Tapestry of Faith: Love Connects Us: A Program on Living in Unitarian Universalist Covenant for Grades 4-5

Activity 2: Creating Our Own Mish-Mash Hearts

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Card stock in a variety of colors
  • Fabric pieces, ribbons, and other decorative items
  • Glue sticks, scissors (including left-handed scissors), and hole punch(es)

Preparation for Activity

  • Cut card stock into equal-sized heart shapes.
  • Set out on work tables the fabric pieces, ribbons, and other decorative items.

Description of Activity

Encourage participants to create their own mish-mash hearts by cutting up the heart shapes and gluing together a new heart with a variety of colors. Explain they may add fabric, ribbons, or other decorative elements, as well as rips and tears, to make the mish-mash heart their own.

After everyone has finished decorating their hearts or time is almost up, invite volunteers to share what some of the elements on their heart mean and how they relate to any particular happy or sad moments in their life.

As with any activity which involves sharing personal thoughts, some participants may not wish to share. Remind the group it is always okay to pass. If needed, also remind them it is important to respect the person who is sharing by listening to their words without interruption, comment, or judgment.

When all who wish to have shared, lead the group to reflect on this experience with questions such as:

  • What does your mish-mash heart reveal about you?
  • What do you think your mish-mash heart might look like in 10 years? 20? 30?
  • What kinds of happy or sad events might change your mish-mash heart in the future?
  • How does our Unitarian Universalist community help us with our mish-mash hearts?

Including All Participants

If any participants have difficulty working scissors or gluing pieces together, invite participants to work in teams. Suggest one person do the cutting, someone else assemble the elements, and any other members of the team add decoration and/or help decide how to make the hearts.