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 - Wise People

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 Handout 1, UU Source Constellation - Wise People, for all participants plus one extra.
  • Print out Leader Resource 1, UU Source Constellation Answer Sheet - Wise People.
  • Using Leader Resource 1 as a guide, on one copy of the handout use star stickers to mark the two figures holding hands: 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 the children 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 second Source, "lives of wise people, from long ago and today, who remind us to be kind and fair." We will hear about Ralph Waldo Emerson and how his daughter, Ellen, taught him a way to be loving. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a minister and a writer, who shared that lesson with others, more than 100 years ago. Today we can still learn from Ellen and her father that giving time and love is the best kind of gift.

Distribute the UU Source Constellation handout. Say:

We think it's important to learn from people who have shared their wisdom about how to be kind and fair. So we have a constellation to honor this Source. Some of the stars can be connected to look like two people holding hands. Can you find the constellation in our Night Sky?

Give them time to look for the two figures. As children find them, let them show you by tracing 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 two people holding hands by connecting the gold stars. Tell them they may take home their own Wise People constellations.

Say, in your own words:

As Unitarian Universalists, we learn from the lives of people from long ago and today whose lives remind us to be kind and fair.

Light the chalice.