At UUCCI we try to promote and maintain a supportive and loving classroom setting in which the kids can be themselves, feel safe, enjoy each other and the adults working with them, and have fun. Any child who comes to church is welcome to join the appropriate age group. The only exception is OWL because this is a tight knit and bonded class and youth need to commence the program at the beginning of the year. For that reason, we encourage young teens (7th grade and up) to either be trained to babysit (call Susan Burton) or to stay in the service with the adults. We know you are old enough to get something out of it now! We encourage adults from the congregation to teach the children in order to build relationships with the younger members of our community! As a matter of policy we will all be undergoing background checks starting this year. This will be a very easy process and should in no way discourage any potential teachers from volunteering.


The children  will also have a Social Action Sunday 4 times this year with Cathy Caldie, the chair of UUCCI’s Social Responsibility committee leading. R.E. children learn about how to  share various local and national social action opportunities.  They decide what projects or areas of interest to support and how they want to achieve specific goals. Planning and implementation of projects are generated by the R.E. classes with a time for reflection and celebration. This year’s Social action project is entitled “Pennies for Peace” and stems from Greg Mortenson’s work building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  http://www.threecupsoftea.com/how-to-help/pennies-for-peace/

Every Year our classroom configurations change slightly depending on our population. As we gain more young children each year, we expand their opportunities for having a Sunday morning Preschool class. This year, we have some children at the age when sitting reading a story is appropriate but not enough to merit an entire class and curriculum. Next year we will have enough to have a preschool class again.

3 yr. olds Dr. Seuss
Our three year olds have the choice of playing in the nursery under the watchful care of our paid and trained sitters and nursery supervisor, or reading Dr. Seuss stories with the nursery supervisor and doing related activities. This takes place in the back of the enlarged nursery and the children are given a snack after reading some stories. They are free to play or read stories, depending on their mood.

Younger Primary Class (K-2nd grades). Stories About God offers children of primary age a wide variety of experiences with that which people call God.  At the heart of each session is a story which presents a concept of God inspired by images and issues from world religions, feminist studies, science, and human experience.  All these metaphors are compatible with our Unitarian Universalist Principles.  Before the story there are activities which enable the children to make connections between images and concepts in the story and their own experiences.  After the story there are opportunities for them to express their own beliefs through conversation, service projects, and the arts.  Stories About God aims to help children develop a language, appropriate for Unitarian Universalists, with which they can speak of God.
The classroom leader for YP is Rhonda Fischer the.fischers@comcast.net

Older Primary (4-6th grades) The older primary class is following a curriculum called "Windows and Mirrors".  This program helps nurture the children's ability to identify their own experiences and perspectives and to seek out, care about and respect those of others. The sessions unpack topics that lend themselves to diverse experiences and perspectives—for example, faith heritage, public service, anti-racism and prayer. The program teaches that there are always multiple viewpoints and everyone's viewpoint matters.
The classroom leaders for OP are Susie Sawin-Johnson rsgi.johnson@sbcglobal.net and Randy Heiland  rheiland@gmail.com

Our Middle School Youth will be participating in Our Whole Lives, the Unitarian Universalist/Congregationalist churches collaboration about relationships and sexuality. This is a year long program and we ask that families commit both by making sure their youth is present most of the sessions and also by helping with food which is served every session. The meetings are biweekly and the classes are taught by a team of trained OWL teachers. Carla Barrett is our lead teacher and contact this year for OWL.  This age group may have some outside of OWL activities as well. The leader this year is Susan Burton smburton34@yahoo.com

Our High School Youth (9-12th graders) will meet twice monthly on Sunday evenings to engage in activities that will help them think about who they are and their own values and help on their spiritual paths. We will watch films, have debates, play games, do artwork, listen to adult congregants’ spiritual journeys, and other activities. The youth will be encouraged to take an adult mentor in the middle of the year and spend time with that person in order to learn more about individual adults’ spiritual journeys and lives. The youth will work on a social action project throughout the year and at the end of the year they will present a service to the congregation. The leaders this year are Carla Barrett  carlaswellness@gmail.com  & Dennis Baute DWBaute@yahoo.com.

last updated: 03/29/2011