Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Love Will Guide Us: A Program for Grades 2-3 that Applies the Wisdom of the Six Sources to the Big Questions

Alternate Activity 2: UU Source Constellation - Our Sense of Wonder

Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

Preparation for Activity

  • Review this activity. Plan how to incorporate it into the session Opening.
  • Purchase gold and silver star stickers.
  • Print out Session 2, Handout 1, UU Source Constellation - Our Sense of Wonder, for all participants plus one extra.
  • Print out Session 2, Leader Resource 1, UU Source Constellation Answer Sheet - Our Sense of Wonder.
  • Using the leader resource as a guide, use star stickers to mark the heart constellation on one copy of the handout: Place gold star stickers on the outlined stars and silver star stickers on the solid stars. Do not connect the gold stars. Post the constellation on the Night Sky along with the Big Dipper and North Star.

Description of Activity

Use this activity with your Opening to add additional Source constellations to your Night Sky.

Tell the children:

Our Sources are the way we are guided as Unitarian Universalists to help us live our faith.

Ask participants if they remember (or know) what a "source" is. Allow a moment for responses. Then, explain that the definition of source you are looking for has to do with origin, or beginning.

Say in your own words:

Today we are talking about our first UU Source, "the sense of wonder we all share."

Allow children to share the relevant information they know. Then, distribute the UU Source Constellation handout. Say:

We think it's important to learn from moments in our lives when we feel a big "wow" in our hearts, when something is amazing or awesome, when something happens that we cannot explain or do not want to explain, and we are filled with a sense of wonder. To help us, we have a constellation named in honor of this UU Source. Some of the stars can be connected to look like a heart. Can you find the heart in our Night Sky?

Give them time to look for the heart. As children find it, let them show you by tracing the shape with a finger on their own handouts.

Distribute gold and silver stars. Have children stick gold stars on the outlined stars and silver stars on the solid stars on their handouts. Then, invite them to pencil the heart by connecting the gold stars. Tell them they make take home their own Sense of Wonder constellations.

Say:

As Unitarian Universalists, we learn from the sense of wonder we all share. When we feel a sense of wonder, we let those feelings guide us to love.