Thursday, March 4, 2021

Recap of some February Children's Chapels




RECAP: Sun. Feb. 28th

Dear families!  

Great to have many kids, two youth helpers, and many caring grown-ups in the Children's Chapel Sunday.   Thank you to LSE volunteer Beth Merrill for taking the lead!  

For all you parents getting through the final day of school vacation, there's an great potential for a fun self-directed project for the kids at the end of this.    

Recap: We reiterated the idea of a Beloved Community being a place where people can "Be Loved."  And although this is the last week that Beloved Community is our theme, I mentioned that our church tried to be a beloved community year round... 

Mystery Box held two fragile objects..... a compact mirror and a small frame with glass that represented a window.  I shared that like the students, I'm taking a class about children's literature, because I LOVE kids and young adult books and helping kids find books that make them want to read more.  In that class, we're learning about how books can be mirrors and tell us stories that remind us of our own lives or stories... or books can be windows that let us see other peoples' worlds that we don't know as much about.  Both are important!  

I introduced these photos of Marley Dias, with her frustration about reading 5 books about boys with white skin and their dogs in 5th grade, while these books were interesting, she just couldn't see a mirror or herself or her story in these books.  In my class we learned that if there are 100 books, only about 9 of them have characters with brown skin or about people from other countries.  This all inspired Marley to start the project of 1000 books, where she wanted to collect books with stories about girls with brown skin like her so that she could see more mirrors in what she was reading.  It's also important for us, as people with white skin, to look through windows and see stories about people like Marley who have brown skin.  (See photos and links below) 

We watched this book called  Milo's Museum




Liz highlighted that the book ended with the sign changing from "Milo's Museum" to "The Peoples' Museum".  

Then we looked for objects in our homes that tell a little of our or our family's stories.  In break-out groups, kids shared a little about their "artifact." Creating windows for others to look through at our lives.   Some kids had a little trouble thinking of/finding something to share, but in the end I think we did ok! 

I ended with my own clothespin artifact story, and the idea that they might invite their parents to share special artifacts from their stories and make a mini museum like Milo did. 

Follow-up: Encourage your child/ren in creating their own museum at home that tells THEIR sotry.  One parent writes: [Child's name] was inspired by Sunday’s Children’s Chapel and
Beth A Merrill
’s reading of the story to start his own museum and write a news article about it. [His dad] conducted the interview and did the actual writing. Thanks, LSE team, for the inspirational Children’s Chapels!




Another follow-up idea: Liza has just ordered over a dozen more books to help kids have more windows and mirror books in our own UCM Library!  Stop by and check them out at 397 Elm St.  There's a notebook to sign out the titles you borrow.   



Marley Dias- 1000 books,  up to 4000!

marley.jpeg 


NEXT SUNDAY: 


Screen Shot 2021-03-03 at 8.46.53 PM.png
Children's Chapel (on Zoom) every Sunday, 9:15-9:45am
Sun. March 7th: Commitment to Curiosity
As Unitarian Universalists, we are committed to asking ourselves and others some BIG QUESTIONS--about nature, about feelings, about life and death, and more.  Longtime LSE volunteer and geologist, Art Stukey, will be our guest this week, and will have a mysterious object for us to ask questions about. We'll also read I Wonder by Annaka Harris. Kids are welcome to bring a big question of their own.  Find us via the yellow "Join Children's Chapel" button at ucmvt.org

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RECAP: Sun. Feb. 21st

Dear families, 

It was a treat to have nine kids and many of you, their lovely adults, in the Children's Chapel on Sunday. Here's a recap for those of you who might be interested, with some follow-up ideas. Hope to see you this Saturday for the Talent Show 6:30-8pm.  Many of our Children's Chapel kids will be performing and it's a great way to support one another and there are fun, free raffle items!  Register here

Beloved Community: Healing the Wounds of Racism 

Wonder box: We opened the wonder box to find some bandages, and talked about the wound of racism and that we need to find ways to heal that in order to have a truly Beloved Community.  

bandage.jpg


Guests presenters: 
  • Fiona, a member of UCM's high school youth group, shared about her idea of supporting Black-owned artists on Etsy, and her grandmother, Sally Armstrong shared the piece of artwork that Fiona gave her.   
  • Meredith and Esme shared (with photos) about organizing and participating in several solidarity actions this spring and summer including a poster their family created as part of a commitment to antiracism.  
      IMG_9650.jpg
Ripple effect: We talked about how those are just efforts by a few people at church.  Imagine how big an impact we can have on healing the wound of racism if all 450 or so people who are part of our bigger church community each take steps like this to heal racism!!!!  

We also: 
  • shared Joys and Concerns in breakout rooms 
  • sang We Give Thanks (for the great examples of anti-racism that our guests told us about)
  • we heard the picture book One, by Kathryn Otoshi and talked about standing up for others Screen Shot 2021-02-18 at 7.53.36 AM.png

Follow-up ideas: 

Listen to One (link above) together and talk about times in your lives you've stood up to a bully or wish that you had.  

Have discussions and create a Family Manifesto for Black Lives like Esme's family did.    

Sing Oh We Give Thanks together (Sorry I couldn't find a more diverse video.  I DO like that it is kids singing though! )

Practice Session / Follow-up: Talking about Race with Kids and Youth
Sat. March 13th, 10-11:30am
We had a great turnout on Sat. Feb. 6th of UCM parents/caregivers, grandparents, LSE volunteers and educators. Join us for this follow-up as a chance to practice together in a supportive space.  We'll automatically send the Zoom link / reminder to anyone who was at the Feb. 6th workshop *AND* to who watches the recording.  To be emailed a link to recording of the Feb. 6th workshop, sign-up here.

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