Grand Valley UU Children's Religious Education (RE)
We offer children's programming each Sunday in a combined preK-5th grade class at 10:30am. Teachers lead classes drawing from the Soul Matters curriculum while making use of creative activities including music, art, theater, and story. The Soul Matters curriculum presents the same themes the adults engage in during service in an age-appropriate format. Our classes and services are designed to foster community, empathy, and a sense of social responsibility among our children and youth.
From Director of Programming and Community Outreach Maya Kraushaar
Last month, we focused on Living Love Through the Practice of Joy, how to recognize it, cultivate it, play with it, and share it. When love and happiness merge, we experience joy. Joy is everywhere, and if we cultivate the skill to see it, then we can bask in the feeling more often, share it with others, and make life richer.
As spring unfolds, we will shift our focus this month to Love Through the Practice of Imagination. We’ll be using our imagination to have fun, help others, and to think outside the box.
One of my favorite books when I was a child was “The Way Things Work” by David Macaulay. I loved falling into the illustrations of the mammoths engineering larger-than-life-size nail clippers, lawn sprinklers, and mechanical tools. What has always impressed me is that people imagined these gizmos and machines. The power of their creative minds, partnered with scientific principles, led to amazing inventions.
Through human imagination, we enjoy art, create music, travel in automobiles, fly in airplanes, run complex systems through computer programs, share information through the internet, and build a better world through our efforts and partnerships.
It’s amazing to think of how many things we enjoy as a result of our creative minds.
I’m looking forward to diving into the world of our imaginations together this month. The process will be fun, help others, and encourage us to think outside the box. Anything is possible when we begin with wonder and then apply creativity. As always, if you have an idea that you would like to suggest for our children’s program, please let me know. I am always happy to build a lesson around your idea and, better yet, feature your knowledge within our program, inviting you in as a special guest. Our children benefit from the wealth of knowledge held in our community and from interactive time with our adults. This makes our program more dynamic and diverse.
Children’s Religious Education
May 2025 - Living Love through the Practice of Imagination!
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May 4th 10:30 a.m.
Using Imagination to Have Fun Our theme this month is The Practice of Imagination. All month long, we will be looking at and celebrating the many ways we can use our Imagination. For this first session, we begin by exploring how we can use our imagination to have fun! May 18th 10:30 a.m. RE Sunday - Celebrating Our Year TJoin us for our end-of-the-year celebration of UUCGV’s Religious Education programming. We will enjoy watching a fun slideshow of our year, hear from our RE children and youth, as well as some of their teachers and parents, and bridge our graduating seniors. This service also includes an RE Volunteer Recognition ceremony for all those who have shared their time and talents with our young people. Please join us following the service for a short informational meeting about OWL (Our Whole Lives) Lifespan Sexuality Education. Honest, accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives. Interactive workshops and activities engage participants, while step-by-step instructions for program planners and facilitators help ensure success. |
May 11th 10:30 a.m.
Using Imagination to Help Others & Find Hope This is our second week of exploring The Practice of Imagination. Last week, we explored using our imaginations to have fun, and this week, we are exploring how we can use our imaginations to help others and find hope. This Sunday falls on Mother’s Day. And while we will not spend a ton of time in this session on Mother's Day, we will weave it in and use it to think about how we have all kinds of nurturers in our lives. We will also get into how we can be nurturers ourselves, offering healing and hope to others. May 25th 10:30 a.m. Using Imagination to Think Outside the Box This is our final week of exploring The Practice of Imagination. So far, we have explored how we can use our imagination to have fun, help others, and find hope. This week we turn to how we can use our imaginations to think outside the box. It will be a time of engaging our creative problem-solving skills and celebrating the deeply human love of figuring out puzzles, both actual puzzles and “life puzzles.” |
​Childcare provided every Sunday from 10:15am-11:45am during Sunday Worship.
Thank you volunteers!
A big thank you to our incredible teachers! Volunteers make our RE program fantastic!