Religious Education for Children

The purpose of Religious Education at Unitarian Church North is to nurture and minister to the children of our church community and to provide opportunities for our children and youth to actively engage in the process of forming religious beliefs and values into action.

Read our Mission and Vision for Children's RE at UCN

  Download the 2010-11 Children's Religious Education (RE) Brochure

Director of Religious Education

Reverend Joyce Palmer is our Director of Religious Education. Rev. Palmer has extensive teaching experience and a natural gift for working with children.
Learn more about Rev. Palmer

Communications

We use email communication nearly exclusively to share information about upcoming events, special projects, class news, and volunteer scheduling. Please check your email regularly.

Registration Procedures

We require registration forms for all children and youth from Preschool through High school. Please complete the registration form with all requested information. We request a supply fee of $40.00 for each child with a maximum of $100/families with three or more children. The fee does not cover program expenses; it covers the cost of supplies for classroom and some special project expenses. If there is a special situation which makes it difficult to pay the full registration fee, please contact the Director of Religious Education so that arrangements can be made.

Volunteer Contributions

Ours is a cooperative program. The program depends on volunteer teachers, coordinators, and committee members to make it work. We are grateful to the volunteers who contribute their time and talent to the children and youth of this congregation.

Religious Education Course Descriptions
September 12, 2010 - May 22, 2011

Note: We have made some changes in the grade level groupings to encourage community building across age levels, increase class sizes and vibrancy. Room changes reflect this change in grade level grouping.

Nursery (Birth - 2 Years)

9:15 and 11:00

Together Time
Young children are nurtured by consistent, loving caregivers in a warm, child-friendly environment. As interested and able, children may participate in weekly stories, music, and simple craft activities.

Preschool (3-4 Years)

9:15 Only

A Discovering Year
These lessons nurture children's spiritual and religious growth through connections to their ever-widening environment. They explore selves, friendships, families, church, nature, and religious and cultural days.

Kindergarten and First Grade

9:15 Only

Special Times
Acquaints children with the Jewish and Christian heritages and engages them in celebrating Jewish and Christian holidays and other "special times" such as the Shabbat/Sabbath, Thanksgiving, and everybody's birthday.

Second and Third Grade

9:15 Only

Timeless Themes: Stories From the Hebrew and Christian Bibles
Introduces children to religious literature that is central to North American culture and to Unitarian Universalist heritage.

Fourth and Fifth Grade

9:15 and 11:00

Bibleodeon
introduces Hebrew and Christian scriptures by presenting the best-known Hebrew and Christian stories with such props as the Bibleodeon microphone and such interactive challenges as investigating the Cain-Abel crime scene.

Middle School

11:00 Only

Neighboring Faiths
Our Middle School class will learn about the faith traditions and practices of Judaism and Christianity. The lessons include visiting houses of worship and relating their experiences to Unitarian Universalism.

High School

11:00 Only

How Can I Know What to Believe? (Two Sundays per month)
Helps young people explore, formulate, and articulate their attitudes and beliefs about people in the Bible, God, death, and Unitarian Universalism. Explores humanist roots through the history of great ideas and the lives of Erasmus, the Buddha, Bertrand Russell, Margaret Sanger, Felix Adler, and others.

Coming of Age (Two Sundays per month)
This program enables youth to grow more into their personal beliefs and deepen their Unitarian Universalist faith through workshops, retreats, group trips and social action/ community service projects. Each participant is paired with a mentor who helps guide his/her self-discovery over the course of the year.

OWL (Our Whole Lives Sexuality)

OWL is an important opportunity for our youth and it will be offered during the church year. We will offer the complete program in a different format from year's past. Parents will meet in October and youth sessions will begin in January and end in May. This format will include some long sessions to build trust, community, and present similar topics together.

OWL is closed to new students for this year. OWL is continuing for last year's students.