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rivkaI felt kind of bad, leaving Michael to solo with a sick and cranky kid while I went off to church. But this was one of my lead-teaching weeks, so I kind of had to be there.
Last week, they did a lesson about darkness. Today's focus was light. We sat in a circle on the floor and lit our chalice (This is the church of the open mind, this is the church of the helping hands, this is the church of the loving heart). Instead of blowing it out right away, as I usually do, I set it in the center of the circle. I told them that Unitarian-Universalists light a chalice when we come together to remind us that there is light in the world and in each one of us. I asked them to tell me about last week's darkness lesson, and then we talked about where light comes from: the chalice, matches, electric lights, flashlights, lanterns, fires, the sun, glow-in-the-dark toys, a night-light.
I had e-mailed around in advance, asking to borrow flashlights for the class. We wound up with about twenty different flashlights, so each kid got to have two. When everyone was armed with their flashlights and knew how to turn them on, I turned off the classroom lights. We did a bunch of jumping around, experimenting with different things we could do with the light. The diversity of flashlights meant that we had different sizes, colors, and brightnesses of light, which was cool. Towards the end, I handed out some squares of colored cellophane and let them experiment with changing the color of their light.
Then we settled back into our circle on the floor. I read Day Light, Night Light, a beautifully illustrated science picture book about light and seeing. We talked about the lights we see inside and outside, in the daytime and at night, and how even at night there is still some light. We talked about needing light to shine on something so we can see it. I asked if anyone had ever been out veeeery early in the morning before the sun comes up, and we talked a little about what it's like when it's beginning to get light. Then I read Dawn, which I think is probably a book that adults appreciate more than kids. It has gorgeous illustrations, but the kids didn't really connect with it. Finally, I asked them what we need light for, and we talked about different uses of light: seeing, reading, not tripping over things, looking pretty, keeping us warm, and making plants grow.
They were getting antsy, and it was definitely time for another physical activity. This time, I just got out flashlights for myself and my co-teacher. We stood on one side of the room and arranged the kids between us and a blank wall (actually a heavy curtain separating the preschool room from the nursery). We turned off the classroom lights and watched the kids' shadows spring up against the blank wall. Then we played with shadows: trying to recognize whose shadow was whose, making the shadows move, seeing how big and small we could make our shadows, combining two kids' shadows to make one big shadow creature. This was a lot of fun. The kids were really creative and experimental.
After shadow play, it was craft time. Before class, I had cut out a bunch of 6x8" pieces of clear contact paper and taped one to the table in front of each chair, backing side up (i.e., sticky side up when the backing was removed). I also cut out a bunch of squares of red, yellow, and blue cellophane. The kids cut shapes out of cellophane and arranged them on their contact paper. Then a teacher put a second piece of contact paper on top so that the cellophane was sandwiched in between to make a "stained glass" suncatcher. We punched holes in the top and put in a loop of yarn for hanging. This went great! There was chaos at the beginning as we tried to figure out how to make things work - for example, it turned out that if you exposed the contact paper at the beginning it was hard for the kids to cut out their cellophane, because the big pieces of cellophane would get stuck. So we wound up having them cut all their pieces first, and only took the protective backing off the contact paper when they were ready to arrange.
There were only a couple of minutes of class left by the time they finished their suncatchers. (We ran out of time for snack! I am a bad teacher.) By popular demand, we finished up by turning out the lights and shining flashlights through our suncatchers. Parents were already peeking through the doorway by that time, and it was time to leave.
It's funny how my perspective on this material is changing over time. At the beginning of the year, I looked at the curriculum and thought, "This will all be a lot of fun, but where's the religion?" Now I've come to believe that a sense of wonder and the joy of discovery are religious experiences in themselves.
Last week, they did a lesson about darkness. Today's focus was light. We sat in a circle on the floor and lit our chalice (This is the church of the open mind, this is the church of the helping hands, this is the church of the loving heart). Instead of blowing it out right away, as I usually do, I set it in the center of the circle. I told them that Unitarian-Universalists light a chalice when we come together to remind us that there is light in the world and in each one of us. I asked them to tell me about last week's darkness lesson, and then we talked about where light comes from: the chalice, matches, electric lights, flashlights, lanterns, fires, the sun, glow-in-the-dark toys, a night-light.
I had e-mailed around in advance, asking to borrow flashlights for the class. We wound up with about twenty different flashlights, so each kid got to have two. When everyone was armed with their flashlights and knew how to turn them on, I turned off the classroom lights. We did a bunch of jumping around, experimenting with different things we could do with the light. The diversity of flashlights meant that we had different sizes, colors, and brightnesses of light, which was cool. Towards the end, I handed out some squares of colored cellophane and let them experiment with changing the color of their light.
Then we settled back into our circle on the floor. I read Day Light, Night Light, a beautifully illustrated science picture book about light and seeing. We talked about the lights we see inside and outside, in the daytime and at night, and how even at night there is still some light. We talked about needing light to shine on something so we can see it. I asked if anyone had ever been out veeeery early in the morning before the sun comes up, and we talked a little about what it's like when it's beginning to get light. Then I read Dawn, which I think is probably a book that adults appreciate more than kids. It has gorgeous illustrations, but the kids didn't really connect with it. Finally, I asked them what we need light for, and we talked about different uses of light: seeing, reading, not tripping over things, looking pretty, keeping us warm, and making plants grow.
They were getting antsy, and it was definitely time for another physical activity. This time, I just got out flashlights for myself and my co-teacher. We stood on one side of the room and arranged the kids between us and a blank wall (actually a heavy curtain separating the preschool room from the nursery). We turned off the classroom lights and watched the kids' shadows spring up against the blank wall. Then we played with shadows: trying to recognize whose shadow was whose, making the shadows move, seeing how big and small we could make our shadows, combining two kids' shadows to make one big shadow creature. This was a lot of fun. The kids were really creative and experimental.
After shadow play, it was craft time. Before class, I had cut out a bunch of 6x8" pieces of clear contact paper and taped one to the table in front of each chair, backing side up (i.e., sticky side up when the backing was removed). I also cut out a bunch of squares of red, yellow, and blue cellophane. The kids cut shapes out of cellophane and arranged them on their contact paper. Then a teacher put a second piece of contact paper on top so that the cellophane was sandwiched in between to make a "stained glass" suncatcher. We punched holes in the top and put in a loop of yarn for hanging. This went great! There was chaos at the beginning as we tried to figure out how to make things work - for example, it turned out that if you exposed the contact paper at the beginning it was hard for the kids to cut out their cellophane, because the big pieces of cellophane would get stuck. So we wound up having them cut all their pieces first, and only took the protective backing off the contact paper when they were ready to arrange.
There were only a couple of minutes of class left by the time they finished their suncatchers. (We ran out of time for snack! I am a bad teacher.) By popular demand, we finished up by turning out the lights and shining flashlights through our suncatchers. Parents were already peeking through the doorway by that time, and it was time to leave.
It's funny how my perspective on this material is changing over time. At the beginning of the year, I looked at the curriculum and thought, "This will all be a lot of fun, but where's the religion?" Now I've come to believe that a sense of wonder and the joy of discovery are religious experiences in themselves.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 06:53 pm (UTC)Your descriptions of class capture that. You mentioned early on that your curricula this year all fitted in to a natural-world theme. Are there other themes for other years?
no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 07:29 pm (UTC)Yes. For example, last year the theme for the year was religious celebrations. The K-2 class did a curriculum called Around the Church, Around the Year, where they learned about the parts of our own church, the people who work there, the symbols of our faith, and holidays and special events in the UU church year. Older elementary school kids did a curriculum called Holidays and Holy Days, which is an introduction to world religions focusing on a different holiday each week. The tweens spent the year visiting many different houses of worship in Baltimore, attending their services and learning about their beliefs. Not sure what the preschoolers did. It seems to be harder to link them into a whole-program theme, because there aren't as many curricula for this age. I think the preschoolers tend to be generalists, learning about a bunch of different things in a single year rather than focusing on one area as the older kids do.
Apparently, curricula for next year are being discussed right now. I don't know what we'll be doing, but I'm looking forward to it!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 07:04 pm (UTC)I suspect that were I to become serious about involvement in a church (and I've got other things right now that make this unlikely) it would be on the children's end of things simply because that joy, wonder, etc seem far more accessable to me in that context than in the usual church format.
Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-26 03:10 am (UTC)Our Director of Religious Education told me that for her, teaching is church. It's how she gets her religious fulfilment. She said that she hates it when people offer to teach purely out of a sense of obligation - she wants the RE teachers to get religious satisfaction from what they're doing.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 09:40 pm (UTC)This was a great lesson you did with the little ones today.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-26 05:30 am (UTC)But did you have a light-themed snack ready? I'm dying of curiosity as to what it would have been! My daughters would have absolutely loved this lesson, especially the shadow-making.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-26 03:58 pm (UTC)My next lesson is on flowers. I'm trying to decide whether parents would hate me if I brought in some edible flowers for the children to try. It might be the wrong lesson, you know? (Instead, I'll probably try to look for a spray of blossoms from a fruit tree, and then have snack be the fruit from that tree.)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 09:27 pm (UTC)Do you get allergy info for your class? These http://fruitalicious.ca/ are a current favourite of mine, but they have berries in them.