Hello Friends – Ages 2-4, all year
The Hello Friends curriculum is chock-full of songs, stories, crafts, and activities. Friendship is the theme, with lessons on how to be a friend, making friends, animal friends, being a friend to the earth, and much more. Hello Friends was created with the littlest UUs in mind. The overall goal of this class is to provide children with a loving and welcoming experience, to help model a community of friendship, and to lightly introduce Unitarian Universalist themes.
Treasure Hunting – Age 5 & Grade K, all year
Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? This exciting class engages children in the search for the true “treasures” of life: friendship, family, connection, kindness, generosity, and love. Each week through games, crafts, songs and stories, the children explore Unitarian Universalist values and learn to appreciate themselves and each other. In the end, what the Treasure Hunting curriculum hopes to inspire is a gentle way of knowing. Only with eyes informed by love and respect can we find life’s treasures.
Our Whole Lives (OWL) – Grades 1 & 2, fall
The first class in the nationally recognized human sexuality program that not only explains where babies really come from, but teaches about infants, and families as well. The class normalizes all types of families (inclusive of those headed by a single parent or same-sex parents), explains adoption, and also teaches bodily autonomy. Children learn to appreciate and value their unique bodies and selves.
World of Wonder – Grade 1, winter and spring
These classes instill a respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, and an appreciation of our world’s beauty, excitement and mystery. This class is designed to nurture and preserve children’s sense of wonder at the world and all its amazing plants, animals, spaces, textures, patterns, and processes. Lessons include activities, stories, videos, and movement perfect for young children. The lessons also offer children weekly opportunities to directly experience nature on the beautiful UUCF campus.
Moral Tales – Grade 2, winter and spring
As children grow in our complex world they will face increasingly difficult situations and decisions. Moral Tales attempts to provide children with the spiritual and ethical tools they will need to make good choices and take actions in concert with their Unitarian Universalist beliefs and values. The stories in Moral Tales portray moral dilemmas and paths to goodness and justice through a variety of cultural and religious lenses. Yet every story resonates with Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes, which are intentionally integrated into the sessions. All sessions are participatory and interactive to appeal to a variety of learning styles. This is a foundational class for shaping ethics, morals, and spiritual practices that will be expanded upon in future years.
Love Will Guide Us- Grade 3, fall and winter, and Miracles, spring
Drawing on the wisdom of the ages as expressed in many different traditions and cultures, along with direct experience, students engage theological questions about the origins of life, the meaning of death, and what it means to be human. Participants will learn that asking questions is valued in Unitarian Universalism, even as they begin to shape their own answers to some major life questions: “Where did we come from?, What happens when you die?” All sessions highlight love as the central aspect of Unitarian Universalism. Using the night sky and the North Star as metaphors, students are “guided to love”. All sessions included guided discussion, reflection, hands-on activities, and self-expression to engage participants with various learning styles. Miracles is an eight session curriculum that teaches students to recognize the miracle of life all around them and to engage and appreciate the wonder of the world.
Love Connects Us – Grade 4 & 5, fall and winter
This class celebrates the important ways we live our faith in covenanted community. Moved by love and gathered in spirit, UU’s embrace our responsibility toward one another and the world at large. The sessions explore our UU heritage and our connections in loving service, inquiry, and action for social justice. Children learn how our actions create a new heritage of connecting in love which will shape the faith of future generations. Crafts and games that use tying and knots makes tangible the concept of connections we share with one another. Many activities involve participants in teams or small groups, emphasizing their experience as individuals working together in community.
Our Whole Lives (OWL) – Grades 4 & 5, spring
This is the second course in the highly regarded comprehensive lifespan sexuality education curriculum created by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. This ten-session class focuses on puberty and the physical and emotional changes adolescents can expect. In addition to explaining sexual reproduction, workshops also explore gender identity, peer pressure, consent, prevention of sexually transmitted infections and contraception.
Amazing Grace – Grade 6, fall/winter
Amazing Grace, part of the Tapestry of Faith curricula, explores the conception of right and wrong. This curriculum uses UU sources and history to provide a rich philosophical base for ethical development. Diving deep into the ideas of sin and salvation, 6th graders will learn about the theological roots of these ideas and how UU’s reconceived them during the past 300 years. The lessons are packed with action, information, and challenges designed to equip students to safely navigate the middle and high school years, and the ethical choices they may face.
Virginia Inclusive History – Grade 6, spring
Developed to supplement the Virginia History curriculum taught in schools, this 10-week class discusses the impact of colonization on the native populations of Virginia and explores how the growth of slavery in the 1800s impacted the lives of people of color before and after the civil war. Racial politics of the 20th Century, including Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement, are reviewed. This class includes a field trip to the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture.