SING TO THE POWER
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 11: THE POWER OF ACTION
BY REV. LYNN UNGAR
© Copyright 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 2:48:10 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
Have a bias toward action—let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away. — Indira Gandhi
The power of fire is the power of action. When we work from fire power, we move forward to do what we can, even if we cannot see a way to fix the whole problem at once. The children learn about Bill McKibben and 350.org, a worldwide organization fighting climate change. Participants think creatively about power sources that do not contribute to climate change and consider how they might change their own habits and those of their friends to slow the climate change which threatens the world's ecosystems.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Taking the Heat: 350.org and Action to Fight Climate Change | 10 |
Activity 2: Video — "The Day the World Came Together, The 350 Movement" | 5 |
Activity 3: Build a Solar Oven | 25 |
Activity 4: Strategies for Fighting Climate Change | 10 |
Faith in Action: Exercising the Power of Fire | 30 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Sharing Joys and Sorrows | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Wind-Powered Penny Races | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for several minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. When you feel settled and relaxed, consider:
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The opening ritual for this program invites children to practice leadership and experience the power of a group coming together in sacred space.
Gather the children in a circle around the chalice. Invite them to take a deep breath, release it, and create a deep silence for a moment.
Invite the day's opening worship leader to select a reading from the Opening Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Place the fire symbol on the cloth—or invite the volunteer opening worship leader to place a symbol they have brought. Say, "I bring this symbol of fire, of strength and daring, light and warmth."
As needed, assist the worship leader to light the chalice.
Sing "Sing to the Power." Include the zipper words from previous sessions and add today's zipper words "fire within."
Invite participants to hold hands in a circle. Explain, in these words or your own:
Each time the group meets, we focus on ways we find and express our power. As part of each opening circle, we send a pulse of energy, or power, around the circle.
Begin the power pulse by squeezing the hand of the person on the left, who will then squeeze the hand of the person their left, followed by each person in rapid succession, sending the power pulse around the circle several times.
Conclude the power pulse. While still holding hands, ask the group to take a deep breath together, bringing their hands up as they breathe in, and bringing their hands down as they breathe out.
Return the reading to the Opening Words Basket and extinguish the chalice.
Including All Participants
Some participants may be uncomfortable being touched. Offer the opportunity to opt out of the circle during the time when participants are holding hands for the power pulse.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — TAKING THE HEAT: 350.ORG AND ACTION TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story to the group.
After the story, invite the group to be silent for a moment to think about the story.
Then, ask participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.
Say something like:
Do you ever feel like the problems of the world are just too big to even think about—that it's too upsetting, and you can't fix them anyway? Climate change, also known as global warming, can feel like that kind of overwhelming problem. It's a serious problem that all of us contribute to. There isn't a single "bad guy" causing the problem, and so it's going to take a whole lot of good people with creative ideas to work on a solution.
Lead a discussion using these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: VIDEO — "THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TOGETHER, THE 350 MOVEMENT" (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants learn how people all around the world participated in the first 350.org actions through a light-hearted documentation of actions to solve a serious problem.
Tell the group they will see a video clip about the first International Day of Climate Action led by the 350 movement. Invite them to watch for ideas they might use to take creative action against climate change.
Show the video clip. Then, ask:
Choose one of the actions participants mentioned, and ask:
If you have time, show the 90-second animation. Invite the group to watch carefully for actions the video suggests for fighting against climate change.
Including All Participants
To minimize fidgeting and disruption, provide quiet manipulables such as Silly Putty(R) or pipe cleaners for children to hold during the video.
ACTIVITY 3: BUILD A SOLAR OVEN (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
To combat climate change, we must explore renewable, non-polluting sources of energy, such as solar power. Participants experience building a solar oven, one way to harness the sun's power and to flex our "fire power" to fight climate change.
Invite the children to help you follow the instructions in Leader Resource 1 for constructing a solar oven.
As participants work, invite them to reflect on how solar ovens might make a difference in fighting climate change. Ask:
Optional: Show the YouTube video (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Fpsw_yYPg&feature=related) that shows how one man is bringing light to village homes in the Philippines using soda bottles as solar light bulbs. Explain that these solar lights are an example of other creative uses of solar power. Invite participants to suggest other ways people might use solar power instead of pollution-creating electric power in their daily lives.
Including All Participants
If you decide to have each participant make their own solar oven, rather than constructing one as a group, but are concerned that individual class members may not be able to do all steps of the project, have participants work in pairs, so that tasks can be shared in a way that allows everyone to be successful.
ACTIVITY 4: STRATEGIES FOR FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The only way to truly make a difference in climate change is for each of us to get involved in as many and as creative ways as possible. Invite participants to brainstorm ways that they, their families and their communities (including their congregation) could reduce their use of fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) which cause climate change. Remind them that manufacturing things always takes energy, so ways of using less or reusing items are ways to fight climate change. Write down all responses, even if they seem silly or crazy. Remind participants that creativity is an important part of solving very large problems such as climate change. Some examples to get things started might be to bike or walk to school, take shorter showers, buy used clothing or toys, set the thermostat lower, have people bring mugs to coffee hour rather than using disposable cups, etc.
When the list feels complete, invite children to consider which of the ideas they would be willing to actually implement. For each item on the list, ask for a show of hands of who is willing to take this step. Then ask who is willing to encourage a friend to take the step.
Including All Participants
Make sure that everyone has a chance to talk, including participants who are quieter or take longer to respond than others in the group. You may wish to pass a talking stick, or ask each person who speaks to choose the next person to speak, as a way of making room and time for everyone.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and the group will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone to clean their own area and put away the materials they were using, then clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
Gather the group in a circle. Tape the "Action" circle (Leader Resource 2) outside the "Fire" quadrant of the Circle of Elements mural, in the position shown on Session1, Leader Resource 3. Say:
The power of fire comes from the passion inside us, the joy that comes from being able to create positive change in the world.
Invite each participant to take a bead and string it on the elastic.
Use a match to light the taper candle. Invite each participant use the taper to light a tea light. Ask the day's closing worship leader to choose a reading from the Closing Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Extinguish all flames.
Ask for (and record) volunteers to lead the opening and closing readings for the next session. Offer the volunteers a copy of Session 1, Leader Resource 1, Opening Words for Basket or Session 1, Leader Resource 5, Closing Words for Basket that they may take home to choose and practice their readings. Tell them they are also welcome to choose their reading from a basket when they come next time.
You may wish to invite the opening worship volunteer to bring a symbol of fire for the centering space as well.
Invite participants to put the bracelets in the Closing Words Basket. Distribute copies of the Taking It Home handout. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: EXERCISING THE POWER OF FIRE (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
By this session, the group should have identified a project and planned the elements needed in order to complete this project. This session, then, is when the group will actually do the activity that expresses their own air power.
Including All Participants
Make sure your transportation plan is accessible for all participants, and that all will have full access at any off-site location.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach your religious educator for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
Have a bias toward action—let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away. — Indira Gandhi
IN TODAY'S SESSION... the children heard about Bill McKibben the organization he founded, 350.org, to fight climate change. We learned about how Unitarian Universalists have been involved in combating climate change, and we built a solar oven to try cooking without using fossil fuels. Finally, we brainstormed ways each of us could take action in our homes and communities to fight global warming.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. What choices do members of your family, or your family as a whole, make to fight climate change? Examples might be putting on a sweater when it gets cold rather than turning on the heat, walking or biking to work or school, eating less meat or no meat, or buying reused or recycled items. How do you feel about the choices you are already making? Are there additional things that you are willing to do as a family to cool our planet?
FAMILY GAME. One fun way to explore the power of wind, a renewable energy resource which doesn't contribute to climate change, is to have wind-powered penny races. Assemble some pennies, some drinking straws, paper and/or light cardboard, scissors, tape, string, and any other household items you wish to use. Invite each member of the family to design a way move a penny across a table, using only their breath to move the penny. When everyone has completed their construction, see who can get their penny across the table the fastest.
FAMILY ADVENTURE. You can go on an adventure in your own home by doing an audit of your carbon footprint online. Go to the website Zero Footprint (at www.zerofootprint.net) to calculate the carbon dioxide your family generates, compare your family with others, and suggest changes to your lifestyle that would be healthier for the planet. Work together on weatherizing projects such as installing weather stripping around doors, which can make a real difference in your energy usage.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SHARING JOYS AND SORROWS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say:
Our community is like a bowl that holds all of our lives. The joys and sorrows which affect each person's life send ripples through all of our lives.
Invite participants, as they are moved, to pick up a stone, drop it gently (!) in the bowl of water, and share aloud a joy or a sorrow which has affected their life in recent days. Say they may drop their stone in silence, instead; tell them it is okay to keep their joys or sorrows private. You might go first, to model.
Once all who wish to have shared, affirm all the words people have spoken and the thoughts and feelings that remain inside each person's head and heart.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: WIND-POWERED PENNY RACES (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants explore the power of wind, a renewable energy resource which doesn't contribute to climate change, and use creativity to devise ways to harness non-polluting air power to move a penny across a table.
If the group is large enough, form teams. Encourage the children to exchange ideas and work together to design their wind-powered penny transport device. Show them the materials you have gathered and tell them their device can be powered only by their breath.
When everyone has completed their construction, have races to see who can get their penny across the table the fastest.
After the races, ask participants to reflect on the process:
Including All Participants
Be ready to help children with fine-motor tasks, as needed to implement their ideas.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 11:
STORY: TAKING THE HEAT: 350.ORG AND ACTION TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE
What's the biggest protest you've ever heard of? Maybe you've seen pictures of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in front of a sea of faces on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 1963, or the 1969 March on Washington in protest of the Vietnam War that brought some 500,000 people to the same place. Those protests were huge. But what if a protest happened in more than one city? What if a protest took place all around the world, to bring attention to the problem of climate change?
Although we cannot see what's in the air we breathe, scientists know it contains some carbon dioxide. It comes from the electricity and oil and coal we use to keep machines moving, to heat our homes, and drive our cars, buses and trains. And scientists know that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide we can safely have in the air. If the carbon dioxide in our air goes beyond 350 parts per million, then the "greenhouse gas" traps so much of the sun's warmth that the climate of our world changes. We're already above 350 parts per million. This is why the Arctic's glaciers and ice caps are melting, and droughts, floods, heat waves, and hurricanes have become bigger and bigger problems around the world.
If we change the ways we use energy, we can lower the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air, and turn climate change around. But people everywhere need to get involved. That's why Bill McKibben and the people he worked with decided they would plan a protest to happen not just in one place, like the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They organized groups of people all over the world to take whatever action they could think of to tell their governments to fight climate change and to work against climate change themselves.
Groups participating in the Day of Action included 90 different UU congregations. The Towson UU Church in Maryland had a "350 Caulking Party" to weatherize the congregation's building and teach people to make their own homes more energy efficient. The Northwoods UU Church in Texas had an organic potluck and heard a talk on sustainable living. The UUs joined people on mountaintops, on glaciers, and even under the ocean in calling for a world where we use energy in ways that doesn't heat up the planet.
The next year, on 10/10/10—October 10, 2010—at least as many UU congregations participated in 350.org's Global Work Party. And the year after that, some 40 UUs made their way to a two-week-long protest organized in part by 350.org to try to stop the XL Tarsands Pipeline, which would bring masses of gummy tar from Canada across the United States for processing—creating various environmental problems and doing nothing to help get us off using the fuels that cause global warming. Fourteen UUs were arrested as part of this protest.
Bill McKibben, 350.org, and thousands of UUs are getting hot under the collar about global warming, and they are showing that everyone can take action. What can kids do? Plenty, right at home, without traveling to Washington D.C. to protest, Whether it's biking to school rather than asking for a car ride, turning off lights that aren't in use, or talking to people about the reality of global warming and the need for us all to make a change, people around the world are getting fired up to making a difference, and you can, too!
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 11:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: BUILDING A SOLAR OVEN — INSTRUCTIONS
On the top of the pizza box, use a ruler and a marker to draw lines parallel to three sides of the box, 1" in from each edge. Use a box cutter or sharp scissors to cut along the three lines, to make a flap in the lid of a pizza box. Fold this flap up so it stands when the box lid is closed.
Cut aluminum foil to cover the inner side of the flap. Glue the aluminum foil to the inner side of the flap, shiny side out.
Use two sheets of clear plastic wrap to create an airtight window for sunlight to enter the box. Do this by opening the box and taping one sheet of plastic wrap across the inside of the opening you made when you cut the flap in the lid. Then, close the box and tape the second sheet of plastic wrap across the same opening, on the outside. Tape very securely, to seal out air.
Glue aluminum foil to the bottom of your box.
Cover the aluminum foil with black construction paper (black absorbs heat). The black surface is where your food will be set to cook.
Take the box outside to a sunny spot. Adjust the flap to get the most sunlight possible to reflect off the aluminum foil and onto the plastic-covered window. Use a ruler, stick or large straw to prop the flap where you want it. You can also tilt the box, by rolling a towel and placing it underneath the box. (Hint: You can preheat the oven as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit by setting it in direct sunlight for 30 minutes.)
You can make toast of a buttered slice of bread, or melt cheese on bread, tortillas, or chips. You can cook a hot dog, make nachos, or cook s'mores. To keep the paper liner clean, place items on a clear plastic or glass plate (a pie plate works well). To remove food from the oven, lift the lid of the pizza box, and use oven mitts or potholders to lift the glass dish out.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 11:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: "ACTION" CIRCLE
FIND OUT MORE
Learn about Unitarian Universalist efforts to care for the Earth on the websites of Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth (at www.uuministryforearth.org/) and The Green Sanctuary Program (at www.uua.org/leaders/environment/greensanctuary/index.shtml).
The website for 350.org (at www.350.org/) offers up-to-date information on important climate change issues and suggests ways to get involved. On Bill McKibben's website (at www.billmckibben.com/), find descriptions of his books, video (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdF8wz4Jwm8) of him speaking at a conference, and interviews (at www.truth-out.org/truthout-interview-bill-mckibben/1314803404) he has given, including one on the role of religion in the climate change movement (at www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/5369/fueling_activism%3A_an_interview_with_bill_mckibben/).
Go to the website Zero Footprint (at www.zerofootprint.net) to calculate the carbon dioxide your family generates, compare your family with others, and discover lifestyle changes you can make that would be healthier for the planet.
The Squidoo website (at www.squidoo.com/reduce-climate-change) suggests 50 actions people can take to slow climate change.
The Build It Solar (at www.builditsolar.com/index.htm) website offers renewable energy, do-it-yourself projects that children and families can do (at www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Educational/educational.htm).