Preschool - Grade 5

This year, we are setting up our preschool and elementary classes a bit differently than past years.  Instead of having a team of teachers, we will be counting on parents and volunteers to sign up class sessions each week.  Lori Allen, Director of Youth and Children’s Ministries (DYCM), will be leading many of the class sessions.  After a year of building renovations that took a lot of the DYCM work time, a commitment to focus more on our preschool and elementary families will be made this year.  Diana, our UUFA Projects Coordinator, has created Signup Genius sites where you can sign up to lead a class.  All the curriculums are online, either at the UUA or UUFA website.  (We Care - Preschool Curriculum has a few bugs that are still being worked out.)

I am looking for volunteers to be class leaders.  A class leader will help recruit volunteers to fill the weekly co-teaching slots – they will not be expected to teach each week, but can fill in the rotations when it works for their schedules.  You can expect to be getting a call from me or a class leader asking for your help.   If each family would volunteer to be co-teachers 4-5 Sundays per year, we’d have our teaching needs met.  Please be open to helping when you get the call OR sign up on the web links that Diana has provided below.

And, a note about registration.  If you have registered your child in the past, you’re in our system.  We only need to know when there is a change in family contact information, health matters, or any other matters you’d like us to be aware of.  You can contact Lori Allen, DYCM at  dycm@uufames.org.  If you are not certain if your child is registered, or if you are new to the UUFA please contact the office (projects@uufames.org ) or Lori at the above email address for more information.

2011-2012 Religious Education Programming (Starting 9/11/11)

9:15 & 11:00  (During Sunday Services)

Infant – Age 3                                                          Nursery Care

            Supervision, free play, snack, and storybooks are part of the experience of Sundays in the nursery.  The nursery is staffed by our professional childcare providers.  Children who are age three and older can move to the preschool class when they feel ready for more structure in their Sunday morning experience.

Preschool (Ages 3 – Pre K 5's)                             We Care

The WE CARE curriculum is a pdf. attached at the bottom of this page.

This curriculum helps our youngest UUs learn about themselves, their peers, the cycle of the seasons, and our UU community.   Each week a story will be shared with the children and then they will add a feature to their own personal preschool “avatar.”   Many of the stories will be Todd Parr stories, and our avatars will look a lot like the people in Todd’s books.  After the story, avatar decorating and snack, children will be encouraged to play with all the great new toys – kitchen set, puppet theatre, babies to dress and care for, legos, and building blocks, and cars and trucks.

To volunteer, go to:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/wecare4/914263

Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2                    Creating Home

http://www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith/creatinghome/index.shtml

By Christy Olson and Jessica York. ?This program helps children develop a sense of home that is grounded in faith.  In these sessions, children explore the deep sense of sacredness, the beauty of hospitality, and the gift of loving relationships that a home can represent. As participants actively explore the concept of home, they create a community home in their meeting space. We will watch for small differences in children's respect for one another and their engagement with the wider congregation as they learn to identify their Unitarian Universalist congregation as a home.  The sessions include stories from Unitarian Universalist and other traditions, hands-on activities to make learning accessible to individuals with various learning styles, and structured opportunities for questioning, reflecting, and self-expression. The program introduces children to Unitarian Universalist heritage, including rituals, songs, and traditions of our faith, and stories about Unitarian Universalists whose words, songs, and deeds have helped to shape the faith home that participants share.

To volunteer, go to:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/creating2/914263

Grade 3, Grade 4 and Grade 5                          Love Connects Us

http://www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith/loveconnects/index.shtml

By Michelle Richards and Rev. Lynn Ungar.  ?Love Connects Us celebrates important ways Unitarian Universalists live our faith our community. Moved by love and gathered in spirit, we embrace our responsibility toward one another and the world at large. We encourage one another's search for truth and meaning. We strive to be active in peace-making and other efforts to improve our world.   The sessions explore our legacy, from both Universalism and Unitarianism, of living our connections in loving service, inquiry, and action for social justice. At the same time, the program builds active participants in our faith. Children learn how our actions create a new heritage of connecting in love that which will shape the faith of future generations.

To volunteer, go to:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/love39/914263

10:20 – 10:55  (Between Sunday Services)

Middle School (Grades 6, 7, and 8)                   What Do You Stand For?

            “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything” – Alexander Hamilton

Positive character traits are something you can and should develop.  This class will explore traits like caring, love, respect of all life, honor, fairness, trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness, and justice – just to name a few.  What information and support do you need to make the right choices?  How can your personal choices make a difference to you and others?  The goal of this curriculum is to help students understand themselves better and to figure out what they do – and do not – stand for.

To volunteer, go to:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/what38/914263

High School (Grades 9-12)                                   Interfaith Explorations

            “[because we are] a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live apart, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other in peace.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year students work to make sense of Unitarian Universalism in the greater context of interfaith relationships, community building, and personal spiritual growth.