Permission to use "The Dog at the Well" in this curriculum granted by Marilyn McFarlane, author of Sacred Myths: Stories of World Religions (Sibyl Publications, 1996). One day Muhammad told his friends and followers a story about a thirsty man, a well, and a dog....

Adapted from a Haitian tale.To whom does the water belong? There was once a drought in the country. The streams dried up and the wells went dry. God saw there was no place for the animals to drink. God provided a well with the condition that it must be taken care of so all may use it. God said,...

Adapted from "One Flower in a Field" by Joshua Searle-White, in Magic Wanda's Travel Emporium: Tales of Love, Hate and Things in Between (Boston: Skinner House, 2007). Once upon a time there was a field. It had dry grass, brambles and thistles, and high places and low places, and rocks scattered...

Adapted from a version on the 2003 International Year of FreshWater website. One day a long time ago, the elephant acted like a bully. He challenged the Rain God. "You covered the Earth in green," the elephant said, "and I'll bet you feel pretty good about yourself. But guess what!...

Five people wearing blindfolds were once brought into a room in the middle of which stood an elephant. Each person was directed to a different part of the animal, and then all five were encouraged to explore and discover whatever they could.

A retelling of a Sufi wisdom tale. Once there was a woman who prayed to understand what path she should take in life. One night, after praying, she dreamed of walking in the woods. The next day, she journeyed to the woods, searching for the answer to her prayers. It was quiet and peaceful....

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...

Book by Lynne Cherry (A Gulliver Green Book), (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990); permission pending. Two men walked into the rain forest. Moments before, the forest had been alive with the sounds of squawking birds and howling monkeys. Now all was quiet as the creatures watched the two men and...

This story is abridged from one published by Hans Christian Anderson in 1844 and translated by H.P. Paull in 1872. (Hans Christian Anderson: Fairy Tales and Stories).It was lovely summer weather in the country. A duck was on her nest, watching for her young brood to hatch. At length one shell...

A retelling of a Sioux legend. This story was given to the native people many winters ago. When it was time for all of the young mothers in the village to go out to gather fruit and berries, the old grandmothers, whose legs could no longer walk quickly, were left to care for the young children of...

Adapted from Stories in Faith by Gail Forsyth-Vail, a Tapestry of Faith Toolkit book (Boston: UUA, 2007). Used with permission. Once there was a little girl named Cecilia who fell in love with the universe....

About two hundred years ago, lots of people in North America and in Europe were discovering all kinds of wondrous things in the ground. They found coal to burn for fuel, iron for making machinery, nickel for creating tools and candlesticks and other useful items....

Adapted from "The Story of Henry Bergh and the First Humane Society" in the curriculum Holidays and Holy Days by Charlene Brotman and Barbara Marshfield (Brotman Marsh-Field Curriculums). Copyright 1983. Used by permission. Sometimes, anger can be a good thing. Henry Bergh's anger was....

Thanks to the Change the World Kids, Meg Miller and Phyllis Arata-Meyers for information and permission to tell their story. Place a large, shallow dish filled with water in front of you, where children can see it. Place a globe or world map within your reach. Phebe and Nika were two girls, both...

You might think that Beatrix Potter was a lonely child. Perhaps you would be right. True, she lived in a large city: London, England. True, the only child she had to play with was her brother, Bertram, and he was usually away at boarding school....

A true story. The mosquitoes in Borneo were terrible. On bad days, the people of Borneo would be covered in mosquito bites. (Leader — Ask, "And what do you suppose would happen?" Wait for someone to suggest that it would itch and people would scratch / make the bites bleed.) That's right — those...

Adapted from a Scottish folktale in The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley (George Bell & Sons, 1882).Long ago in Scotland there was a small fishing village that stood at the edge of the sea....

A story from A Lamp in Every Corner: Our Unitarian Universalist Storybook (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2004). Read or tell the story. There once was a farm in a valley that was practically perfect in every way, except that it had no rooster to crow at the crack of dawn, and so...

The story, "The Bremen Town Musicians," was told by the brothers Grimm in Germany, in the early 1800s. This session comes from Gail Forsyth-Vail's book, Stories In Faith: Exploring Our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Sources Through Wisdom Tales (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association,...