Religious Education Curriculum
Welcome to the Children and Youth Religious Education Program at UUCF! From our nursery to our senior high school youth group, we have exciting plans for another year of religious growth and learning.
Our religious education classes provide a loving and nurturing environment where children are able to explore their beliefs, deepen their understanding of the sacred, and enrich their religious lives. We strive to create a supportive atmosphere where children and youth can be themselves while learning to acknowledge, accept, and affirm the differences in others.
The Unitarian Universalist Church in Fullerton offers five age-appropriate Sunday schools classes, along with childcare for infants and toddlers. The “regular school-year” classes run from October through June.
Infant-Toddler Care
Our childcare program provides loving care and supervised activity for the youngest members of our church – infants and children up to age three. Our goal is to provide a warm and nurturing environment where trust naturally grows, helping children to become comfortable and happy with their first association with the church. Simple toys, picture books, and music are part of their environment. Parents may remain with their child as long as needed for the child to become comfortable with the caregivers and surroundings.
Preschool and Kindergarten: Celebrating Me and My World
When you view the world through the eyes of a child, life is full of wonder ready to be discovered. Preschoolers and kindergarteners are becoming aware of themselves, experiencing life through their senses, exploring their environment, and expressing their ideas and emotions. Our program provides preschoolers and kindergarteners with experiences and opportunities to grow in their sense of trust and caring and to develop their self-identity and a sense of connectedness with all of life.
Grades 1 and 2: Creating Home
Our program for first and second graders helps children develop a sense of home that is grounded in faith. Together with their group, children will ask questions about the purpose of having a home and the functions a home serves for us as humans and for other animals. This program speaks of home as a place of belonging and explores the roles each of us play in the homes where we live. Children will be introduced to the concept of "faith home" - our congregation - which shares some characteristics with a family home. Like a family home, a faith home offers its members certain joys, protections, and responsibilities.
Grades 3 - 5: Toolbox of Faith
Children in grades three through five are invited to reflect on the qualities of our Unitarian Universalist faith, such as integrity, courage, and love as tools they can use in living their lives and building their own faith. Each week, the group will examine a tool as a metaphor for an important qualitity of our faith such as reflection (symbolized by a mirror), flexibility (duct tape), and justice (a flashlight). Reflecting on the qualities (tools )of our faith, children can gain an insight into what makes our faith important in their lives.
Grades 6 - 8: The Gospel According to the Simpsons
The Simpsons,one of the most important common experiences in the American home, uses the power of pop culture to provide moral, if not religious instruction. Its cross-generational appeal is a meeting place for discussion and interaction around the issues of values, morality and religion. Each week youth watch an episode of The Simpsons and explore the prevalent religious and ethical themes involving such issues as prayer, God, pluralism, the institutional church, heaven and hell, and the Bible. Youth will also examine how the actions and beliefs of the Simpson characters instruct us on issues of faith, values, and our Unitarian Universalist Principles.
Grades 9 - 12: Young Religious Unitarian Universalists
Our youth group of nine through twelve graders work in conjunction with a youth coordinator and team of advisors to make decissions concerning programming, worship, social action,and community-building activies. Teens meet weekly with their advisor or guest speaker throughout the year. They also have the opportunity to attend adult worship sermons when the topic or speaker is of particular interest to the group. Special after hour activities are also planned. YRUU allows youth to deepen their understanding of how real-world issues relate to our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes, and how they as individuals can apply these Principles and Purposes in their own lives.
