Who Are Our Partners in the Khasi Hills?

 

Goal: To learn more about the history, customs, beliefs and practices of Khasi Hills Unitarians.

 

Materials:

  1. The Partnership Suitcase filled with materials for the lesson.
  2. Game boards and card sets: one for every 4-6 children you expect to attend the lesson.

Game Board PDF file 493KB

Game Flaps PDF file 3MB

Beliefs and Practices Graphic PDF file 317KB

Customs Graphic PDF file 164KB

Beliefs and Practices Cards MS Word file 58KB PDF file 97KB

Customs Cards MS Word file 57KB PDF file 95KB

  1. Playing pieces from commercial game boards: one for each player. (Monopoly is good since there so many different pieces.)
  2. Dice: 1 die for each game board.
  3. Map of the world. Pushpins and string or yarn.
  4. Homemade passports for each participant (made in Lesson #1)
  5. Page of stickers to put in passports. (MS Word file 508KB PDF file 251KB) Date stamp (optional)
  6. Copies of the founder story (MS Word file 33KB PDF file 41KB) and the guided meditation to read aloud (MS Word file 32KB PDF file 36KB)
  7. Snack from the Khasi Hills
  8. Copies of “Under One Sky” (MS Word file 30KB PDF file 60KB)

 

As an alternative to downloading all these materials individually, you can save time by downloading a compressed file containing all materials. To do this, your computer must be capable of handling files compressed using WinZip or Stuffit. You have the choice of:

 

Introduction: (15 minutes)

"This morning we are going to take a trip to visit the Unitarians in the Khasi Hills. The Khasi Unitarians live in a remote, rural region of India, over 7,000 miles from here. Right now in the Khasi Hills it is _____ o'clock on _____day.” [Look this up on the internet, or have a child look it up before this class and report what they found out.] 

 

“Let's find where these Unitarians live on our world map.” [Locate Assam Province, or the city of Shillong in the Northeast region of India. Put a pushpin there. Tie one end of a piece of string or yarn to the pushpin marking Khasi Hills and the other end to one marking your town.]

 

“Now that we know where we are going, we will all need passports.”  [Take the passports out of the Partnership Suitcase, and show them the Khasi Hills “sticker” that they will receive when they return from their trip.  Ask: “What should be done with the passports?” [Ans: Keep in a clean pocket or give to you --their trip leader--until they're ready to return.]

 

“If we were in the Khasi Hills on a Sunday morning the children would meet at 7 am for a regular Sunday Service led by the older children.  Then at 10:30 am they would meet again, this time for a Sunday School lesson.  Let's join them for the lesson.  This morning they are learning about the founder of Khasi Unitarianism, Hajom Kissor Singh.  After we hear a story about his life and work, we will play a board game that tells us more and helps us think about how Khasi Unitarians and North American Unitarian Universalists are alike and how we are different.”

 

“In the Khasi Hills the children sometimes have snacks--just like we do. Their snacks would be a special cookie and special drink.  The dirnk would be fizzy water with a sweet fruit syrup added, and the most special cookies of all--those bought at the store.  [Pass out the snacks—take cookies out of the suitcase]  We’ll eat our Khasi Hills Sunday School snack while we hear the story that begins our Sunday School lesson in the Khasi Hills.”

 

Story (take out of suitcase) Read aloud. (5 minutes)

Game: (take out of suitcase) Partners! in Khasi Hills (20-30 minutes)

Set up:

  1. Place the game boards on tables or the floor. Divide the participants into groups of 4-6 players. If you have a wide age range of participants, be sure to play the game with mixed ages so the older ones can help the younger.
  2. Note: the Customs cards and Beliefs and Pracitices cards are numbered and should be stacked in order in their own pile, face-down with the #1 card on top.

Object of the Game: To move along the path from Start to Finish.

Rules:

  1. Establish who will start by a roll of the die—high number goes first. Moving in clockwise direction, each player rolls the die and moves ahead the number of spaces shown on the die.
  2. Players lift the flap of the square they land on and read the words under it. Follow directions, ie: Move ahead, move back, pick a Customs Card, or pick a Beliefs and Practices Card. Read or answer the question on the card.
  3. The next player goes after all cards are read and questions answered.

 

Stop the game 20 minutes before the end of the session.

 

Guided Imagery (10 minutes) 

Before we leave the Khasi Hills we’re going to use our imaginations as we listen to one more story. Make yourself comfortable on the floor. Spread out so you can lie down. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Feel your body relax into the floor. Take another deep breath. As I read, imagine that you are in one of the pictures you just saw.” [Read the Guided Imagery.]

 

Conclusion (10 minutes)

Hand out passports and pass out stickers. What is it? Explain that this particular chalice picture is a symbol of Unitarianism in Khasi churches. Pass around a small role of scotch tape or a glue stick so participants can paste the sticker on to the Khasi Hills page.

 

Sing “Under One Sky.”  Then excuse the students one by one by stamping (or writing and initialing) today's date into their passports on the India page.  Tell them next Sunday there will be a trip to __________ and show them that page in their passports.  Welcome them back to __________[their home country] and put all their passports back in the suitcase.