Howdy Parents,

This Week in Spirit Play the children will participate in “Belinda’s Bouquet” by Leslea Newman which is a

‘Red Promise’ Story: Respect All People.

“Belinda’s Bouquet” is a story of how a young girl named Belinda is teased for having gained weight. She and Daniel, both about ten years old, discover with the help of one of Daniel’s mothers and a garden cared for by his other mother that people, like flowers, are different. Some people are short, some of us are tall, some are dark, some are light, some are overweight and some are thin. All people have special needs which make each one quite beautiful and unique. Belinda comes to realize that her body belongs to her and that it is okay to look and be different from others. Here are some questions you can follow up with your children about this Sunday’s lesson:

I wonder how it feels to be friends and do everything together?

I wonder how it feels to be called fat?

I wonder if anyone has ever called you something that hurt you?

I wonder if you have ever made fun of anyone else?

I wonder how they felt about it?

This Week in Elementary the children will participate in How Stories Began           which is a Source Story: Sense of Wonder.

In the story shepherds gather around a fire at sunset and begin wondering where the great beauty of this world came from and how it all began.  One of them dreams a story that tells about how everything began, others daydream stories while tending their sheep or rocking their babies by the fire.  These people begin to tell their stories when the tribe gathers and the stories

are told again and again by their children and their children’s children. They dance their stories and drum their stories and sing their stories.  Eventually they draw their stories on cave walls, then write them on stone tablets, and then on long strips of sheep skin and paper.  And the stories about all this beauty and the great mystery of how it all began have been given to us to tell at our Spirit Play circles. 

As a follow up activity the children will come up with their own ancient origin stories, and make their own ancient scrolls to write them on. Some follow up question to ask children about could be:

I wonder what kinds of questions you wonder about?

I wonder what kind of stories you like to hear?

I wonder what stories come to you in your dreams?

I wonder what stories of creation you have heard before?
I wonder what scientists and others can tell us about how the world was created?

This week the teens will participate in community building activities. They will play games that facilitate opening with one another, and encourage a feeling of safe space.

The teens take place in community building activities so that as the year continues and their curriculum asks them to share personal things, such as what they believe and how they worship, they feel like Religious Education is a safe place to do so. As the teens grow in our church and faith it’s important to allow them the space to explore, and encourage them to know they are not alone. Games act as a catalyst to break down barriers of different background and ideas.