Exploring Catholic Social Teaching
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LESSON PLAN<br />
DAY THREE<br />
Warm-Up<br />
A. Have your students turn to My Plan Played Out in their St. Francis Journal. Walk them<br />
through filling out this page, and then call on a few students to share how their conservation/<br />
appreciation efforts went.<br />
B. As students are sharing, make a class list of their conservation efforts on the board.<br />
C. Challenge them to pick something they liked that another of their classmates tried and try it for<br />
fun at home tonight.<br />
Activity<br />
A. Take your students on a walk around your school grounds. Ask them to bring their St. Francis<br />
Journal and a pencil along with them.<br />
Note: If weather does not permit an actual walk around the school grounds, go somewhere in the<br />
building where students can see outside through windows and observe God’s creation around their<br />
everyday environment.<br />
B. As you walk together, pause a few times to let students either write about or draw what they<br />
observe around the school on My Observations. Explain that God created everything simply<br />
because He loves them.<br />
C. If weather permits, stay outside for this last part of the lesson. If not, return to your classroom<br />
and explain to your students that you are going to pray together as a class to thank God for what<br />
you observed when walking around. All students will get a chance to say out loud their favorite<br />
part of creation or natural resource they observed while walking around. Have your students<br />
repeat after you (or project on the board if you are in the classroom) the following prayer:<br />
Heavenly Father, we want to say thank you for all of the ways that you have made our earth<br />
so beautiful simply because you love us. We each want to take a moment to thank you by<br />
naming something we observed today (allow students to share out loud). Thank you, God,<br />
for all of these parts of creation. We ask you for the strength to love you more by taking care<br />
of the gifts you have given us. Amen.<br />
Assessment<br />
Assign students to do the same thing at home that they just did on their observation walk: observe<br />
God’s creation there. Ask them to record their observations on God’s Creation at Home (page<br />
57) or write it down on notebook paper and bring it to class the next day. Make sure they write<br />
a prayer thanking God for His creation, naming as many specific resources or gifts of creation they<br />
observed at home as they can.<br />
48<br />
© SOPHIA INSTITUTE FOR TEACHERS
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