"Who Speaks for Wolf?" puppet

The Spirit Play class heard and saw the "Who Speaks for Wolf?" story a couple of Sundays ago. It was a hit. At this congregation, environmental issues are felt very powerfully, and I have found that what the "Big Church" makes its priority and passion, so too will be felt by the young folks.

I got the template for this wolf at a French primary school's website that Google translates--preciously--to "a small corner of shares." With the particular puppet, we tried three different art media: markers (on the face), colored pencils (tail), and watercolors. We had two choices of brads--large gold ones, seen here, and small silver ones.

One special work choice that we had for this story was the making of wolf puppets. Two of the six children chose to work on these together. One nice thing about these particular puppets was that the pieces were moveable, so we could open up a discussion about how wolves--and dogs and coyotes and foxes--use their tails to communicate with each other; we could move the tail up and down to illustrate the idea. The story focused on the idea that caring humans need to take it upon themselves to speak for wildlife in matters of human affairs that will have an impact on the earth. But through this work choice we also could broaden the conversation to bring in the idea that animals often have sophisticated and nuanced ways of talking to each other.

Our second special work choice that, again, two of the six children chose, was working on a coloring page that had a stained-glass style picture of a wolf. It occurred to me that with themed coloring pages, and with our RE hour being just before service, it might be nice to have a few clipboards set up with these to color during service itself. 

Salt Dough Oil Lamps

Today my two little boys and I tried a project that has some Spirit Play potential. We made salt-dough oil lamps.

It could be fun to make these for Diwali. During Diwali, people light lamps shaped like the third one above and open doors and windows so that the Goddess Lakshmi can find her way into their homes.

Since many children have never seen oil used as fuel for a flame, this could make a powerful piece of a Hanukkah story about the small bit of oil that lasted for eight days.

There is also a Bible story about a widow and olive oil. The widow, whose dead husband was one of the disciples, appeals to the prophet Elijah for help paying her husband's debts before the creditors come to claim her two sons as slaves. Elijah tells her to take the one small jar of oil that is her valuable possession, to borrow oil lamps from all her neighbors, and to fill all the lamps from the one jar. Amazingly, the one small jar of oil lasts enough to fill all the lamps--when the last lamp is filled, the jar of oil then runs out. She and her sons are able to sell the oil and make enough money to pay the debts and live off the remainder. The interpretation most often used here is that God provides for His followers in times of need, and that followers should have faith in this provision. But, a UU take on this might focus on the generosity of the neighbors; is it possible that the neighbors would have each given a lamp that had some oil already in it, knowing the widow's precarious situation? That would be a story of God's love spreading through generosity and caring. In reaching out to her neighbors--hard as that might have been--the widow is offering her community the opportunity to embody compassion.

There are likely other stories featuring oil lamps, too.

I looked online for a handful of oil lamp shapes, and we got a good batch of salt dough mixed up.
After forming the lamps, we baked them for a few hours at 200 degrees (turning them over once in the process), added olive oil once they'd cooled, and then added short cotton wicks. When we lit the wicks, they burned down quickly and blackened the edge of the lamp where they touched. I'll have to investigate if there is a special wick for oil, because that didn't seem exactly right.

My older boy, especially, got into this project. He was curious and experimental about the science of the fire, and he speculated about the time periods and cultures in which lamps like these might have been used. My younger boy mostly played with some leftover salt dough, until it was time to light the flames, and then he wanted to fashion and old-style candle snuffer to ceremoniously douse the flames.

Autumn Leaf projects

Here are a couple of autumn leaf projects. They could tie in with a story, but since they are the literal background of life itself in areas with four seasons, they don't really need an introduction or occasion.

Still, these would be lovely art choices for a story on the turning of the Wheel of the Year. The Neo Pagan Holidays and Holy Days CD (available on Spiritplay.net) has a lovely Wheel of the Year story, and in a year-long study of the Pagan Sabbats, author Jessica Zebrine Gray recommends beginning on Samhaim.

Leaf rubbings, a fall classroom favorite. We used soy rock crayons, which have a great texture and shape for doing rubbings. They're pricey, but last a long time since they don't break or wear down flat like typical crayons.

And this one was new to me: making overlapping cray pas leaf silhouettes. This is done by holding the leaf flat against the paper whilst making little "ticks" of oil pastel color all around the edge. You then blend the oil pastel outward, still holding the leaf firm against the page, and when you lift it, get this nice crisp-edged negative space. Have you ever seen these, occurring naturally on the pavement beneath deciduous trees? It's a little ghostly, the twin remains of fallen leaves and rain.

This project was how we introduced the oil pastels as a new art material. This particular brand of cray pas had its own tray, which was nice; Crayolas don't, and they immediately get jumbled up and mark on each other.