Tabletop labyrinth

We are just finishing up our small "Ways to Pray" unit, and adding this lovely tabletop finger labyrinth to the classroom was our final lesson. (We bought it a few towns over, at the art center, for $24. It is ceramic, and about 12" by 12") The children love it, and negotiating the sharing of it during our limited work time has been interesting.

We have a dedicated RE "hour" (really 45 minutes) before service. But many of the children arrive late which, while it does not impact the start time, sometimes keeps us from establishing an easy rhythm to the gathering circle first thing. So some weeks we are left with only about 10 minutes for the children to work with the stories and supplies. It may be that next year, we work more mornings into the year's schedule where we simply enjoy being gathered together, get to know the offerings of our classroom, feast, and talk about life. We've had a few of those this year, and they were well received, too.

Just last week I sat in on a webinar about the "Flipped Classroom," which refers to a model of education where the adults prime and privilege what the children bring to the exchange, and the content mostly derives from the pupils rather than the teachers (though it works well when the teachers "seed" the conversation with ahead-of-time suggested resources, discussion topics for home, or fun little assignments). Many in the webinar immediately though of Spirit Play, and there was much discussion about how this is already done to a great degree in Spirit Play and how it could be done more.

pieces for Passover

I attended Catholic school as a child. I paid exquisite attention to the stories and pictures and art about the saints and mystics, and some heady practices and stories such as saying Novenas and seeing angels and lighting a certain number of candles. But I did not read the Bible. I did not even pay very close attention when our lesson for the day was about the Bible. I remember two vaguely religious events from those years: 1) playing a green-gossamer winged angel in the 2nd grade Advent play (and being miffed that I didn't get to be pink-gossamer winged) and 2) singing back-up in the play about Noah's arc in Vacation Bible School (but pretending to be sick on the day of the performance because I was too nervous to go on).  As an adult, I pursued many other interests, but religion was never among them. I--to this day--have not even seen "The Ten Commandments," which apparently places me in a very tiny population in America mostly shared by those under the age of 12...

So to tell truth, I did not learn many of the Judeo-Christian stories until I got a church job and started teaching Unitarian Universalist religious education. But what an entree! To be able to read, hear, consider, grow to love, then prepare, share, and reflect upon such a rich legacy--one that UU's place alongside stories from other sacred texts from other traditions, and words and deeds of great teachers from any number of religions, and no religion at all--this is what makes my life-learner's heart sing. My heart cracks open for Buddha; Jesus; Rumi; Starhawk; MLK, Jr.; Rachel Carson; Mary Oliver; Maya Angelou... the list goes on, and there is always room for more.

Next month is Passover. So, I researched the story. I thought about what pieces were the most compelling, and how to present the story to a multi-aged audience, and how to make its telling rich and intriguing in order to invite the deepest connection to the content. And then I thought about what I, myself, might actually be capable of creating in under a month.

And this is what I came up with:

Something new I tried for this story was making reversible and moveable pieces. I think to share this one, I'm going to want to do a video. (So hey! That will be another new thing!) 

Fabric Finger Labyrinth

I've been having insomnia lately, so I put it to good use last night and gave a go at making a small, plush finger labyrinth. It's definitely a prototype--quite a few things I botched or would do differently next time--but overall I think the idea has a lot of potential. 

I drew a basic three-turn labyrinth pattern onto fabric, did split-stitch embroidery over all the lines, then sewed on a backing and stuffed it with two layers of quilt batting. The size seems just about right, though it would be fun to experiment with other labyrinth patterns. And the level of "squishiness" seemed right, too, but I need to call my mom to ask her how to stuff it so that the batting stays even and doesn't shift around.

My thought was that this could either be used well as a during-service focusing/fidgeting activity, in the church corner (perhaps most appropriate if church actually has a labyrinth on the grounds), or on the Ways to Pray shelf with the prayer beads, prayer cards, zen garden tray, meditation jar, and anything else that's there. For older kids who are into it, it would actually make a nice afternoon multigenerational workshop, too, with instruction and support on embroidery and/or machine sewing.

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.

"Land-of-Clouds" Children's Chapel

Well, boo.

We got snowed out today, by a surprisingly voluminous snow that began about an hour before service was to begin. We had the RE hour, which is always the hour before service, but then everyone scuttled home as best they could on already-slippery roads, so no "big church" service and no Children's Chapel downstairs.

But before the rush that accompanied the cancellation, I snapped a few pictures of the Children's Chapel set-up for today. The theme was compassion and the Thirty Days of Love. 

The altar featured what was to be our special work choice for the day, a card of radiating-zigzag hearts. I thought we would introduce it with a short guided meditation on finding the center of love in ourselves, and then imagining that radiating out to our loved ones, friends, community, city, state, country, world, and out into the universe.

There's what could have been another work choice, too--the little paper heart garland made from paint color cards (and that would be great in seven hues, correlating to the seven Promises/Principles--but we are trying to simplify this aspect of our Spirit Play Sundays and find ways to focus more on the stories. So, one special work choice it was.

The general structure on which we've been basing Children's Chapel is

• Chalice lighting (a service to the group, rotated among the attendees)
• Opening reading
• Choose hymn together from children's hymn book
• Sharing Joys and Concerns
• Passing offering basket (the collection goes to a charity the children voted on at the first Children's Chapel of the year)
• Tell story
• Extinguish chalice
• Maybe work time, if there's time
• Shared feast

And this is what it looked like laid out, at the end of the story.

Here's the story itself, ready to tell next week, if the weather holds:

Land of Clouds

Adaped from Sophia Lyon Fahs’ “A Visit to the Land-of-Great-Men”

By Teresa Honey Youngblood

Suggested categories: Orange Promise (“Offer fair and kind treatment to all”), Humanist teachings (5^th of 6 UU Sources)

Materials:

One traveler figure

Four Land-of-Clouds residents

Four clouds (one rainbow, one red, one yellow or green, one gray)

Small piece of red cloth, big enough to just fit over gray cloud

Orange or peach underlay, 36” circle

Blue felt cut to about 2” diameter smaller than orange circle

Small felt island, brown

Large beige felt island (comprising about 1/2 the inner circle)

Ah, I see an orange triangle on our basket today. Does anyone remember which UU Promise that represents? Yes. Orange means Offer fair and kind treatment to all. Let’s see what we have.

Take out orange underlay and smooth it out.

Mmmm. This makes me think of one of my favorite foods—tangerines!

Take out blue ocean and place evenly on top of orange circle.

A circle within a circle. Curious.

Take out brown island and lay it in the bottom right-hand corner of the underlay (from children’s perspective).

What could this be? (Let children guess.) What’s next?

Take out beige island, and lay on blue ocean, across from brown.

These pieces seem to work together somehow. We’ll have to dig deeper to see how…

Take out traveler figure and place him on the small brown island.

Now, we’re ready to begin.

There was once a man who became discouraged by how the people in his country were treating each other. He saw people who were mean to one another. They argued constantly. They were petty. And they held grudges. He knew there must be a better way.

This  man heard of a place where the people were not like that. This place was called the Land of Clouds, and it was at the top of a mountain across the sea.

Move pointed finger from man, across sea, to bottom of beige island.

What kind of country was it? What were the people like? He was eager to learn their secret for treating each other so well. So this man hired a boat and traveled to the Land of Clouds.

Move traveler across ocean to bottom of the beige island.

When the traveler arrived at the Land of Clouds, he began to climb the mountain toward the City of Clouds.

Move traveler slowly up beige felt piece (toward you). Take rainbow cloud and accompanying figure from basket, and place them about half-way up beige island, near traveler.

Soon, he came upon someone also walking up the path. She introduced herself as a resident of this land, and greeted him warmly. They began a pleasant conversation, when the traveler finally asked a question that he’d been wondering about.

(Through this conversation, indicate the speaker with a pointed index finger. Pause between their lines so you can move to the next speaker without talking over your movement.)

“Is that…a cloud you’re walking on?” he said. It was true. She was walking on a rainbow-colored cloud about a foot off the ground.

“Yes,” she said.

“And does everyone in this land walk on clouds?”

“They do.”

“Are all the clouds as lovely as yours?”

“Well, we can do nothing about the colors of our clouds. Of course, everyone prefers to have rainbow clouds. Yellow is second best, then red, then green, and finally blue and purple. But no one wants a gray or black cloud.”

The traveler was intrigued. What did the colors mean, he wanted to know.

“When you feel content, full of love and kindness, your cloud is rainbow colored. But when you are feeling mean and stingy and quarrelsome, your cloud is gray or even black. The color of your cloud depends what is in your heart and how you are feeling.”

“And how does your cloud know how you are feeling?”

“The cloud just knows. It knows if you are feeling kindhearted or nasty, and changes its color automatically. You can’t tell it what to do.”

The man said he thought this was very strange, and perhaps a little scary. He thought it must be unsettling to have everyone know something like that about each other.

“Oh,” said the woman, “It’s the most important thing about our land. There’s no hiding how you’re feeling. No fooling others, no pretending or deceiving. Your cloud tells the truth about you, whether you like it or not.”

Move both figures up near the top of the beige island. Add the red-cloud and the yellow-cloud figures, alone with their clouds.

Just then, they approached the edge of the City of Clouds. The traveler saw busy streets full of people coming and going, and each one walked on a small cloud about a foot above the ground. Almost all of the clouds were beautiful, bright and cheery.

Point to the traveler.

“There are almost no gray or black clouds!” remarked the traveler.

Point to the rainbow cloud figure.

“That’s right. Everyone’s cloud gets blue from time to time, or even a little bit gray. But no one wants to play or do business with people with gray or black clouds. The meanness in their hearts show. So we all work to help each other brighten our clouds and we work to try to keep our own clouds colorful.”

Part red-cloud figure and yellow-cloud figure, and place gray-clouded figure (with red cloth covering his cloud) in between them.

Just then, the street began to clear of people. Everyone stepped aside and made a wide path. In a moment, a richly dressed man walked up. Though he was walking on a cloud like all the other residents of the Land of Clouds, his was covered with red silk.

Point to the traveler.

“Who is that?” asked the traveler.

Point to the rainbow-cloud figure.

“That is a very powerful man in our land. But his cloud is always black. He tries to hide this by covering his cloud with red silk, but this is silly because everyone knows the color of his cloud. He lies and cheats and tricks people for his own advantage. If he stopped this, and acted kindly, love and happiness would grow in his heart and he would have a colorful cloud. But he does not want to. So, he hides his black cloud under silk and pretends he is someone he is not.”

The man recognized this. In his own land, where people did not walk on clouds, it was sometimes like that. Sometimes, people felt dark and angry and unkind, but instead of saying so, they simply treated others badly.

The man spent many days in the City of Clouds, thinking about what it would mean for one’s friends and neighbors to know at all times how one was feeling.

Move traveler and rainbow-cloud figure slowly down the beige mountain. Then, leave cloud figure at bottom of beige island and move traveler across the sea, and back to his home island.

When he went home, he told many others about these clouds, and though the people of his country could not grow clouds of their own, they could share what was in their hearts, and they could offer one another companionship in their joys and compassion in their sorrows. The man noticed over time, as this became common practice, that there was less meanness, fewer arguments, less pettiness, and more forgiveness and understanding.

Wondering questions:

I wonder what was the best part of this story for you?

I wonder if you have ever wished others could see how you were feeling without you having to tell them?

I wonder if you ever imagined your feelings as colors, like the clouds?

I wonder what it would feel like to walk around on a cloud?

I wonder what you might say or do if your closest friend had a gray cloud?

I wonder how you try to grow kindness and happiness in your own heart?

I wonder where the Spirit of Love and Mystery was in this story?

I wonder which of our Promises this story reminds you of?

Now watch how I put this story away so that if you choose to make it your work, it will be ready for the next person.

Gather the figures with colored, rainbow, and gray clouds.

People who had all different kinds of feelings in their hearts—happiness, contentment, and maybe meanness or fear.

Pick up traveler.

The curious traveler who sought a better way for people to treat each other.

Roll up islands and ocean.

The two different lands, and the ocean between them.

Fold up orange underlay.

And our underlay, the perfect workspace for this story, and a reminder to offer each other kind treatment.

Adapting Sophia Fahs' "A Visit to the Land-of-Great-Men"

Reading From Long Ago and Many Lands for the first time last year, I was smitten with the whimsical, fantastical image of the people who walked on clouds in the Chinese story "A Visit to the Land-of-Great-Men." But I struggled some with the story's message. To spoil the surprise, the thing that's special about this Land is that its people walk about a foot off the ground on little clouds--rainbow clouds, red and yellow clouds, green and blue clouds, and gray and black clouds. But here's where it got a little challenging for me: the clouds were described as being either 1) tied to one's current emotional state, as in the feeling being felt in that moment (ex. happy) 2) the way one behaved toward others (ex. generous), or 3) one's intrinsic character, the true nature of one's own heart (ex. kindhearted or selfish).

But no distinction was made between these. The cloud simply knew one's heart and knew how he or she felt about the world, and was rainbow colored in happiness, red or yellow in contentment, green or blue in neutrality, and gray or black in anger or deceit.

Everybody wanted rainbow clouds, so everybody thought happy thoughts and was kind to their neighbors.
And no one wanted to do business with or be around or help the people with gray or black clouds, which kept these colors down to a minimum..

I was uncomfortable with this. Everybody gets angry. Everybody has moments of ugliness in their hearts. But... we don't ostracize one another. We help one another out of those spots. When someone is on a downward spiral, sporting a blue cloud when yesterday they were red, we don't say, "Hey! Get it together! Make with the rainbow cloud!" We are gentle with one another during those times. And as UU's, I don't believe we think of others as having evil hearts. Rather, we judge others by the way they act and the way they endeavor to be.

But I realized, these are all great issues for children to grapple with for themselves!

So I set about creating a vision of what this story might look like told in the Spirit Play method. I began thinking of my struggles with the story in terms of wondering questions, and thought some about what ideas I'd want the children to be playing with as they worked with the story. Then, I made a couple of prototypes of story pieces that I thought would achieve that end.

My very, very nascent woodworking skills show here, especially in those right-angle cuts in the cloud, but it was important for me that the clouds be removable and interchangeable so that the children would be able to play with the feeling of identifying with a character, and then giving that character a rainbow, colorful, or black cloud to work with. There are to be five characters total--four residents of the Land-of-Clouds (renamed from the Land-of-Great-Men) and one traveler from another land (also pictured). That way, there would be ample opportunity for the characters to interact and for there to be a "community" and an "outsider" to work on ideas of acceptance, welcoming, assistance, and compassion. 

Next comes the rest of the figures, and then an underlay and some basic setting elements. If there's time, I'd love to have this done for this Sunday's Children's Chapel, which is the only one that falls within the Thirty Days of Love campaign. I think the message about compassion and understanding is the most compelling take-away from this story, and I'd love to share it as we and the children take a month to think about integrating and highlighting those ideas and actions in our own lives. 

Spirit Play Storeroom

I am so hungry to see other Spirit Play spaces, and Godly Play, too, and Reggio Emilia and Montessori-inspired religious education classrooms. I want to see how they are laid out, and how they flow, and how they are tidied on Sunday afternoons, and where things are stored. Once we get clipping along, I'd love to make a series of YouTube videos on how the classrooms "work" on a given Sunday.

To that end, I'll add here a picture of a shelf in what is now our Spirit Play storeroom. It is not a thoughtfully laid out room, as we rather missed the memo that we'd need a whole other space in which to store not-currently-used stories and supplies, so cobbled it together quickly last fall.

You know, when I first started looking at Spirit Play classrooms online, I thought, man, these folks are serious about their baskets and shelving. And now I understand why! Everything is open, accessible, easy to see, and tidy.

These are about 3/4 of the stories we have built. The other 1/4 is in the Spirit Play classroom itself, on the shelves there for children to play with. The baskets are all donated or purchased at the thrift stores. Each story has a printed-out text accompanying it, in a plastic slip.We still have a great need to label each story basket with a symbol card, and I hope to have the titles and layouts printed on the other sides of the cards. I'm envisioning something like large, hanging gift tag attached with a string long enough that it could be laid on top of the layout on each story. I think that would be a great volunteer job for somebody wanting to get acquainted with our collection...now if only I could find that one volunteer!