Exploring Catholic Social Teaching

LESSON PLAN
DAY TWO
Warm-Up
A. Have your students turn to God’s Creation in their St. Francis Journal.
B. Read Genesis 1:1-31 aloud. Ask your students to write down everything they hear that God
created as you read the story. You may need to read the passage twice to give your students a
chance to compile a more complete list.
C. After you have finished reading, create a class list on the board. Call on students to name the
things that God created. Allow your students to write on their worksheet the parts of creation
that they may have missed so their list is complete. Explain that they will be using this list later
in the lesson.
Activity
A. Make a special note of the name of your students’ journal, the “St. Francis Journal.” Distribute to
each student the St. Francis of Assisi Saint Card downloaded from SophiaInstituteforTeachers.
org/SpiritofTruthSupplements (or read the card aloud) to give them some background on
St. Francis: he is well known for respecting and loving all of God’s creation in nature. He would
even talk to the birds and often heard God’s voice just by appreciating all of the beautiful parts
of creation around him.
B. Have your students turn to Natural Resources (page 53) in their St. Francis Journal. Explain
that the items listed on the page are natural resources. From these resources we can make
everything else! Make sure the students understand where they might see each resource in
their own lives, homes, school, and so forth.
C. Have your students choose something from the list of things God made in creation or from the
natural resource list to try to conserve when they go home today. Explain to your students that
to conserve means to protect something from harm or destruction. Have them then turn to
My Plan of Action in their St. Francis Journal. Walk students through the page, and encourage
them to decide on something they can do at home to care for some part of creation or a natural
resource better than they usually do. Give your students time to respond to the questions on
the page.
Note: If your students are struggling for ideas, suggest some of the following: turn off the water
while brushing your teeth, take your pet for a walk, clean up trash from your yard or street, plant
something, turn off the lights when you are not using them, recycle plastics/paper/aluminum, and
so forth.
Formative Assessment
Ask your students, for “homework,” to try their new plan of conservation at home. Tell them that,
during the next lesson, they will be asked to share how their conservation plan went.
EXPLORING CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING, Lesson 4 47