A World of New Friends
UU Shawnee Mission UU Summer Program

Sara Sautter, DRE
Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church
Overland Park, KS

While Unitarian Universalism acknowledges the wisdom found in world religions, few curricula have been designed for the multi-age, shorter sessions that typify UU summer programming.

Unitarian Universalist churches often experience an influx of visitors during summer months. At Shawnee Mission UU, we have grown by 23 percent in the past year with many of these new members first attending as summer visitors.

Summer religious education programming must remain high quality to accommodate the needs of our members and to allow us to make a positive impression on summer church shoppers. Currently, limited curricula are available for the multi-age, ten- to fifteen-lesson programs that are typical. A World of New Friends is a thirteen-lesson curriculum designed to introduce a multi-aged classroom to the eight largest world religions. Lessons use a thematic approach to world religions and a center-based teaching format that uses multiple intelligence learning.

Lesson one provides time for the children to construct imaginary “students” as either cut-out or three-dimensional figures. Once made, these “students,” each representing a male or female from each of the eight largest religions, become a permanent part of the classroom and are in turn featured as the Classroom Star each week. Children are introduced to the religion and traditions of the Classroom Star through his or her family celebrations, art, stories, games, food, and holidays.

Learning centers, which combine multiple intelligence styles, will be designed for each of the lessons. Once students have been introduced to the main theme of the lesson, the student will then be encouraged to move to any of the learning centers.

Typical centers might include:

Blue Center (Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence and Visual/Spatial Intelligence)– Here students are encouraged to think with words. Activities include word cards, research materials, poetry, and storytelling. This center also encourages students to integrate information through pictures by using activities like story illustration and collage making.

Red Center (Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence and Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence) – This center encourages students to think in sounds and rhythms. Tapes of traditional religious and cultural music will be available along with rhythm instruments for students to make their own music. In addition, this center encourages the students to learn through touch and movement through drama and role-playing, diorama making, and games.

Yellow Center (Logical/Mathematical Intelligence) – This center encourages scientific thinking. Lessons include measuring, charting, labeling, and matching activities.

Discussion questions encourage interpersonal skills and interpersonal intelligences by encouraging students to explore how the tenets or customs of the featured religion affect our Unitarian Universalist faith as well as their own lives.

Funded by the Unitarian Sunday School Society, the lesson plans are available free and may be accessed on the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church’s website at www.smuuchurch.org . The lesson plans will be posted here after January 2005. Or you can contact the director of religious education, Sara Sautter, at dre@smuuchurch.org.