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Curriculum Offerings
Course offerings and age groupings are subject to change from time-to-time as we strive to find the best materials and adjust for class size.
Pre-School and Kindergarten: Spirit Play
Joyful discovery and learning for children ages 3 or 4 through 5. The primary goal for this age group is to introduce the children to RE Program classes, increase their comfort with the church environment, and provide a nurturing environment for children to discover their growing capabilities.
The Spirit Play curriculum is a UU adaptation by Nita Penfold of the Godly Play curriculum by Jerome Berryman, combined with aspects of the Montessori Method by Maria Montessori. Spirit Play incorporates hands-on, aesthetic story and art materials to help children make sense of life’s religious questions and spiritual experiences. The stories come from our six Unitarian Universalist Sources and our seven Unitarian Universalist Principles.
The purpose of religious education in the Spirit Play classroom, as we see it, is to help children find their own answers to some existential questions:
- Where did we come from?
- What is our purpose?
- How do we choose to live our lives?
- What are our gifts?
- How do we use them?
- What happens when we die?
- Why do we die?
- Why are we lonely and sad sometimes?
Grades 1-2: Moral Tales
Every day our children go out into a complex world where they are often faced with difficult decisions and situations. The aim of Moral Tales is to help raise children who have been provided with tools that will help them to discern what is right and true, to hear and follow the call of Love, and to turn their moral beliefs and ethical concerns into concrete action. Broadly, this curriculum covers:
- Truth and justice. Participants are encouraged to draw upon inner resources such as conscience, intuition, and empathy; spiritual resources such as faith, prayer, and forgiveness; and external resources that include wise teachers and the larger community.
- The way love calls us. Participants are introduced to spiritual practices that are grounded in love, including generosity, welcome, and nonviolence.
- Goodness and justice in the larger world. Here participants explore responsibility, courage, persistence, and cooperation.
Each session has a central story in which participants meet real and fictional heroes and heroines who have displayed moral courage and spiritual greatness. The stories in Moral Tales draw upon many of our Unitarian Universalist sources, portraying moral dilemmas and paths to goodness and justice through a variety of cultural and religious lenses. All sessions include hands-on activities to make learning accessible to individuals with various learning styles as well as structured exercises for questioning, reflecting, and self-expression.
Grades 3-4: Toolbox of Faith
Toolbox of Faith invites participants to reflect on the qualities of our Unitarian Universalist faith, such as integrity, courage, and love, as tools they can use in living their lives and building their own faith. Each of the 16 sessions uses a tool as a metaphor for an important quality of our faith such as reflection (symbolized by a mirror), flexibility (duct tape), and justice (a flashlight). Reflecting on the qualities (tools) of our faith, children, and leaders gain insight into what makes our faith important in their lives, and how they can grow in our faith.
Grades 5-6: The Questing Year
The Questing Year engages participants in four quests designed to help them seek and develop their own answers to deep life questions about human faith and the web of all existence. Connected through social action and spiritual search, the Mystery Quest, the Inner Quest, the Action Quest and the UU Quest are all challenging and fun. The class may use music and meditation to experience religious mystery, creates personal aliens and mirror boards for exploring self, run a social action project to help others outside the church, and explore the lives of outstanding Unitarian Universalists.
Middle School Youth — Our Whole Lives & Coming of Age
These two programs are offered in alternate years and as class size permits.
Coming of Age
This program recognizes that youth are indeed coming of age during their adolescent years. They are examining and affirming their own values and beliefs and making their own choices about their social and religious commitments. Adolescence is a time for testing and trying out, and for asserting one’s independence. Adolescents are learning to be independent and, to a certain extent, it is an awkward time for them and their parents. We invite youth and parents to celebrate this special time in personal growth; to explore developing religious values and beliefs; to introduce youth to the congregation; and to provide parents and the congregation an opportunity to publicly affirm our youth.
Youth wishing to engage in Coming of Age activities will meet with the DRE, parents, a mentor, and other adult advisors to prepare a personal Coming of Age experience.
Our Whole Lives
Our Whole Lives is a nationally known, highly esteemed, whole-person UUA/UCC curriculum about human sexuality and spirituality. OWL is a positive and comprehensive program that helps participants gain knowledge, values, and skills in order to lead sexually healthy, responsible lives. The OWL curriculum is abstinence-based yet comprehensive in its informative approach to low-risk and high-risk behaviors, sexually transmitted infections, reproductive options, and emotional and psychological aspects of becoming sexually active. Several lessons employ hand-drawn slides, all of which are previewed in our parent orientation sessions. OWL is taught by a team of trained lay-leaders who care deeply about the well-being of our youth. Parental permission is required for young people to participate in this program.
To offer this curriculum, we join with other UU youth groups, hosted by Eliot Unitarian Chapel, in Kirkwood, Missouri, usually in January of each year.
Youth Group — Grades 7-12
Middle and High School youth meet every other Sunday at 11:00 a.m. The group is self-directed and with the help of adult advisors, plans programs that may include worship, education, social events, social action projects, and development of leadership skills. Discussion topics cover current events, situations in school, and various religious concerns. In addition, various curricula are available to guide discussion and activities.
Curriculum topics may vary widely based on the interest of the Youth Group and the adult advisors. For example:
- Dare to Know — Humanism
- Heresy Apparent — Heresy and Witchcraft
- Living in UUville — Global Issues and Futurism
- Youth Today — Paradigms Lost — Sacred Life Skills
- Sacred Threads — Asian Religions
- Thinking the Web — Spiritual Growth
- Popcorn Theology — Religious themes present in modern film
Another highlight of Youth Group is attending UUA-Central Midwest District Youth Conferences. Youth in 9-12th grades are eligible to attend. At these events, youth meet other young Unitarians from churches in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. Lasting friendships develop within the local youth group and across the district.
Youth Group is a wonderful experience for teens — it broadens their perspectives and gives them a comfortable atmosphere in which to discuss the issues they are dealing with as they become adults.
Inclusivity
We welcome all persons, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin; gender or gender identification, affectional preference or sexual orientation; age, physical or mental challenge; or social, economic, or marital status.
Come visit often and find a place for yourselves in our church community
— and be welcome in this special place.
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