A new venture.

[rivka]

I volunteered to teach Religious Education this year, which I am still struggling to call "RE" and not "Sunday School." I was assigned to the preschool class, along with two other teachers: Tony, who's been teaching preschool RE for a couple of years now, and Rose, who is new like me. We're going to be rotating, so that each week two teachers are in the classroom and one gets to go to the church service. Seven kids showed up this morning for the first day of class, only four of whom were on our class list - if the other five kids on the official list show up, we're going to need a larger room. (Our classroom is approximately the size of a large closet.)

This year, the church-wide Religious Education program this year is focused on the 7th Principle of Unitarian-Universalism, which is about honoring the web of life. Each class is doing an age-appropriate curriculum on that topic. Preschool has three short nature curricula - one about the five senses, one about learning from and protecting animals, and one about trees. It doesn't feel very "religious" to me, but that might have more to do with my own limitations (I'm not much of a nature-based-religion person) than it does with the curricula themselves. And I'm not sure how religious (in a traditional sense) you can usefully get with preschoolers anyway. I do think that the kids are really going to connect to the material and enjoy it. And it should be fun to teach.

This morning we started with a name-learning game. It didn't go that well, because some of the shyer kids didn't want to say anything right away. Then, while we sat in a circle, I explained that Unitarian-Universalists light a chalice when we meet to remind us that our time together is special. We lit a small chalice and said opening words that we'll use every week:

This is the church of the open mind (touch our heads)
This is the church of the helping hands (hold out our hands)
This is the church of the loving heart (cross our arms over our chests).

I was relieved to learn that the preschool class blows out its chalice as soon as opening circle is over, instead of leaving it lit until the end. I had been having trouble picturing how it was going to work to have lots of active kids in a small room with an open flame.

We read a book about the five senses and had a short discussion about them. By this time, all the kids were willing to speak. Then I led an activity about using our senses to figure out things about the world around us. I had the kids close their eyes as I passed an apple around the circle and encouraged them to touch it. Then we looked at an orange, smelled a banana, and tasted grapes, each time trying to figure out what the fruit was using only one sense. Finally, I hit a bowl with a spoon to demonstrate the sense of hearing. I had cut up some apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes into a fruit salad beforehand, and we ate it for snack.

After snack, I took about half the class downstairs to the bathroom. That was a new experience - I've worked with kids in diapers before, and I've worked with kids who were old enough to completely handle things on their own. It looks like my class will need general supervision and help washing their hands, but probably nothing more intensive.

Then we made collages from magazine pictures and talked about which senses we used to experience the things in our collages. Some of the kids were a little more free-lance, like the 4.5-year-old boy who drew a picture of Jedis fighting Darth Maul. ("Liam, what senses would you use to watch the Jedis fighting?") That lasted up until parents started peeking in the door at 12:30. Some of the kids wanted to take their pictures home, and others let us put them up on the bulletin board.

I think it went very well, and so did the experienced teacher among us. We did a good job of seeming like we had our act together. The kids seemed interested and involved. I was a little worried about one child, because she was so shy that she barely said a word for the first 2/3 of class. Her family is new to the church, and I think that the whole Sunday SchoolRE experience was probably completely new for her, as well. But at the end of class, she ran up to her mom and said "I had SO MUCH fun." So that's good.

No RE for me next week, because we're going to Memphis. But the following week we're going to take a break from the five senses to start our unit on trees. We'll pick a tree from a nearby park to be our class tree. After first seeing it in the fall, we'll go back and visit it again in the winter and spring. Field trip! That'll be fun.

Comments

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is really a huge undertaking! I'm glad you're having so much fun with it.

-J

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It's probably not as huge an undertaking as it sounds. The curricula spell out most of what we do, and other things, like the chalice lighting words, are just part of the RE institutional memory. We're well-stocked for supplies and things, and the RE director (the poly one! Who is amazing.) is willing to shop for anything we need that we don't already have.

It's pretty intense on Sunday morning, albeit in a fun way, but it shouldn't eat up my vanishingly small quantities of free time.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Wow. You have a Goblet of Fire? Cool.

K.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Eh, given that all of our students are below the Dumbledore Age Line, it's less of a cool thing than a safety hazard. ;-)

[dafna]

Fascinating. I taught Sunday School (which is not what we technically called it, but everyone called it that anyway, since it was on a Sunday) at my syngagogue several years ago -- long enough to know that I kinda sucked at it and should stop. It sounds like your curriculum is much more plug-and-play, however, which may help. We were given some textbooks and materials and basically sent into the classroom.

Mostly what I remember in terms of what the littlest kids were taught was lots of singing and making stuff with their hands and general holiday stuff. I love the idea of adopting a tree.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

One of the challenges I struggled against when I was pastoring, and overcame to some degree, was the failure to involve all the senses in worship. I designed a service on Wednesday nights called "Romancing the Spirit" in which I intentionally engaged all five senses. We would have a chime or bell that opened the service. We lit candles that weren't aroma free but that wafted through the air of the sanctuary. We shared bread....homemade when possible...but always avoiding those nasty little tasteless wafers. We held hands.....etc. It's nice to see you engaging the kid's senses. :)

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Oh, nifty! I was hoping to ask you how it went, but it sounds like I was gone from coffee hour long before you were even close to done. I'm glad your first class was so rewarding!

"RE" sounds odd to me, too, although mostly because it was my grandfather's nickname ("Robert Emmet," so "RE" for short).

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you're at choir practice before church and I'm at RE until 12:30, we might not see that much of each other. Alas.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Good for you -- I'm sure it will be a rewarding experience for the kids. I hope it's a rewarding experience for you too!

[bosssio.livejournal.com]

quick comment - I am also teaching RE at my UU church - second year teaching. We found that for the preschoolers, re was more like daycare than actual RE and we are trying to change that this year. But the curricula we have been introduced to seems WAY too advanced for this age.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I know what you mean about the "more like daycare" - our "Senses" curriculum and even the nature unit we're doing from "We are many, we are one" would make excellent programming for a regular preschool. We do have a third curriculum, "Animal Helpers," which uses guided imagery to help kids find a sort of an animal spirit guide who encourages their best self. (A little unclear about how well that's going to work - probably better with preschoolers than with a lot of adults.)

What curricula are you using? And I see that you're kind of near us (I'm in Baltimore) - do you mind if I ask which church?

[bosssio.livejournal.com]

I don't know the official name of the curriculum (our first RE meeting was a nightmare since my 3 year old refused to stay in the room - he knows where the vacuum cleaners are kept and wanted to go play with them...) but it was based on the ABCs. I am a little wary of this curriculum - R is for reverence and P is for Joseph Priestly, etc (my husband dubbed it "A is for Abstract thought").

Hmmm, not so sure for 3 year olds.

But last year's currcula was a nightmare too - it wasn't targeted to toddlers (more like late preschoolers) and we had kids between 2 and 3 in the class. So after awhile, we tossed the curricula entirely and just made activities up. Most kids were happy to sing a couple of songs, light the chalice (we have a felt chalice and felt flames - no open fires for our kids), do our UU opening works (slightly different than yours - and of course my mind is blanking on the difference...), do some coloring or playdoh and then run around outside.

I belong to Accotink UU church in Burke,VA - right down 95, just south of DC. So not too far away!

I hope for us the preschool RE class will be a little more structured. I am also now volunteering at my son's coop preschool and I figure between the two experiences, I should learn a lot about how teach this age group...

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Preschool has three short nature curricula - one about the five senses, one about learning from and protecting animals, and one about trees. It doesn't feel very "religious" to me, but that might have more to do with my own limitations (I'm not much of a nature-based-religion person) than it does with the curricula themselves.

It might not be very religious in the ordinary sense, but it brings about an awareness of the world and how we relate to it, and introduces some of the important symbols and ideals of several types of religious teachings.

Kind of an ABC song of the spirit, maybe.