Spirit Play, week 22
Apr. 5th, 2009 12:16 pmBecause there was an intergenerational service last week, we had to combine two lessons into one today: the Passover story and the faux Passover Seder. (It's only a faux Seder because first, Passover doesn't start until Wednesday evening; second, we're UU, not Jewish; and third, we don't have time to do a full Seder even if we wanted to.)
I did the story and the lesson while Bob helped with the visual aids. I mostly adlibbed the story rather than using the curriculum version, because the curriculum version was horribly abridged. They took out all the stuff about Miriam (without which it makes no sense for Moses to know that he's one of the Hebrews) and all the stuff about the plagues and the blood on the doorframes (which seems to me to miss half the point of the story, as well as the reason for the holiday's name). So I put all that back in, and managed to be slightly interactive as well: after naming and describing each plague, I said, "So Moses went back to Pharaoh and said, 'Now will you let my people go?' And Pharaoh said..." and waited for the kids to shout, "NO!"
I was a little hazier on the actual Seder (what can I say; stories stick in my head more than rituals) but we got through that safely and then had matzoh, charoset, and grape juice for snack. We had to skip joys and sorrows at the start of the lesson, but we managed to squeeze everything in!
Next week is Easter, which will be another intergenerational service. Possibly I will finally remember to get my pledge check into the offering plate that day!
I did the story and the lesson while Bob helped with the visual aids. I mostly adlibbed the story rather than using the curriculum version, because the curriculum version was horribly abridged. They took out all the stuff about Miriam (without which it makes no sense for Moses to know that he's one of the Hebrews) and all the stuff about the plagues and the blood on the doorframes (which seems to me to miss half the point of the story, as well as the reason for the holiday's name). So I put all that back in, and managed to be slightly interactive as well: after naming and describing each plague, I said, "So Moses went back to Pharaoh and said, 'Now will you let my people go?' And Pharaoh said..." and waited for the kids to shout, "NO!"
I was a little hazier on the actual Seder (what can I say; stories stick in my head more than rituals) but we got through that safely and then had matzoh, charoset, and grape juice for snack. We had to skip joys and sorrows at the start of the lesson, but we managed to squeeze everything in!
Next week is Easter, which will be another intergenerational service. Possibly I will finally remember to get my pledge check into the offering plate that day!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-05 08:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-06 01:54 am (UTC)