Who Are Our Partners in North America?

 

Goal: To learn more about the history, customs, beliefs and practices of Unitarian Universalists in North America.

 

Materials (downloading instructions):

  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 2.6MB

Game Flaps PDF file 5.2MB

Beliefs & Practices and Customs Graphics PDF file 2.1MB

Beliefs & Practices Cards MS Word file 52KB PDF file 104KB

Customs Cards MS Word file 47KB PDF file 85KB

  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 passport: UUA logo if you have visited the US (MS Word file 241KB PDF file 184KB), CUC logo if you have visited Canada (MS Word file 114KB PDF file 58KB). Date stamp (optional)
  6. Copies of the founder story (MS Word file 39KB PDF file 73KB) and the guided meditation (MS Word file 31KB PDF file 71KB) to read aloud.
  7. Snack from North America: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice or milk.
  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:

Note to leaders on this session:

There are two ways you can present this lesson:

  1. If you do not have a partner church, you could pretend to travel to Canada if you live in the US, or the US if you live in Canada.

  2. If you have a partner church, you should pretend young people from your partner church are visiting and together you are learning about UUism in North America. Try to interject different ways young people from your partner church would answer the various questions on the game cards. (ie: “How would this be different for someone living in our partner church country?”) This lesson should follow the one from your partner church country so the participants will have some knowledge on which to base their answers.

 

Introduction: (15 minutes)

"This morning we are going to take a trip to visit Unitarian Universalists in the North America. Since we live in the United States, we’ll take a trip to Canada, another country in North America where there are Unitarian Universalist congregations. (Reverse if you live in Canada.)

 

(OR: “We are going to pretend that participants from our partner church in___________are visiting us today and together we are going to learn about UUism in North America.”)

 

“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 North American “sticker” that they will receive when the return from their trip.  Ask: “What should be done with the passports?” Ans: Keep in a safe pocket or give to you --their trip leader—to hold until they're ready to return.]

 

“This morning we are visiting a religious education class and the children are hearing a story about William Ellery Channing, one of the founders of Unitarianism in North America.

 

After we hear the story, we’ll play a board game that tells us more and helps us think about how North American Unitarian Universalists are the same and how we are different from other UUs around the world.”

 

We’ll eat our North American snack (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and juice or milk) while we hear the story.”

 

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

 

Game: (take out of suitcase) Partners! in North America (20-30 minutes)

Set up:

  1. Place the game boards on tables or the floor. Divide the kids 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.

 

Meditation (10 minutes) 

Before we leave North America we’re going to use our imaginations as we listen to a story about the founder of Universalism in North America, John Murray. 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. I want you to imagine yourself living in America in the 1700s when Unitarianism and Universalism were just being born here. This story is based on the true story about the very first Universalist church service in North America. As I read the story imagine that you are the girl in the story, Abigail, or her younger brother Gideon, living in rural New Jersey in 1770.

 

 [Read the North America Guided Imagery Story.]

 

Conclusion (10 minutes)

Hand out passports and pass out stickers. “This is the symbol of the Unitarian Universalist Association.” (Or, Canadian Unitarian Council, if you visited Canada.)

[Pass around a small role of scotch tape or a glue stick so participants can paste the sticker on to the North American 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 North America 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. Hand out fact sheet from the game for each child to take home, along with the website address from which they could download the game to make and play at home with their families.