LEGO ValUUes
One thing we know…kids LOVE LEGOs! This hands-on building curriculum uses LEGOs as a vehicle for exploring our UU ValUUes. Each week, children hear a story or lesson based on one of the six UU Values with LOVE at the center. Then they are invited to complete a LEGO building project or engage in other activities that reinforce the learning from the day's story or lesson.
Faithful Journeys
Participants embark on a pilgrimage of faith, exploring how Unitarian Universalism translates into life choices and everyday actions. In each session, they hear historic or contemporary examples of Unitarian Universalist faith in action. Stories about real people model how participants can activate their own personal agency — their capacity to act faithfully as Unitarian Universalists — in their own lives, and children have regular opportunities to share and affirm their own stories of faithful action. Over the course of the program, children discover a unity of faith in the many different ways Unitarian Universalists, including themselves, live our values.
Bibleodeon
The stories in the Christian Bible and Jewish Torah have a powerful influence in many world cultures and societies. Whether children agree with the lessons and messages of these stories or not, being familiar with them can help children engage in important conversations about justice, faith, right, and wrong. Each week, children will read a story from the Bible or Torah and then act that story out using costumes, props and a reader's theater script. Children will discuss the characters and their motivations, and engage in discussions to draw their own conclusions about the meaning to be made from these ancient stories.
Building Bridges
Building Bridges is a world religions program to deepen youth’s understanding of the dynamic, fascinating, and varied world in which they live. It seeks to broaden their knowledge of humanity and embolden their spiritual search. As part of the program youth will visit places of worship in Rochester that are important faith-based neighbors and friends of First Unitarian.
The program is organized roughly chronologically, capturing the strong parallel between societal change and religious evolution over human history. The Religions Time Line helps illustrate the emergence of religions in clusters at different points in history. However, this is not a history course. It is a series of workshops that attempts to lovingly and reverently examine some of the closest kept treasures of the human heart. This exploration nurtures participants’ positive outlook toward other faiths and the people who follow them.
Youth Group
Youth Group is a youth-driven meet-up with room for everyone to get involved in community building, social action, and spiritual development. Various projects and activities throughout the year hope to build youth leadership and foster a positive group dynamic that can act as a home within a home for youth in the congregation.