detailed pictures of the plants and the animals she found. She wanted to know everything about the natural world. She planned to be a scientist when she grew up.
But Beatrix was young more than a hundred years ago. It wasn't considered proper for a middle-class girl to have a job, particularly as a scientist. Beatrix's parents were very concerned that she grow up to be a proper young lady. No one encouraged her to draw animals and plants, but Beatrix kept studying her friends in the natural world on her own. The drawings and paintings she made were greatly respected by scientists who wanted to learn more about animals and plants and appreciated a close and careful look at nature. Beatrix was especially interested in mushrooms and mosses. By observing these plants, she discovered that the lichen that grows on rocks and trees is actually a combination of a moss and a fungus.
Her scientific sketches of nature, even though they helped make discoveries, were not the same as having a real job as a scientist. But when Beatrix was grown up, her loving attention to the natural world earned her a different success than she had ever imagined. In 1893, Beatrix sat down to write a letter to five-year-old Noel, who had been sick in bed for a long time. She started her letter, "I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names are Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter." Have you ever heard of these little rabbits? Well, Beatrix Potter made them up, based on rabbits she had watched closely, and on her imagination. She drew Noel a picture of the four young rabbits and their mother. So began the tale of Peter Rabbit, which you may know, and children have been enjoying for more than a hundred years.
Beatrix wrote and illustrated twenty-two more books, all about the animals that had been her friends in the English countryside: hedgehogs, frogs, ducks, house mice and field mice, and squirrels. She knew them very well from spending time among them and observing their ways.
Beatrix earned enough money from her books to buy a farm in the English Lake District, a place she had always loved. She raised sheep on her farm. Over time she bought more country land, to keep it as a natural home for animals and plants and not used for factories and houses. When Beatrix Potter died in 1943, she gave four thousand acres to the National Trust, an English organization that protects and preserves beautiful, natural lands. If you travel to England today, you can visit Beatrix Potter's farmhouse. You can walk in the countryside, just as she did so many years ago when she was a young child. Yet you need only to open one of her books to meet the animals and plants she loved. By observing, loving, and drawing her friends, she preserved her connection with the world of nature for children like all of you, and all of us, to share.
FAITHFUL JOURNEYS: SESSION 14:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: PICTURE OF BEATRIX POTTER
Cut out to include in the story basket.
FAITHFUL JOURNEYS: SESSION 14:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: PICTURE OF BEATRIX POTTER 2
Cut out to include in the story basket.
FAITHFUL JOURNEYS: SESSION 14:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: PICTURE OF BEATRIX POTTER 3
Cut out to include in the story basket.
FAITHFUL JOURNEYS: SESSION 14:
LEADER RESOURCE 4: SIGNPOST FOR SESSION 14
Cut out the signpost and attach to the Faithful Journeys Path.
FIND OUT MORE
Beatrix Potter
Biographies of Beatrix Potter include Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, by Linda Lear (St. Martin's Griffin , 2008) and Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman by Judy Taylor (New York: F. Warne, 1996).
A Wikipedia article about the English Lake Country (at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_District)where Beatrix Potter had her farm includes pictures. An article about Hill Top (at www.visitcumbria.com/amb/hilltop.htm), the farm she lived on and donated to the National Trust, includes pictures of the farmhouse itself. Bowness-on-Windermere in Cumbria, England , boasts a themed attraction dedicated to Beatrix Potter (at www.hop-skip-jump.com/index.php).
Ecosystems and Ecology
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an excellent Environmental Kids Club (at www.epa.gov/kids/)with environmental information and games for children.
Fans of Dr. Seuss's environmental children's book The Lorax will enjoy a Lorax Save the Trees game (at www.seussville.com/games/lorax/).
On the BBC website (at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/science_6_7.shtml), find interactive games for elementary school-age children that explore interconnections in the natural environment and other science, health, and ecology topics.