Flaming chalice basic lesson



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CIRCLE OF HOPE

By Karen Lynn Williams Illustrated by Linda Saport (Eerdmans Books, 2005)

Adapted for Spirit Play by Nita Penfold
Materials


  • Green felt background

  • Felt or 3-D figures for baby Lucía, brother Facile, Mama, Tonton, Papa (mark on back or on feet with names to keep straight)

  • Brown felt mountain piece

  • Large tree felt piece or photo of mango tree

  • Small square of tan for house

  • Small rectangle of tan felt for garden

  • Mango pit for seed

  • Rusty tin can (photo or plastic)

  • Felt or other sun

  • Circle of brown felt cut in spiral to mimic dirt

  • Blue felt stream

  • Tiny bucket

  • Figure or photo of goat

  • Green felt cactus

  • Dark felt clouds with rain coming out

  • Small step of dark felt

  • Piece of grey tulle

  • Small black stick

  • Small tree

  • Seven small white stones

  • White felt wall

  • 5 other small circles of wall with trees behind for end

Note: Haitian Creole Language Guide

Ah,non—oh, no

Bon—good


Éspéré—hope

Kandélab—type of cactus that branches out

Tikado—small gift

Timoun—child, children

Tonton—uncle or grandfather

Presentation

Words for you to say are in italics; actions are in plain type.


Take out underlay and spread on the floor.
This is a story from the little country of Haiti. Sometimes the sun shines very brightly there.
Place sun in upper right corner of underlay nearest to you. Take out mountain piece and lay in center top of underlay near you.
Hmm, I wonder what this could be in our story. It’s brown. It might be a hill or a mountain.
Take out large tree figure with mangos and place on your left side of mountain piece near you.
I wonder what this could be. Yes, it looks like a tree. There must be a tree in our story today.
Take out the long blue felt strip for the stream and place at the bottom of the underlay to your left nearest the children.
I wonder if this could be water.
Look at underlay. Place Facile in or on the tree. Place the tan felt square for the house part way up to your right side of the mountain. Then place Mama and Lucía the baby on top of it. Place the rectangular brown felt piece below it and add white felt stones across it. Place cactus to right edge of house and bucket and tin can to left front of house.
I think we are ready to begin our story.
Put your hand on Facile’s head for a moment and point to baby Lucía.
Facile sat high up in his mango tree and watched everyone as they brought a gift for new baby Lucía. It was the only tree on the whole dusty mountaintop. Papa had planted it for him when he was born. “A strong tree protects its timoun (child),” Papa said. Now Papa worked far away in the city.
Facile had no gift for his baby sister. No tikado (small gift) at all. He ate a juicy sweet mango, licked his sticky fingers, and thought, “Papa is not here to plant a tree for baby Lucía.” He studied the large white pit of the mango and knew what his gift would be.
Carefully he held the mango pit and climbed down from his tree.
Move Facile down from the tree. Move him to right side of mountain above house and mime digging with the rusted tin can piece. Show the mango seed around the circle, then place under the spiral of brown felt.
With a rusted tin he dug a hole in the dry earth. He placed the seed in the hole and gently covered it with dirt until only the tip was showing.
Facile walked in the hot sun down the treeless mountainside to the stream in the valley. When he returned, his arms shook with the weight as he removed the bucket from his head and poured cool water over the seed.
Take bucket from basket and move bucket and Facile down the mountain to the stream and back up to the seed again. Have him go in a zigzag pattern to indicate a long journey down the mountain.
After many days, the seed began to sprout. But when Facile came up the mountain with water, he found only an empty hole and the neighbor’s goat blinking stupidly. “Look what you have done.” Facile shook his fist.
Place goat at seed, then move it back to basket. Take seed and keep in your hand to place in a minute.
Once again he had not even a small gift for his new sister.
How can I plant a tree that will grow strong?” Facile asked his cousin Solvab.
You must make a fence of cactus,” his cousin told him. And so Facile planted another seed, and this time he protected it with stalks from the kandélab cactus.
Mime Facile planting the seed again, then put branches of cactus over it. Place clouds with rain over the top of the mountain.
Dark gray clouds piled up behind the mountains. An early rain came crashing down on the dusty mountaintop. Facile danced in the puddles. Lucía laughed. But when he went to check on his sister’s tree, Facile could not believe his eyes. “Gone,” he cried. There was only a piece of cactus fence and beyond that the lifeless seed.
Move cactus pieces away from seed. Put seed in your hand again for later. Then move cactus and dark clouds back to basket and Facile to his mother.
Facile asked Mama, “How can I plant a tree that will grow strong?”
But Mama was worried about Lucía, who was very hot. Lucía was not eating, and she did not laugh at Facile’s games. “I must take Lucía to the doctor in the city. You will stay with Tonton.” Then before she carried his sister down the mountain, Mama said, “You must make a step to plant Lucía’s tree.”
Move Mama and Lucía down from the house in a zigzag path then along the bottom of the underlay to your right then back into the basket. Take step felt piece and place on side of mountain under spiral of dirt. Again mime Facile digging with his tin can and planting the seed under the spiral of felt dirt.
Facile dug a flat step in the mountainside so the rain could not steal his seed. Again, Lucía’s tree began to sprout. Facile waited, but Mama and Lucía did not return.
Place grey tulle over the seed and the house.
Then one day the men in the village made scrub fires to clear the land for planting. At night the sparkling flames crisscrossed the mountains. The smoke stung Facile’s eyes.
The next day Facile saw ashes as he walked through the yard, and when he got to he step he cried, “Ah, non!”
Place small black stick where the seed had been. Keep seed in your hand. Then move stick and grey tulle to the basket.
Lucía’s tiny tree had turned into a black twisted stick. Lucía had been away for many weeks, and Facile still had no small gift for his sister.
Move Facile and Tonton to right of house and mime moving stones to one side on rectangular garden piece.
Facile helped Tonton to clear the many white stones from their garden. He watched the path for Mama and Lucía, but they did not come. “I cannot plant a tree that will grow strong for Lucía,” Facile told Tonton.
Éspéré,” Tonton said. “You must have hope to plant a tree.”
Facile sighed and shook his head. “Too many stones.” Stones did not make a gift, and stones did not protect a child. He tossed another stone from the garden onto the pile, and then he had an idea.
One after another he piled the stones up. Up and around he built the wall. When he was done the circle of stones was nearly as high as his waist.
Move Facile to spiral of dirt. Make a wall with the felt stones and place the seed behind it carefully. Then place the felt wall piece over it. Leave Tonton near the house.
Facile began to have hope. He climbed inside the wall and scraped a hole in the hard earth. One more time he planted a seed for Lucía.
He carried water and watched and waited, and finally Lucía’s tree began to grow inside the circle. It changed from a tiny sprout to a large brown twig with leaves.
Move Facile down the mountain with bucket for water several times, pausing at the stones. Then put the small tree behind the stone wall so that it shows above it.
One day after many months, Facile saw Mama come slowly up the mountain. Lucía came too. And Papa. Facile ran to meet them.
Move Mama and Lucía and Papa in a line from the right side of the underlay across then up the mountain to the house then to the stone wall and Facile. Move Tonton up to them.
What’s this?” Papa asked.
A tikado,” Facile explained. “A gift for Lucía!”
A gift of hope,” Tonton said.
Papa looked inside the round wall and smiled. “A strong tree will protect our timoun, our little girl.”
Point to tree, then Lucía, then Facile. Move baby and Facile to tree.
Inside its circle, Lucía’s tree grew tall. It clung to the mountainside when the soil around it was being washed to the sea by the rains. It grew too big for the goats to eat, and it escaped the fires set for clearing the land.
Lucía grew strong, too. She and Facile played in the branches and sat in the shade of her tree. They shared the sweet mangoes. They carried water up the mountain and cleared more rocks from the garden.
And slowly, one year at a time, little circles of hope began to grow on the mountainsides of Haiti, and inside each circle grew a tree.
Place other walls with trees around the mountain.
Ask some of these Wondering Questions (as time and interest allow):
I wonder which part of this story you liked the best?
I wonder which part of this story is the most important?
I wonder where you might be in this story?
I wonder if you have ever had a baby sister or brother or cousin?
I wonder if you gave them a special present when they were born?
I wonder if you got a special present from someone when you were born?
I wonder what it’s like to live on a mountain?
I wonder what it’s like to have to carry your water in a bucket?
I wonder if you have ever planted a seed?
I wonder what you hope will happen?
I wonder which of our Unitarian Universalist Promises this story reminds you of?
I wonder where the Spirit of Love and Mystery might be in this story?


Choices
Say something like:
In this classroom you are able to choose what you would like to do with your time here after the story and before class is over.
Today’s choices are:


  • Retelling the story to yourself




  • Make Dream Boards




  • Visit Tree Planted in 2013




  • Obstacle Course or Treasure Hunt

Or other activities you have chosen as the teacher. It is up to you whether to give totally free choice to each child individually (this will work best when you have enough adults to assist any child who needs help with a chosen activity without too much waiting) or whether to help the class as a whole decide on one or two activities to do together.


Whichever you decide, be sure to let the children know clearly what choices they have (and do not have).
Activity Directions
Retelling the story independently:
Coach children to take turns, and to treat the materials with respect so that they will be available for other children and teachers to use in the future. For older/reading children, provide a copy of the script (above). For younger/non-reading children, provide a photo of the finished storyboard.
Make Dream Boards:
You will need a quarter sheet of poster board, scissors, glue sticks, and a variety of magazines for each child.
Invite children to look through the magazines to choose and cut out pictures which show something representing a hope or dream o goal – something the child wishes would happen. Any number is fine, just keep track of the time so that children have enough time to glue the pictures to their boards.
Help children write “_____’s Dream Board” on their piece of poster board, and glue the pictures they have chosen to it.
Visit Tree Planted in 2013:
In 2013, the RE children, with assistance from several helpful gardening adults, planted a river birch tree behind the sign at the roadside at the front of the Fellowship. Take a walk to the tree, ask if any of the children remember helping to plant it, and discuss how our tree is a sign of hope and resilience as Lucia’s was.
Obstacle Course or Treasure Hunt:
The fourth principle speaks of the free and responsible search for truth, as Facile has to keep searching for a way to protect the see he has planted.
We all must overcome obstacles to find the ‘treasures’ in our lives.
Create either an obstacle course or a treasure hunt, or both, in your classroom. For an obstacle course, strategically position chairs, tables, small rugs, etc. in ways that allow children to jump or climb from one to another to reach a designated destination. For a treasure hunt, create a few clues and hide them in various spots, leading up to a final prize of some sort. These two ideas can be combined by creating obstacles for the children to overcome physically in order to reach the clues.
If you have a child with mobility difficulties in your class, make sure that any obstacle course tasks can be modified to suit his or her abilities – possibly with help from other children.






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