Excerpted from the 2006 Berry Street Lecture. When I was seven or eight years old, I lived across the street from a little dog named Amy. Every afternoon after my school let out, Amy and I would play together for an hour. One of Amy's favorite games was a dancing game in which I held her two...

After many years of being out of shape, he decided it was time to do something about the state of his body. With great excitement and enthusiasm, he went to the local gym, got a membership, and began a circuit-training routine. He felt good. And he kept at it, going to the gym several times a week.

Activity time: 20 minutes Materials for Activity Props for role play, such as fabric, hats, paper bags, boxes, empty paper towel rolls, etc. Preparation for Activity Gather props for children to use in the role play. Keep them simple. For example, a swath of fabric can become a cape, a skirt, a...

Activity time: 10 minutes Materials for Activity A copy of the story "Jelly Beans" A bell, chime, rain stick or other musical noisemaker Preparation for Activity Read the story, "Jelly Beans," a few times. Practice telling it dramatically rather than reading it from the page....

Adapted from a story by Malba Tahan (pen name for Julio Cesar de Mello e Souza, 1895-1975), a mathematician from Brazil who also wrote The Man Who Counted (Editoria Record, 2001), which was first published in Brazil in 1949.Once, two friends named Mussa and Nagib made a journey through the mounta...

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,...

From Our Seven Principles in Story and Verse: A Collection for Children and Adults by Kenneth Collier (Boston: Skinner House Books, 1997). Used with permission. Read or tell the story. Here is a new story about Coyote. One day it occurred to him that he didn't need any of the other creatures....

Activity time: 10 minutes Preparation for Activity Choose the songs to teach - "Make New Friends," as suggested, or another of your choice - and become familiar with the tune....