RE Curriculum
How
to Plan Sessions
Please read either Quick Start or Introduction
to the Curriculum Plan before planning a session.
If you are more experienced (e.g. you already home school your children,
you are a trained teacher, or you've been doing home religious education
for some time), check out the Advanced
ideas for session plans.
- Getting ready when using a curriculum with set session plans
If the Curriculum Plan calls for you to use a specific religious education
curriculum, the session plans will already be written up for you.
Review the session plan, adapt it as necessary for your children,
gather any needed materials, and you'll be ready to go. Allow for
one hour of preparation time for each session.
- Planning sessions based on stories
If the Curriculum Plan calls for sessions based on stories, plan ahead
by first reading the story to yourself. Make sure you can read it
out loud comfortably (for example, you may have to look up the proper
pronunciation of unusual names). Ask yourself these questions:
- What religious or moral question(s) does this story address?
- How does the story deal with the big questions of life, the
universe, and everything?
Do you like the way the story answers the question(s) it poses?
Now plan your session using the plan below. Allow about one hour of
preparation time for each session.
Plan for a 45 minute religious education session
- Gathering (5 minutes)
Gather together and have a brief personalized "we are here"
ceremony: Begin by lighting a candle or chalice and saying a few
appropriate words, such as
- We are Unitarian Universalists, [Thumb and index fingers
held up in U shape.]
- With minds that think, [Point to the head.]
- Hearts that love, [Point to the heart.]
- And hands that serve. [Hands open in front, with palms up.]
-- Go around in a circle giving everyone a chance to tell one good
and one bad thing that happened that week.
- Story (5 minutes)
Read aloud this week's story from the Curriculum Plan.
- Discussion and snack (5-10 minutes)
Share a small snack. (The story will give you an idea for a special
snack that relates to the story.) Give a little background for
the story, such as the time and place the story originated.
- Activity (10-15 minutes)
Engage the children in creating something relevant to the story.
Pick one of the following activities (details follow).
- Make illustrations of the story
- Act out the story
- Make puppets for characters in the story
- Use movement or dance to express what's going on in the
story
- Discuss the story
- Write a sequel to the story, or rewrite the ending
- Write a song that tells the story
- Write a poem that expresses the story
- List of basic supplies to have on hand.
- Clean up (5-10 minutes)
It's important to allow time to clean up any mess that you may
have made together.
- Closing (5 minutes)
Have a short closing. Take time to admire what you created in
the session. Restate briefly what the session was about. End with
some simple closing words such as:
- We take time to reflect on what is important.
May we think carefully about the world,
May we be ready to help others,
- May we be guided by love,
In all that we say, in all that we think, and in all that
we do.
(If you use the same closing words every week, soon the children
will memorize them.)
_____________________________________
Make illustrations of the story
Go over the story again, and pick out 3 or more situations or incidents
to draw or paint that illustrate key moments in the story. Example:
if you were doing the story of the birth of Jesus, you might illustrate
Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem, the baby in the manger, and the
arrival of the shepherds. Example: if you were doing the story of the
Buddha's enlightenment, you might depict Gautama arriving at the bo
tree, Gautama sitting in lotus position, and Gautama beginning to teach
others.
Have the children draw pictures of the three incidents.
Write captions on each picture. Staple the pictures together to make
a little story book.
Many of the recommended story books in the Curriculum Plan have one
or more illustrations for the story. It's OK to copy the illustrations
in the book (especially with younger children, or children who are less
visually oriented) for the purpose of the session.
For more on doing illustrations with children, see Picture This:
How Pictures Work by Molly Bang (Seastar Books, 2000), available
in school libraries or from online booksellers.
_____________________________________
Act out the story
The simplest way to act out a story is as follows:
After reading the story through once out loud, decide who the major
characters are. Example: in the Zen Buddhist story "The Lion and
the Tiger," the two main characters are the lion and the tiger.
Example: in the Aesop's fable "The Complaint against the Stomach,"
the characters are the various body parts.
Each child gets to choose one or more characters to act out. Then you
read the story again out loud. As you read, help the children act out
the story. If you have a box of dress-up clothes, you might want to
bring them out and have the children figure out costumes, too. You may
have to read the story through more than once, so each child gets to
act out a popular character.
In a more advanced version of this activity for older children, the
children would say or read the lines that their character says in the
story. Some older children might want to turn the story into a script
for a short play or skit, actually memorize lines and perform the play
or skit.
(For something to place in your portfolio, take photographs of the
children acting out the story.)
For more ideas, see Theatre Games for the Classroom by Viola
Spolin (Northwestern University Press, 1990), available in school libraries
or from online booksellers.
_____________________________________
Make puppets for characters in the story
To make simple rod puppets, draw each character in the story on heavy
paper or cardboard. Cut out each character, and tape (use duct tape)
or glue a popsicle stick to the back of the character so that the popsicle
stick forms a handle at the bottom of the character.
Once you have made the puppets, follow the instructions for acting
out the story in the section
(For something to place in your portfolio, take photographs of the
children acting out the story.)
_____________________________________
Discuss the story
Here's a three-step plan for leading a discussion of a story:
- What -- What happens?
Some questions to ask include:
- Who were the people or animals in this story?
- What did the people or animals do in this story?
- What else happens in the story?
- So what -- So what makes that important?
Some questions to ask include:
- How did the story make you feel?
- Did you like all the characters? Which characters did you like,
and which ones did you dislike?
- Did you like the story? why or why not?
- Now what -- Based on this story, how should we act?
After you've discussed how you feel about the story, discuss how this
story suggests we behave or act.
- Do you think the main character did the right thing in the story?
What would you do?
- What is the moral of this story? Or is there a moral?
- What does this story ask us to do in our lives?
(For something to place in your portfolio, take notes on the main points
of the discussion.)
_____________________________________
Write a sequel to the story, or rewrite the ending
Sometimes you and the children will want to imagine what happens after
the story ends. What do the main characters do next? Or you might not
like the ending of the story. How would you end the story?
Older children who are fluent writers can write sequels or new endings
on their own. Give each child ten or more minutes to work, and then
ask everyone to read their sequels or endings aloud.
Rather than ask younger children to work on the story by themselves,
you can work together (you and the children) to write a sequel, or to
rewrite the ending of the story. Have the children decide together what
they want to say, and then you write it down. When you've finished,
read aloud what you've written down. Make any revisions that the children
feel are necessary.
_____________________________________
Write a song that tells the story
If you're not musical yourself, you can still try this activity. Pick
a well-known song with a simple tune, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle,
Little Star." Then write new words to the tune, words that tell
the story, or that express the feelings that the story evokes. Take
your time working on your new song -- you might want to finish up one
or two verses, and sing them through, before moving on to the next verse.
Write down each verse as you go, and when you get done, sing the whole
song through together.
Here are some simple songs that you might want to try:
- "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
- "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean"
- "Oh My Darling Clementine"
- "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat"
Other possibilities are to write a rap version of the story, or to
use the melody of a popular song.
Adults who are musical can help the children write both words and melody
for a song. For more on singing with children, get the book Sing
and Shine On: The Teacher's guide to Multicultural Song Leading
by Nick Page, available in school libraries or from www.nickmusic.com
_____________________________________
Write a poem that expresses the story
This approach probably works best with older children, say 9 and up.
Here are two techniques:
- Haiku
Traditional haiku are short 3-line poems in Japanese, with a certain
number of syllables in each line. Probably the easiest way to do haiku
with children is to write three-line poems with seven syllables in
the first line, nine syllables in the second line, and seven syllables
in the third line; or you can use five syllables, seven syllables,
five syllables. Haiku usually contain one strong image or one main
thought. You might want to write one haiku to express the feelings
of one main scene in a story, or string together two or more haiku
to tell the story line. Here's an example based on the story of Prometheus:
- Brave Prometheus
stole fire for human beings.
The gods grew angry.
- Zeus said, Punish him!
Chain him to a rock! At last
Hercules freed him.
- Acrostic poems
In an acrostic poem, you take the name of the main character. Then
write a poem where each short, irregular line of the poem begins with
successive letters of the main character's name. Here's an example
based on the story of Noah:
- No one knew why Noah began building a boat. Then,
Out of nowhere, dark clouds came. Noah finished his
Ark, and got two of every animal on board -- just as
Hard rains covered the whole world with water.
_____________________________________
List of basic supplies
You may need a few additional items for a few sessions.
- Drawing paper
- Crayons, markers
- Paints and brushes (optional)
- Heavy paper for painting on (optional)
- Dress-up clothes (optional) Writing paper and pens or pencils
- Heavy paper or cardboard for puppets
- Popsicle sticks
- Duct tape
- Glue sticks, scissors
 RE
Curriculum Home
Last updated June 12, 2005
|
