Religious Education Weekly Newsletter: October 27th, 2013
This week in Spirit Play and Elementary the classes will combine for a special lesson on the story “How Full is You Bucket?”
This story is based on the idea that every person walks around with an invisible bucket. When our buckets are full we are happy, and when our buckets are empty we are sad. We can fill our own buckets and other folks’ buckets by being kind and compassionate, or we can empty others by being mean or rude. Our principles guide us to actions that will fill both our buckets, and the buckets of people around us.
The children will watch two videos that tell the story and explain the concept of bucket dipping and filling. Interspersed between the videos are activities to help cement the concepts. The first activity- complement ball will encourage children to participate in bucket dipping activities. The second activity will challenge them to differentiate between activities that dip into the buckets of other people, or fill their buckets up.
Some questions you might ask your children one the way home or at the dinner table are:
What kinds of things fill your bucket?
Has anyone ever dipped into your bucket?
Have you ever dipped out of anyone’s?
How is being a UU kind of like being a bucket-filler?
Do you think if we follow our principles we can be bucket dippers?
To review the video’s we watched in class today visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FAo_mMbGyU&feature=player_detailpage
and
In the teen class today the youth will participate in part 2 of workshop six in the tapestry of faith curriculum “A Place of Wholeness”
In the class the children learn about the different types of spiritual experiences. They are explained in the workshop like this :
The first is Personal: this area includes things like meditation, reading, personal prayer, or journaling. The second area is Communal: this area includes things like group worship, making and eating a meal with friends or family, deep conversations with family or friends, teaching or playing. The third area is Organizational: this area can include such activities as political organizing or social justice work, volunteering, church governance or even a career or job. The final area is Environmental: this can include watching a sunset or sunrise, camping, or hiking, experiencing the changing seasons and stewardship of our earth’s resources.
The youth will then participate in a reflection activity to determine what kinds of spiritual experiences they have had, by writing their experiences within the circles of spirituality.
Some questions you might want to ask the youth are:
Do you feel like you ever had a spiritual experience?
What kind of spirituality resonates with you?
Have you ever participated in Communal spirituality?
How are the different kinds different experiences? How are they the same?