Magical Happenings for April 22, 2007
from Alice Anacheka-Nasemann, Director of Religious Education

• Nursery: (0-3 years) Adult volunteer & Kelly Anne
• Chalice Children and Magical UU (grades 1-6): The kids in these two classes will all be honoring the Earth as part of Earth Day. Younger kids will learn about our church as a place where we care for nature. The older class will begin a series of “Webweavers” classes, based on our Unitarian Universalist principle which affirms the interdependent web of life. Kids who did not have a chance to create bookplates for the hymnals we are donating to the newly formed Unitarian Universalist congregaton in Lowell will have the opportunity to do so during class and also during coffee hour.
• World Religions: (grades 7-10) Alice. We will begin to learn about Buddhism. We will also do a mid-year evaluation of the class program.

CLASSROOM FOOD POLICY: To create a safe space for children in our religious education program who have severe allergies to a variety of foods, the Religious Education Committee has established a policy restricting the foods that are eaten in the classrooms to those on a list of safe foods established by the committee. To help us ensure that unsafe foods do not inadvertently end up in the classrooms during coffee hour or at other times, we ask that children always be under adult supervision when in the religious education wing. We will not serve food in the classrooms during our regular Sunday class time. Please help us maintain a safe space for all of our children and help us enforce this policy! If you have any questions, please contact Alice or our committee co-chairs, Wendy and Jen. A list of the safe foods will be posted on our website, on the classroom and religious education wing doors, and in the February and March newsletters. 3/20 update: We have learned that a child in our program has an allergy to peanuts which is “touch sensitive.” This means that coming in contact with peanut oils causes an allergic reaction. Parents, please consider avoiding peanut butter, peanuts and peanut oils in the foods your children eat on Sunday morning. If they do eat anything with peanut oil, have them wash their faces and hands thoroughly before coming to church. As an extra safeguard, we will use wet wipes to wash the hands of all children before the enter the classrooms.

CHILD PICK-UP: Parents, please remember to pick up your child (through 6th grade) from his or her classroom at 11:45. Alice will ring a bell to remind you to do so at the appropriate time.

COFFEE HOUR & CHILDCARE: Our babysitters will be available in the parish hall until 12:20 to play games and make simple crafts with kids for the first part of coffee hour. We are extending our usual childcare hours to provide childcare during the showing of “An Inconvenient Truth.”

PLAYGROUP: Our playgroup meets from 10:00-11:30. All are welcome — please invite your friends!