"Stewardship Choices"

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a curriculum for youth titled "Stewardship: Choices". It has 8 topics, one being on stewardship of creation. There is a complete lesson, plus cards for discussion starters. My junior high kids love this!

You could do recycling either with the kids or the whole church.

Or, contact your Cooperative Extension Agent and learn about renewable resources, water quality, etc.

There is a book (not religious) titled "What On Earth to do With Kids?", by Robyn Freedman Spizman, Good Apple Inc, 1991, ISBN: 086653623X. It has all kinds of earthy lessons for elementary kids.

Blessings,
Julie Burton

Posted by a Past Member

It Was Good

How about studying creation and how "it was good" and then comparing it to now. What is still good? How can we be better at taking care of God's creation.
We when studied creation we did a photo scavenger hunt. Students took polaroid pictures of things created each day of creation. Perhaps this could be altered to make a colage of how God created it and how we have treated it.

With an after school prgram and youth groups I have also done recycling crafts. With younger students you could have them all make the same craft (such as a bird feeder out of a 2 liter plastic bottle) with the older children and youth you can place recyclable items on a table and challenge them to make something useful. You might be pleasantly surprised with what they create.

A good recycling game (usually good for introductions/crowd breakers) is to pass a 2 liter bottle around and each person has to share with the group what they could use the bottle for (i.e. "I like to camp, so I could use this as a water bottle," "I like to play baseball, I could use this as a bat," "I like to wear hats, I could cut the top off and wear this as a hat"). We did this at a retreat at our camp and we finally had to make the group stop, once they began thinking of ideas from the silly to the sublime, they were full of ideas.

3/11/2020 - moved here from the Help Forum

Looking for cool ideas for earth day..  small class number all ages.. one Sunday only.. already ordered simple craft and some earth day mementos..

Reply by Neil MacQueen

Here are a number of ideas for Earth Day from Building Faith that can be used in a group or at home

Why Should Christians Care About Earth Day?

"Earth Day celebrates the beauty of this fragile planet, our island home. We are also charged, each April 22nd, with the ongoing care and advocacy of creation. The intersection of faith and Earth Day makes sense for many Christians."

Three prayers for Earth Day

Backyard Scavenger Hunt - The scavenger hunt list is included as a PDF and has a list of items and things for families to look for and talk about.

Holy Hikes with the Psalms - The Psalms are filled with natural imagery. This article has lists of lines from the Psalms which can be used to frame a hike or time spent in nature.

Celebrate creation with wondering questions - a collection of daily practices and rhythms which can become the beginning of prayer and a chance to grapple with what it means to be a created being.

Earth Day Lanterns: A great craft for celebrating Earth Day using recycled/reused materials (especially if you save tissue paper from gifts like I do!)

The lantern instructions at Craft Train by Kate Grono include a recipe for making your own mod-podge to attach the tissue paper to the jar.

In addition to use as lanterns (with battery votive candles), these jars could also be used to hold slips of paper with prayers of thanksgiving for created things written on them, or make two and one could hold the pen and blank slips of paper and the other the prayers.

This project would go well with lessons about Creation, Genesis 1. The Writing Team Creation Bible Background (free and open to all) would be a great start to helping you write a lesson to go with this craft.