DR. SEUSS AND UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS
MCELLIGOT'S POOL (5-8 Years)
(Please be familiar with the INTRODUCTION before using this Session Plan.)

SETTING THE STAGE
STORY SYNPOSIS: A boy is fishing in a small pool, imagining all the kinds of fish that he might be able to catch. (5 Minutes)

AFFIRMATIONS: We help take care of our world

THEMES: Environment
Imagination
PREPARATION: Think about times when you have been fishing. Are there things from your experiences that you would like to share? If you have not been fishing, have you

NEEDED:
McElligot's Pool, Random House, 1947

Bucket, water, trash items (old shoe, cans, plastic bottles, etc), plastic fish, oily substance

Large paper, fish and items, markers, glue

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

CHECK-IN: Welcome. Each person says his or her name briefly tells something that was important to them since the last time the group met, such as went well during the last week, 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
McElligot's Pool

EXPLORING
Imagination
Have you ever been fishing? Part of the fun of fishing is being out of doors. What did you see or hear when you were fishing? Who were you with?

Was it hard to be quiet? Being quiet is part meditation. Can everyone be quiet for as long as a whole minute? What happens when we are quiet? When everyone around us is quiet? We can take time to be quiet then things get confusing for us, when we need to take a break, and to rest.

Environment -- making and keeping it clean enough for fish
Options:
1. Take a bucket, put in various trash items, plastic fish, detergent or a small amount of oily substance (even cooking oil or bath oil). Add water to cover and at least partially fill the bucket.
If you were a fish, would you like to live in this bucket? Would you be able to live in the bucket?
What would be needed for fish to be in the bucket again?

Have children take the junk out of the bucket to make it clear, except for the fish. Does just taking out the big items make the water clear again? (not if oils or detergent has been added). Talk about how long it takes to clean the environment, and the concern about not polluting in the first place!

Discuss how pollution sometimes interferes with nature, maybe discussing acid rain and its effects on trees and fish. This type of pollution is invisible, but we can see results. Cleaning the environment takes more than wishing.

2. Take a large paper or poster board. Make pool with cutouts of various fish. Have one side clean and one filled with junk (pictures of shoes, cans). Good display item. Possibly title the display, "Where Would You Like to Live?"

3. Does anyone have a fish tank at home? What is needed to take care of it so that the fish will live? Fish in the tank are completely dependent on people. If you are the one responsible for this care, how does that feel?

CLOSING:
Use a chant or song that includes caring for the universe, such as "The Earth is Our Mother." (Circle of Song p.27, or Songs for the Earthlings p. 23)

GROUP REVIEW
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 they meet again.

 

Rev. Helen Zidowecki, 2003