TOOLBOX OF FAITH
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 6: EXPRESSION (PAINTBRUSH)
BY KATE TWEEDIE COVEY
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 7:17:16 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
Beauty without expression is boring.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The paintbrush symbolizes personal expression of our inner life and thoughts. In this session, participants engage in and reflect on various means of personal expression, such as painting, writing, music, and theater. Allow time for participants to engage the issues of what they might like to use as a tool for their own personal expression. Emphasize that there is no one way that will feel comfortable for everyone. In addition, you will want to note that there may well be ways of expression that go beyond the arts, such as building a trail, inventing a computer or creating a personal identity.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
ACTIVITY | MINUTES |
Welcoming and Entering | |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — The Cellist of Sarajevo | 10 |
Activity 2: Word Bodies | 10 |
Activity 3: Skits in a Bag | 10 |
Activity 4: Responding to Music with Paint | 15 |
Activity 5: Council Circle | 10 |
Faith in Action: Ideas | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Take a moment and let your body and mind settle. If you are comfortable doing so, spend a few moments in peaceful meditation. In preparation for this session on expression, reflect on how you personally prefer to express yourself, and ways you might like to try.
Take an inventory of your own experiences with personal expression. Are you accustomed to expressing your inner thoughts, feelings, and self? How? Using an artistic medium, or some other way? What modes of expression draw you when you feel happy? when you feel sad?
In this session, you will encourage children to explore different ways of expressing themselves. If you have ever experienced "holding back" your own expressions — perhaps because you feared others might judge your creations, and by extension, your self — let your experiences help you create a safe environment for the children in the group to express themselves freely.
The experience of expression is more important than any artwork a child may produce. Prepare yourself to enable children's expressive process.
As an adult leader, your opinion may have more influence than those of participants. Therefore, your personal disclosure should not become part of the discussion unless participants ask you a question directly. In that case, be sure to preface your opinion by setting the context that each of us, adults and children, has different opinions, and yours is one among many. Then guide the conversation away from your own opinion and allow participants to reflect on their own thoughts.
SESSION PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity is intended for the time before the session when children arrive individually, that is, "straggle in."
Welcome participants as they arrive. Invite them to sit at the "Doodle Table" and explore a variety of artistic expression materials. Try calling the work "doodling" to keep the expectations informal and without pressure.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants will reflect on the quality of expression as a part of their Unitarian Universalist faith.
Gather the children in a circle, in the Council Circle space. Light the chalice.
Indicate where the opening words are posted, for any children who are unfamiliar with them. Lead the group in reciting:
We are Unitarian Universalists
with minds that think,
hearts that love,
and hands that are ready to serve.
Hold up the tool of the day, tell the children what it is called, and pass it around the circle. As the children pass it, invite them to share their own experiences with paintbrushes.
Lead a discussion to introduce the paintbrush as a symbol of the value of expressing our inner selves. Ask, "What do you think makes this a Unitarian Universalist tool?" Allow participants to share ideas. Affirm that there is no one answer.
Explain that the paintbrush represents the expression of our inner thoughts and lives. Say, in your own words:
Unitarian Universalism is a faith that that will help you express your inner voice and your inner thoughts. This is a key part of growing in faith and deepening in religious understanding. One of the sources of our faith comes from the direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life. One of our Principles says that Unitarian Universalism values acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. We use personal expression as a way to grow spiritually.
You may tape one or several of participants' doodle works onto the Toolbox of Our Faith Poster, and write the word "Expression." Or, add a paintbrush to the poster during the Closing.
Collect the tool. Extinguish the chalice.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants in a comfortable configuration for listening to a story.
ACTIVITY 2: WORD BODIES (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants express themselves in a different way from the artistic media by using their bodies to create letters and spell a word. This is a non-threatening way to introduce a movement activity that is inclusive of all, even those who wouldn't touch "dance" if it was introduced as such.
Explain that the children will work in small groups. Each group will be given a word, which they must spell with their bodies. For example, to spell "DOG," the group might have two people make a "D", one make an "O," and how might they make a "G"? What about the word, "CAT"? Walk through a few examples so the participants can get warmed up.
Form small groups of four or five children. Give each group a different word to express, and send the groups to separate corners or rooms to figure out how they will write the word with their bodies for the other group(s).
When the groups return, allow each to present their word. The first group to guess the word correctly gets to go next.
Variations
Participants can generate their own words and give them to a team to illustrate.
Or, try making one long word with everyone helping, such as FLAMING, CHALICE, RELIGION, or EXPRESSION.
With four or fewer participants, you can play the game non-competitively. Challenge the group to work together to create the letters of the word. Or, you might send one person out, have the others spell the word with their bodies, and then have that one person try to guess the word.
Including All Participants
With a movement-challenged child in the group, make sure there are letters in the words that can be formed incorporating that child. In fact, braces or a wheelchair might be assets for creating a word!
ACTIVITY 3: SKITS IN A BAG (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Here's another game which uses a bit of theater arts for expression.
Form groups of four or five participants, and hand each group one of the filled grocery bags. Invite the groups to invent and then act out a very short, one-minute tale based on the items in the bag.
You might suggest they start with "Once upon a time there was a . . ." ("Once upon a time there was a cowboy who hated boots and only wore flip flops . . .") and end with "And that's why . . ." ("And that's why cowboys sing, 'Git along little flip-flops . . .").
Allow five minutes for groups to come up with a skit. Have the groups perform for one another. Make sure to clap for each group.
ACTIVITY 4: RESPONDING TO MUSIC WITH PAINT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
By this age, participants' schools have usually put away the painting trays. Bring them out and let the children try it again! Try using paintbrushes and tempera, or finger paints and allow participants time for exploring movement using the paint instead of concentrating on a finished product. Invite participants to lay paint any way they want to directly on their individual trays, and improvise and change their designs easily, responding to the music.
If someone wants to keep a design, lay a piece of paper on top on the paint on the tray to print the design — a monoprint. Or, encourage children to simply wipe away their designs and make new ones.
Gather the group at worktables. Invite participants to work in their individual trays, using their hands to manipulate and move the paint to make designs that express the mood of the music, or their own mood. Encourage them to flow with the music and not worry too much about a finished product. Try several pieces of music which evoke different moods.
Leave time for participants to clean up. Rinse the trays of paint and wipe up spills on the table or floor with sponges and buckets of water. Roll up and discard the newspapers.
ACTIVITY 5: COUNCIL CIRCLE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Each session closes with a Council Circle. The goal of the Council Circle is to share our stories, listen to each other, and grow in faith together. Listening to each other is a religious act. The Council Circle includes three rituals: Reflection, Sharing of Joys and Concerns, and a Closing.
Reflection
Gather the group in the Council Circle. Light the chalice.
Offer words spoken routinely in your congregational worship, or these:
We are Unitarian Universalists
with minds that think,
hearts that love,
and hands that are ready to serve.
Invite participants to reflect on their own experiences of personal expression. Ask them to pass the Tool of the Day as a talking stick. You may offer these questions:
Sharing of Joys and Concerns
After discussion has closed, invite participants to share important things in their lives. What they share may or may not be related to the session topic and discussion.
Invite participants to light a council candle from the chalice flame as they share. If there are not enough candles, it is OK to snuff out and re-light a candle. Save the candle of a different color for last. When all who want to share joys and concerns have done so, light this candle with the words, "For all the joys and concerns that remain unspoken."
If you are using a glass bowl, water, and stones instead of council candles, invite participants to drop a stone into the bowl when they share. End the sharing by adding one last stone for unspoken joys and concerns.
Closing
Extinguish the council candles. Gather participants around the chalice; if it has been extinguished, re-light it.
Read this benediction:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
— Christian scripture (Romans 12)
Close with an element (meditation, benediction, song) commonly used in your congregational worship, or use one or more of the suggestions below. Base your choice(s) on the needs and energy level of your group. With your co-leaders, you may elect to use the same ritual to close every session.
A. Lead the group in singing "Meditation on Breathing," Hymn 1009 in Singing the Journey: A Hymnbook Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition. Hear the simple tune online (at www.uua.org/publications/singingjourney/52328.shtml).
B. Have the group read in unison Reading 452 by Marjorie Montgomery in Singing the Living Tradition:
Life is a gift for which we are grateful.
We gather in community to celebrate
the glories
and mysteries
of this great gift.
C. Sing or say the words to "From You I Receive," Hymn 402 in Singing the Living Tradition. Teach the group the accompanying movements.
From you I receive | Scoop the air by reaching toward other participants, then bringing air toward yourself at chest level, that is, receiving it. |
To you I give | Opposite from above — scoop the air at chest level and push it outward to "give" to other participants. |
Together we share | All grasp hands. |
By this we live | Make fist of strength with each hand and stack one hand on top of the other at belly button level. |
D. Go around the circle — using the Tool of the Day as a talking stick again, if you like — and invite each participant to say one thing they will do to express their inner thoughts and selves. A higher-energy version of the above could involve the group repeating back, chant-style, the statement of each participant, and adding, "Go out into the world and express yourself!"
E. Sing a familiar song. Suggestions: "Thula Klizeo," Hymn 1056 in Singing the Journey; "I Know This Rose Will Open," Hymn 396 in Singing the Living Tradition; or "Rejoice in Love," Hymn 380 in Singing the Living Tradition.
F. Use this team spirit chant, "Pump It Up!"
Leader: Pump, pump, pump it up!
Group: Pump, pump, pump it up!
Leader: Pump that UU spirit up!
Group: Pump that UU spirit up!
Instead of "Pump it up!" you may use "Fire it up!" or "Keep it up!"
Pass the Tool of the Day around the circle and invite participants, one at a time, to voice a way they plan to use the quality of faith that was explored today. Guide them to say:
With my UU [quality of faith, e.g., expression], I will . . .
Lead the group in responding to each participant's contribution:
Group: Go, UU, go!
If you have not yet done so, invite a participant to tape a paintbrush to the Toolbox of Our Faith poster, and write "Expression" on the poster.
Extinguish the chalice.
Distribute Taking It Home handouts.
Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: IDEAS
Description of Activity
To experience personal expression as a quality of Unitarian Universalist faith, create a Faith in Action project where the children share their own expression with others or appreciate expression made by others.
Make and Donate Art Cards
Engage the children in making illustrations that reflect an inner thought or mood. Replicate their pictures as cards by color photocopying onto card stock. Donate cards to the congregation's social justice committee, another committee, or your minister, for use when someone is in need.
Experience Expression Together
Tour an art exhibit or attend a performance in your local area that portrays, in some way, the expression of an inner life. Arrange for the group to attend together. You will need to review your plan with your director of religious education and make sure you have enough adult volunteers to come with the group.
Meet afterward to share what the children saw, heard, and experienced.
This project gives a good opportunity to point out that someone's personal expression through art, music, dance, or another medium may be understood quite differently by any other person — and that that is OK.
Artistic Expressions of Faith
Visit another worship center particularly to see or hear its expressive artwork or music. Set up a time to visit stained glass windows in a Catholic church, an ornate shrine in a Buddhist temple, a special organ in a Protestant church, a statue in a Hindu temple, or a menorah that decorates the lobby of a Jewish synagogue.
Or, bring to the group a variety of artistic representations from different faiths, such as books of religious art, CDs of religious music, and artifacts. Invite the children and their families to also bring in examples. Reflect together on the variety of expressions. Look for similarities and differences. Write an article for your congregation's newsletter about your experience.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on these questions and discuss them with your co-leaders:
TAKING IT HOME
Beauty without expression is boring.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
IN TODAY'S SESSION . . .
The paintbrush symbolizes personal expression of our inner life and thoughts. In this session, there were opportunities to reflect on the various means for personal expression, such as painting, writing, music, and theater. The children heard about a variety of ways that people have expressed themselves through all times, from cave painting to modern dance. We allowed time for participants to explore hands-on and talk about media they might like to use as a tool for their own personal expression. We emphasized that there is no one way that will feel comfortable for everyone. In addition, we noted ways of expression that go beyond the arts, such as building a trail, inventing a computer, or creating a personal identity.
We learned about expression to illustrate that:
The children heard a story, "The Cellist of Sarajevo," about a man who used music to protest the violence of war in his city.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about . . .
Talk about different ways each individual in the family expresses their inner thoughts, emotions, and personalities. Who uses art forms, such as drawing, knitting, playing music, writing, carpentry, gardening, or dancing? Does anyone in your family express themselves in other ways, such as in the way they clean and organize a room, prepare a meal, or invent ways to earn extra money?
You might ask your child what he/she enjoyed about exploring different modes of expression in today's session. Then, see how other members of your family answer these questions:
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try . . .
Look for books, movies, websites, and excursions your family can share, to investigate the variety of ways people have expressed themselves through all times, from cave painting to modern dance.
FAMILY ADVENTURE
Find easy and open-ended art projects in Scribble Art: Independent Creative Art Experiences for Children by MaryAnn Kohl, illustrated by Judy McCoy (Bright Ring Publishing, 1994). The projects in this book encourage process, discovery, and exploration.
FAMILY DISCOVERY
Discover an adult finger-painting artist and her works! The website of Mary Ann Brandt (at www.fingerpainter.com/index.htm) has fascinating images and some how-to information.
The picture book, The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater, puts a lighthearted spin on the idea of expressing yourself. When a seagull drops a can of paint on Mr. Plumbean's house, he gets ideas about how to decorate it that cause ripples in the whole neighborhood. Eventually, each house becomes a reflection of the owner.
A FAMILY RITUAL
Have a variety of artistic media available for your family members to express their inner thoughts and lives. Drawing, poetry, sculpture, and music are among the ways that people have expressed themselves. Set aside a space and/or a time for family members to use different media as they wish.
TOOLBOX OF FAITH: SESSION 6:
STORY: THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO
Written by Jessica York.
Read or tell the story.
You do not have to be rich or famous or even an adult to make a difference in the world. You do not need to have special training or be the ruler of a country. Many people who feel passionately about injustice in the world speak up about it. Speaking up can take many forms because different people have different ways of expressing themselves.
Here is one example:
In 1992, the country of Bosnia-Herzegovina was involved in a civil war. In a civil war, different groups within a country fight against each other for control. War always affects not just soldiers but everyday people, too. This war was no different. One day, at 4 p.m., a bomb exploded in the city of Sarajevo and killed 22 everyday people who were waiting in line to buy bread.
Near the bakery lived Vedran Smailovic. Sometimes, he himself bought bread at that bakery. He was terribly distraught at the violent acts being committed in his hometown and he decided to speak up. The day after the bombing, at 4 p.m., he entered the square where the bomb had exploded, sat down, and began to play the cello. You see, Vedran Smailovic was a cellist with the opera orchestra in Sarajevo. Music held a special place for him. And it was through his music that he decided to speak to anyone who would listen about what had happened in the bakery line.
For the next 22 days — one day for each person who had died — at exactly 4 p.m., Mr. Smailovic played the same piece of music. Mr. Smailovic said his music was "a daily musical prayer for peace."
Mr. Smailovic spoke up with his cello, and people listened. One person who heard was Beliz Brother, a performance artist in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. She arranged for a performance of 22 cellists to play at 22 different public places for 22 days. This performance echoed Mr. Smailovic's musical prayer and was her way of speaking up.
Both of these acts came to the attention of a young boy in Indiana. He started a campaign to let other people know about Mr. Smailovic's performance. He thought it was important for people to know that they were not alone in their call for peace and reconciliation. Perhaps he also wanted Mr. Smailovic and Ms. Brother and others to know they had been heard.
The boy, Jason Crowe, wrote about these acts of inspiration in a newspaper that he published called "The Informer." He also started a fund-raising project called The Cello Cries On, to raise money to build a statue for the city of Sarajevo, to be placed on the site of the bakery. It is called the Children's International Peace and Harmony Statue. The statue would not only honor those who had died, it would also remind everyone of the high price too many people pay in war.
Jason Crowe hoped it would inspire people to work harder for peace. Perhaps if everyone thought of how war harms the children, they would strive for peace. Maybe children just like you will see the statue. Perhaps your generation will listen to all those speaking up for peace, and war will become a thing of the past.
It might be unreasonable to expect people to never disagree or argue. That is not what most people mean when they talk about working for peace. They hope we will someday have a world where people will settle their differences not with violence, but by peaceful negotiations.
Someone, in a terrible act of violence, took the lives of 22 people in Sarajevo. No one remembers this person's name. But the people who reacted to that violence — not with more violence, but in a universal call for peace and reconciliation — we do remember. We honor them by passing on their story. When you tell their story, you are speaking up for peace, too.
FIND OUT MORE
The Cellist of Sarajevo
In the children's picture book, Echoes from the Square by Elizabeth Wellburn and illustrated by Deryk Houston (Rubicon Publishing, 1998), a young boy is helped to cope with war by Vedran Smailovic's actions.
For adults, an article by Swati Chopra on the Life Positive e-magazine website provides more detail about Vedran Smailovic (at www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Positive_Chronicles/The_cellist_of_Sarajevo.asp) and the responses to his actions. An ACF Newsource article describes the projects Jason Crowe (at www.acfnewsource.org/democracy/indiana_jason.html), a teen in Indiana, undertook, inspired by Vedran Smailovic.
Word Bodies
Although written for younger children, a picture book by Cheryl Willis Hudson may inspire the group with illustrations of children bending their bodies to form the letters of the alphabet: Afro-Bets ABC Book (East Orange, NJ: Just Us Books, 1988; Cartwheel, 2002).