DR. SEUSS AND UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS
I AM NOT GOING TO GET UP TODAY

(NOTE: Please review the Introduction before using this Session Plan.)

SETTING THE STAGE
STORY SYNPOSIS: Presents all sorts of things to get the boy up (3 minutes)

AFFIRMATION(S): We have a say about things that are important to us.

THEME(S): Acting on something you want to do (or not do)

PREPARATION: Reflect on how you get up, what motivates you when you get up, and the opportunity to sleep.

NEEDED:
I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today, Random House, 1987
Singing the Living Tradition (Hymnal) or the words to "Morning Has Broken", #38

SESSION PLAN
OPENING: Selected by the group. This can be used each session.

CHECK-IN: Welcome. Each person says his or her name. Allow time for each person to briefly tell something that went well since the group last met, or something that did not go well.

Leave an empty chair or space for someone who is missing from the group that day, or to recognize that others are welcome to be invited to join the group.

STORY
I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today

EXPLORING
How do we get up in the morning?
People feel different ways when they first get up. Some are cheerful, some are full of energy, some like to wake up slowly.
How do you feel when you wake up? Happy? Grouchy?Ready to do things?How do they feel when someone or something wakes you up when they are still tired?
How do you like to be wakened?

What would you miss if you did not get up?
Is there anything that you do to make the day go well?

Sometimes we have choices, sometimes we do not.
What choices do you have? Like what clothes to wear? How to comb or style your hair?
We always have choices about how we react to things and to people.

Stretching our way up
Participants put heads on table, or lie on carpeted floor or blanket. Invite them to relax, like they did in Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book.
Suggest that they: Stretch where they are, at a table or lying down.
Lift their heads
Lift their body from the table, and stand up
Raise their arms over their heads, as high as possible.
Bring the arms down to the sides, and shake the arms, and shake the legs.
They can do this at home when they have trouble getting up--get up a little at a time

CLOSING:
Singing: Suggest "Morning Has Broken," #38 in Singing our Living Tradition.
Focus on morning a re-creation of a new day. And may they have a good day.

GROUP REVIEW AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.
What did they like about the session? (theme, activities, someone special being there, etc.)

Announce the story for the next session and who will be the adult facilitator, or if there are special events in the time before the group meets again.

Rev. Helen Zidowecki, May 2003