Religous Education Throughout the Year
★For Our Youngest Ones★
Our "Little Lights" corner provides a warm and caring environment for kindergartners, preschoolers, and toddlers. Competent paid sitters care for and play with the children in a prepared part of the large room downstairs from the sanctuary. Care is provided from 9:45-11:15. Parents may bring young infants to this comfortable setting as they might need during the service.
✿ 1st - 6th Grade ✿
The children’s religious education at First Parish features a workshop rotation model in the fall and spring. The RE year looks like this:
Fall
Three age-related groups- 1st & 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 5th & 6th grades- rotate through three workshops featuring different approaches to exploring a story selected to reflect general themes. The two fall themes for this year are "Unitarian Universalist Heritage" and "Wisdom from World Religions."
December
Holiday traditions are the focus of the first few Sundays of this month. Children help put together an inter-generational Winter Solstice Worship Service that relates to the many dimensions of this time of year. All ages of children and youth are invited to take part.
January - February
Also known as "Winterim," these eight Sundays center on the theme of peacemaking and all its aspects. Children gather in small group activities of mixed ages and interests. The groups are held in the large downstairs room of the church called "the vestry."
Spring
In March and April, children have two more rotations of workshops. The two spring themes are "Bible Stories" and "The Interdependent Web." May begins with the Walk for Hunger in Boston and our local Little Red Wagon Walk for Hunger for younger ones. The remaining Sundays of the religious education program are a combination of multi-generational worship services and Faith in Action Sundays for all ages. Our church year ends on the second Sunday in June.
Faith in Action Sundays
Between the rotations, children meet together in one group and work on a social justice project or service project together. Some past examples: putting together new home supplies for family shelter residents, and learning about proposed changes to expand the Bottle Bill and what that might mean for people and the environment.
More About Workshop Rotation Model
Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
▸ Spiritual growth, faith development, and religious community are nurtured through thematic stories and child-friendly multimedia workshops: Arts & Crafts, Games, Drama or Music, and “The World Around Us.”
▸ A thematic story begins each rotation period of three Sundays. Children explore the story in a different way as their groups rotate to a different workshop each week.
▸ A Workshop Leader leads a workshop for all three Sundays, teaching the same lesson each week (with age appropriate adjustments) to each new group coming in.
▸ Another caring adult, a Group Guide, stays with one group of children and travels with them as they rotate through the workshops, providing consistency and help as needed.
▸ The model’s creative methods / multiple intelligences approach embraces children’s natural tendency toward multi-modal learning.
More about Winterim
Religious education for children during the months of January and February give children the opportunity to be in their “RE community” together as a whole group and in smaller groups of varied interests and ages. Each Sunday in Winterim begins with all children, preschool - 6th grade, gathering together to hear the plan for the morning activities. Then children are given a choice of activities to join– sometimes by interest and sometimes by age. We are all in the same large room during this time.
The theme and activities of Winterim have to do with peace and peacemaking. There are many aspects of peace to explore experientially, from how to reach inner peace, to learning peaceful conflict resolution, to imagining peace in the world. Peace, and the necessary condition of social justice, are integral to our Unitarian Universalist values and the building of a loving community as well as enhancing care and acceptance of self.
Worshiping Together
▸ On most Sundays, children of all ages are invited to sit with their families or friends during the first part of the regular worship service which starts at 10:00 a.m. This time includes chalice and candle lighting, a “Moment with the Children,” offertory, and songs. The children then leave to be with their respective groups.
▸ Children’s Worship Service is held in the vestry about once a month (date announced) at 10:00 a.m., the same time as the worship service upstairs in the sanctuary. Children of all ages are welcome to experience a short time of worship that is meant especially for them.
▸ Throughout the year there are several multi-generational worship services when parishioners from the youngest to the oldest gather together in the sanctuary for worship in community and celebration. Our usual multi-generational services are
• Ingathering Service
• Thanksgiving Service
• Winter Solstice Service (children help with this)
• Christmas Eve Service
• Easter Service
• Coming of Age Service (held biannually)
• Bridging Service (honoring high school graduates)
• Closing Service (before summer)
More About Workshop Rotation Model
Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
Spiritual growth, faith development, and religious community are nurtured through thematic stories and child-friendly multimedia workshops: Arts & Crafts, Games, Drama or Music, and "The World Around Us."
A thematic story begins each rotation period of three Sundays. Children explore the story in a different way as their groups rotate to a different workshop each week.
A Workshop Leader leads a workshop for all three Sundays, teaching the same lesson each week (with age appropriate adjustments) to each new group coming in.
Another caring adult, a Group Guide, stays with one group of children and travels with them as they rotate through the workshops, providing consistency and help as needed.
The model's creative methods / multiple intelligences approach embraces children's natural tendency toward multi-modal learning.
More about Winterim
Religious education for children during the months of January and February give children the opportunity to be in their "RE community" together as a whole group and in smaller groups of varied interests and ages. Each Sunday in Winterim begins with all children, preschool - 6th grade, gathering together to hear the plan for the morning activities. Then children are given a choice of activities to join- sometimes by interest and sometimes by age. We are all in the same large room during this time.
The theme and activities of Winterim have to do with peace and peacemaking. There are many aspects of peace to explore experientially, from how to reach inner peace, to learning peaceful conflict resolution, to imagining peace in the world. Peace, and the necessary condition of social justice, are integral to our Unitarian Universalist values and the building of a loving community as well as enhancing care and acceptance of self.
First Parish is committed to the diversity of our congregation. We are a Welcoming Congregation to all