LOVE SURROUNDS US
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 15: CARING FOR THE EARTH
BY LYNN KERR AND CHRISTY OLSON
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 5:51:27 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. — Wendell Berry, 20th-century American poet and essayist
The theme of this session is "We can do many things to show love for the earth." When we do act to benefit our planet, we are living the seventh Unitarian Universalist Principle, affirmation of the interdependent web of life. With a story about Rachel Carson, one of the earliest environmental activists, the session highlights not only what can hurt our environment but also what everyone can do to protect it.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Story — Brave Enough | 10 |
Activity 2: Johnny in the Ink Pot | 10 |
Activity 3: Recycled Photo Album | 30 |
Faith in Action: Planting Trees | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Planet Earth Paper Mache | 30 |
Alternate Activity 2: Monster Mouth | 20 |
Alternate Activity 3: Poster — Seventh Principle | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
It can be easy to take our earth for granted. We would rather not think about the fact that if the earth is destroyed, we are also destroyed. Think about the things you do each day to help protect the earth. Do you recycle? Do you turn off electronic devices? Do you use daylight rather than lamps when possible? Are there things that you do that damage the environment? Take a few moments to reflect on the things you do for the environment and what things you could do to better protect the environment.
How can you help the children better understand the impact of their actions on the environment? In what ways can you help them understand that the earth is essential to our own survival? Make yourself ready to help participants discover their responsibility to care for our earth.
SESSION PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Use this activity when children arrive individually—that is, straggle in—before the session begins. It emphasizes the seventh Principle.
Welcome each child as they enter. Invite them to take their ribbon stick from the container by the door and move to the large group area. Invite them to sit at work tables and draw a picture of the earth.
Including All Participants
Give a ribbon stick to any new child or visitor and write their name on it.
Provide wrist ribbons for children who are physically unable to wave a ribbon stick. Help attach wrist ribbons to wrists, legs, or fingers according to the mobility of the child.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite children to find their ribbon sticks and then come sit together. Welcome the children.
Optional: Lead the group to sing the song "Love Surrounds Me."
Have each child say their name and wave their ribbon stick above their head.
Then, take a ribbon stick in your hand and invite the children to echo the Principles after you read each one:
We believe each and every person is important. (Hold up the red ribbon)
We believe all people should be treated fairly. (Hold up the orange ribbon.)
In our congregations, all people are accepted and we learn together. (Hold up the yellow ribbon.)
We believe each person is free to search for what is true and right in life. (Hold up the green ribbon.)
Everyone deserves a say about the things that concern them. (Hold up the blue ribbon.)
We believe in working for a peaceful, fair, and free world. (Hold up the indigo ribbon.)
Now say:
We use the color violet to remember our seventh Principle: Caring for our planet Earth and every living thing that shares it with us.
Hold up the violet ribbon and ask the children to find the violet ribbons on their ribbon sticks. Lead the group to say the seventh Principle words again, with you.
Lead the opening chant:
Group chants "Love surrounds us everyday. The Principles show us the way."
Leader says "______ please, put your ribbons away." (Child named returns their ribbon stick.)
Guide children, as they are named, to return their ribbon stick to the container and then return to the circle. This is a way to acknowledge the presence of each participant. If the group is large, say only several names, then direct the others to put away their ribbon sticks all together and come back to the circle.
When all the children have returned to the circle, say "Now we will light the chalice, the symbol of our Unitarian Universalist faith." Light the chalice. Lead the group to say together:
Love surrounds the chalice and we are included by the light of the chalice.
Including All Participants
Help attach wrist ribbons (Session 1, Opening) to children's wrists, legs, or fingers, and later, help remove them, if any children are physically unable to use a ribbon stick.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY, BRAVE ENOUGH (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This story is about a woman who discovered how people were destroying the environment and making living things sick.
Gather the participants so all can see and hear you clearly. Tell them they will hear a story about a woman who discovered how humans were destroying the earth. Tell them she was a Unitarian and one of the first people to fight for saving the environment.
Read or tell the story.
Once you have finished the story, ask:
ACTIVITY 2: JOHNNY IN THE INK POT (10 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
This active game encourages participants to think of ways to help the environment.
Explain that you will be playing a game like Charades that some children play in England. The game will be about ways to help the environment. Choose one child to stand away from the group so they cannot see or hear the group. Tell the others to think of something they can do to help the environment and how they can act it out, without speaking, to help the "Johnny" guess what they are doing. Examples of activities could be picking up litter or turning off lights. Then teach the participants to chant "Johnny in the ink pot, what shall we do today?"
Bring the "Johnny" participant back to the circle and lead the children to chant "(Participant's name) in the ink pot, what shall we do today?" Direct the "Johnny" to respond, "Get to work!"
Now invite every participant in the circle to do the agreed-on charade and "Johnny" to guess what they are doing. After "Johnny" guesses, they can choose the next participant to be "Johnny" and repeat the game. Ask these discussion questions:
Including All Participants
Some participants may need to just shut their eyes and cover their ears so the group can decide on an activity. If the group is large or you think some children may have a hard time guessing, partner children to be a "Team Johnny." Assist children with hearing or sight challenges to participate in the group's choice of an action and gestures to act it out.
ACTIVITY 3: RECYCLED PHOTO ALBUM (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity demonstrates how participants can transform things we would usually throw away into something beautiful and useful.
Tell the children you will be creating your own photo album out of scraps of paper and other things they might think should be thrown away. Give a cereal box to every participant. Help children cut apart the large front and back of the cereal box into two identically shaped squares or rectangles as the front and back covers. Then, help the children cut the brown paper bags into pages for their album, the same size as the cover or slightly smaller.
Now invite participants to use any of the scraps and odd items to decorate one side of each piece of box. Participants may cover with construction paper or tissue paper first and then add buttons or yarn or other scraps.
Help children assemble the cover, inside pages, and back. Punch several holes to bind the sheets together with yarn.
Talk to participants about what they might save in their album: photos, post cards, or special papers from school. Ask children why it is good to reuse materials when you can, rather than going out to buy something like a photo album.
Including All Participants
Children will need varying levels of help to cut out boxes and paper bags, tie yarn bows, and perhaps even decorate their photo album cover. Offer assistance as needed; be sure to leave children plenty of tasks to do on their own.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Invite everyone to gather in a circle and hold hands. Start by squeezing the hand to your right and saying: "Today I found love, today I gave love." Lead the group to move the hand squeeze around the circle until everyone has had a chance to say the words.
Then, invite the group to unclasp hands lead them to say the closing words in unison:
Be good to yourself.
Be excellent to others.
Do everything with love.
Including All Participants
If participants do not want to hold hands, invite them to just say the words to the person to their right. If needed, repeat the words aloud with each child.
FAITH IN ACTION: PLANTING TREES
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Plan and implement a project to engage children in the direct action of planting trees that will help protect the environment for future generations.
Once you have decided on the particulars of your project, help participants make posters to advertise the tree planting and attract volunteers to help. You may decide to ask individual families to "sponsor" a tree if they need to be purchased or find a local nursery that would be willing to donate a few trees. If possible, ask families if they can get one or more of the trees to be planted after the arrangements have been made; this way, children will see the process from start to finish.
Give participants active roles in the actual planting so they will understand all that goes into the tree planting. Talk to participants about the importance of trees and tell them about the particular kinds of trees you are planting. On the day of the planting, make sure to take pictures of the young trees and the participants planting them. You might display a photo montage of the project for members of the congregation. After the planting, publicly thank all the people involved in the project. Consider holding a worship service on the environment or trees on the day you will do the planting. If this is not possible, highlight the tree planting during a later worship service. If your congregation celebrates a Water Communion at the start of the program year, consider using some of the water from that to water the trees each fall.
Including All Participants
Pair children with limited abilities with others who can help them make posters and plant the trees.
Make sure at least one of the planting locations is accessible to everyone.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Think about the participants who participated in the session today. Did they learn what it means to protect the earth? Were participants able to identify why it is important to care for the earth? Did participants understand how we can recycle everyday items into art? Did participants learn that they can alter their behaviors to benefit the planet? Reflect on your effectiveness in presenting this week.
TAKING IT HOME
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. — Wendell Berry, 20th-century American poet and essayist
IN TODAY'S SESSION... the participants learned about the Unitarian Universalist Principle about caring for our planet. While all life shares this earth, human beings are the only ones who do things to destroy it and are also the only ones who can save it. We heard a story about Rachel Carson, one of the first environmental activists in America's history, and how she had to fight very hard for people to listen to her about how humans were hurting the environment.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Participants learned about pollution. Discuss what you know about your own area. Are there major pollution problems where you live? How do you feel about it? Is there something you can do to make it better?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Ask your child about their own habits around the house. What have they learned about the environment that will make them adjust some of their habits such as turning out lights or recycling paper and cans? How can they make sure the whole family has good environmentally friendly habits? Discuss with the entire family.
A Family Adventure. Many communities hold annual stream or river clean-ups. The American Rivers website (at www.americanrivers.org/) will tell you where and when local efforts are planned. Arrange to have your entire family participate. After the clean-up day, discuss what the experience was like. How did everyone feel about the work? Were they surprised by the trash they found? Does it make them think about their own waste?
Family Discovery. Participants learned about a time in history when companies did not fully comprehend the negative impact they made on the earth. Even individuals do not always realize how their day-to-day lives can have a negative impact on the environment. Go to the Nature website together and calculate your family's carbon footprint (at www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/). Think about ways you can all make less of a negative impact.
A Family Game. On the Environmental Protection Agency's website, find a number of kids' games including crossword puzzles and online games that help children learn about protecting the environment. What's Wrong with This Picture? (at www.epa.gov/owow/nps/kids/whatwrng.html) invites the whole family to spot ways our everyday actions can harm the earth and suggests actions to take.
A Family Ritual. Make your walks count. Whether you are walking the dog or taking a family stroll after dinner, carry a waste bag with you and pick up garbage that you see along the way. Make sure you wear gloves when you pick up waste. Be sure to recycle and properly dispose of the items you find. Just for fun, keep a list of the things you find. After several months, you might be surprised by the unusual items people toss out their doors!
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: PLANET EARTH PAPER MACHE (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity can be completed and then hung in the meeting space to remind participants we must all protect our fragile planet. It may take more than one day to complete the project. On first day, create the surface of the globe. On the second day, decorate the globe.
Have participants dip paper strips into glue mixture, run their fingers down the paper to get rid of the excess mixture, then place the strip on the surface of the balloon as smoothly as possible. Have all children repeat until the globe has been covered at least three times with wet paper.
Allow globe to dry. On the next project day, make a new glue mixture. Use small pieces of torn tissue paper dipped in the mixture to create the oceans and continents. Use green and brown for continents and blue shades for the oceans. Form brown tissue into balls after dipping to show mountains or islands and cover with another single layer of the same color tissue paper to make realistic elevation changes. When the globe is complete and dry, hang from the ceiling with fishing line tied to the paper clip.
Including All Participants
Encourage participants to help one another dip and scrape paper and perhaps help place paper on balloon. Be sure all the children can reach the balloon, particularly if any cannot stand and move to reach the globe and lay strips of newsprint on it.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: MONSTER MOUTH (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell participants that you all will design a Garbage Monster that "eats" garbage rather than garbage being litter. Invite participants to decide what the monster will look like and create it according to the group's suggestions.
First, draw a monster face on the bag. Ask participants what color and shape to make the eyes. What kind of eyebrows should it have? Cut silly ears but don't cut them out completely; bend them out from the side of the bag. Cut a funny nose and bend it out as well. Ask participants what colors they want the face parts and color them with markers. Cut out a large hole for a mouth. Make the hole large enough for children to later toss in the "garbage balls" they will make.
Draw teeth or lips around the outside of the hole on the bag. Fringe the top of the bag to make hair. Close the open end of the bag with staples.
Now invite the children to make garbage for the monster to eat. Ask them to crumple newspaper and make three balls each. Wrap each ball in a colorful page from a magazine. Secure and weight each ball with two rubber bands. Then, play "Feed the Garbage Monster." Put the monster on the floor and place a piece of tape on the floor where participants will stand to throw their garbage. Allow each child to throw their three balls of trash into the monster. As a group, try to get 10 balls in. Ask participants what they think would happen if no one threw their garbage away where it belonged? What can they do to make sure people dispose of garbage properly?
If you can recycle your Monster Mouth as paper, be sure to remove rubber bands from balls first.
Affirm that it is part of the Unitarian Universalist faith to care for our earth by disposing of trash properly.
Including All Participants
Cut the mouth hole large enough and set the throwing line close enough so every child can be successful at throwing in balls.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: POSTER, SEVENTH PRINCIPLE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute the handout. Invite children to think about an example they can draw of the seventh Principle: We can do many things to show love for the earth.
LOVE SURROUNDS US: SESSION 15:
STORY: BRAVE ENOUGH
Adapted from Noreen Kimball in uu&me! Fall 2007, published by Church of the Larger Fellowship. Used with permission.
There was once a girl who loved to write stories and poems. She often wrote about the land and birds around her home. Her name was Rachel Louise Carson and she was born in 1907. When Rachel grew up she became a writer and a scientist. Rachel wrote wonderful stories and she always explained the beauty of nature so well you could almost see what she was describing. As a scientist, Rachel was also very careful to describe things exactly as she saw them. She made sure everything she wrote was true.
Since Rachel was always outside studying nature or writing about it, she noticed that a lot of birds and fish were dying. She figured out that the animals were dying from poisons being sprayed from airplanes to help farmers get rid of insects that damaged plants. The poison not only killed the insects, but it also got into the soil and water and killed other animals. Eagles and many other birds and species of animals began to disappear.
Rachel wrote articles and spoke to the U.S. Congress so everyone would know how we were destroying the environment. She even wrote a book about the problems caused by the poison. In her book she described a spring where the skies were quiet and still because so many birds had died. She called that book Silent Spring.
People who read Rachel's book started to demand that the government stop spraying the chemicals. The President and Congress asked scientists to look at the chemicals to make sure Rachel was right about what she had said. At first, the chemical companies said that Rachel was wrong, but eventually scientists figured out that the chemicals were getting into the earth and water and were killing many animals, just like Rachel's book said. Because Rachel kept writing and speaking until someone would listen, the government finally stopped using the dangerous chemicals and began to test new ones much more carefully.
People still use poisons and chemicals in the wrong way today, but Rachel Carson helped start a whole new kind of environmentalism—a movement to control pollution of our earth. Even though Rachel was a small, quiet woman, she believed people have the power to save the environment. If Rachel had not been brave enough to stand up for the environment and fight for it until someone listened, we might not have as many species of birds and fish that we do today. Thanks to this brave woman who always told the truth, we still have Bald Eagles flying in our beautiful blue skies.
LOVE SURROUNDS US: SESSION 15:
HANDOUT 1: POSTER, SEVENTH PRINCIPLE
Unitarian Universalist Seventh Principle
We can do many things to show love for the earth.
FIND OUT MORE
Rachel Carson
The Women in History website has a succinct Rachel Carson biography and bibliography (at www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/cars-rac.htm).
Projects, Games, and Stories about the Environment
For more ideas and resources for teaching children about the environment, look at the Care2 site's environment pages for children (at www.care2.com/news/category/environment/children), the Environmental Health and Safety Online (at www.ehso.com/ehshome/childrenresources.htm) website, or the KidSource environmental pages (at www.kidsource.com/education/teach.environment.p.k12.3.html).
Picture Books about the Environment
The Dandelion Seed by Joseph P. Anthony and Cris Arbo (California, Dawn Publications, 1997)
Dear Children of the Earth by Schim Schimmel (Nevada City, CA, Northword Press 1994)
Everybody Needs a Rock, by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnell (Antheneum, New York, 1974)
Old Turtle by Douglas Wood and Cheng-Khee Chee (New York, Scholastic, 1992)