RE Curriculum

Year 6

6: First quarter, October through December
Age range: 10 and up, centered on approximately age 11.
Topic: Unitarian Universalist Identity
10 sessions in the topic area; one seasonal session, one session on Christmas, and one week off.

Sessions in topic area:

Use the "Raychel and Tony" stories in the book uu&me: Collected Stories, edited by Betsy Hill Williams. (Suggested activities are included in parentheses after each story.)

• "Courage To Create" (create your own self-portraits)
• "Free To Believe" (come up with your own explanation of Unitarian Universalism to tell to your friends)
• "One of Us" (discussion about getting in trouble)
• "Starting Over" (list what's cool and what's not at school; figure out what your strengths are)
• "All You Had To Do Was Ask" (discussion: what assumptions do people make about you? -- then: what assumptions do we make about others?)
• "The Quilt That Love Built" (figure out a social action project you can do, and then do it)
• "Truth or Consequences" (discussion about strangers, and about knowing when to help others)
• "Two for One Summer" (do something together that you ordinarily don't do, e.g. if your family does not sing together, try singing together)
• "An Almost Awful Holiday" (make potato latkes, and discuss your own family's holiday plans)

then pick one of the following two stories as part of sessions in topic area, and one for Christmas session.

• "The Coat the Came for Christmas"
• "The Christmas without Gram"

Seasonal session:

Choose one holiday from CLF's Cycle of Seasons that has special meaning to your family, and celebrate it together as a family

OR

Celebrate the solstice using a celebration from Starhawk's Circle Round.

Christmas session: (See above.)

Celebrate Christmas together as a family.

One week off.

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6: Second quarter, January through March
Age range: 10 and up, centered on approximately age 11
Topic: Our Jewish and Christian heritage
10 sessions in the topic area; one seasonal session, one session on Easter, and one week off.

Sessions in the topic area:

Use the following sessions from Neighboring Faiths. You may want to spend more sessions on a unit that is indicated. The order is not important, but starting with Unit 1 Session 1 sets the stage for the explorations.

Unit 1 Creating a Plan

• Session 1. "What is Religious?

Unit 2 Coming of Age: Judaism Select 3 from the 4 sessions

Unit 3 Exploring Ritual - Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox

• 3 sessions

Select one of the following units, each of which has 3 sessions:

• Unit 4 Reading a Holy Book - Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodists, United Church of Christ
• Unit 10 Finding Absolutes - Fundamentalism and Cults

Seasonal session:

Choose one holiday from CLF's Cycle of Seasons that has special meaning to your family, and celebrate it together as a family

OR

Celebrate the equinox using a celebration from Starhawk's Circle Round.

Easter session:

Celebrate Easter together as a family.

One week off.

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6: Third quarter, April through June
Age range: 10 and up, centered on approx. age 11
Topic: Wisdom from the world's religions
10 sessions in the topic area; one seasonal session, and two weeks off.

Sessions in the topic area:

Using the Neighboring Faiths curriculum. You may want to spend more sessions on a unit that is indicated.

Unit 5 Calling of God - Islam

• 3 sessions

Unit 8 Designing an Earth-Centered Service - Religions of the Goddess, Native American Traditions, Creation Spirituality

• 3 sessions

Unit 9 Practicing Spiritual Disciplines - Hinduism and Buddhism

• 3 sessions

Unit 11 Creating a Closing (Neighboring Faiths can be used in the next quarter in terms of social action, so having the closing here related to the study or religious groups is still appropriate.)

• Sessions 1 and 2

Seasonal session:

Choose one holiday from CLF's Cycle of Seasons that has special meaning to your family, and celebrate it together as a family

OR

Celebrate the solstice using a celebration from Starhawk's Circle Round.

Two weeks off.

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6: Fourth quarter, July through September
Age range:10 and up, centered on approx. age 11
Topic: Social justice
9 sessions in the topic area; one seasonal session, two weeks off, and one annual session of evaluation (and assessment) in mid-September.

Sessions in the topic area:

Continue with the Neighboring Faiths visits.

Unit 6 Engaging in Service: Spirituality and Ethics - Quakers, Religious Humanists, Unitarian Universalists

• 3 sessions

Unit 7 Celebrating a Culture - The Black Church: Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal

• 3 sessions

3 sessions on anti-oppression focus within the Unitarian Universalist Association (to be developed)

Seasonal session:

Choose one holiday from CLF's Cycle of Seasons that has special meaning to your family, and celebrate it together as a family

OR

Celebrate the equinox using a celebration from Starhawk's Circle Round.

Evaluation session:

Remembering -- Brainstorm list of memorable Sunday school sessions from the past year.

Evaluating: From the children's point of view, what were the best sessions?

Revisiting the covenant: Review Sunday school covenant you created. Does it need to be revised? When done, sign it again for this year.

See the Introduction for more on assessment and evaluation sessions.

Two weeks off.

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Last updated June 12, 2005