Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd each year – let’s use this day to discuss the beautiful creation that God has given us to use and enjoy.
With my 5th grade students (and now with my own kiddos) I loved to celebrate Earth Day – it’s the perfect opportunity to discuss the beauty and intentional design of God’s creation.
Our Earth Day study looked at the seven days of creation, (as covered in Genesis 1-2:2), our call to worship God the creator (not the creation), and the idea of proper stewardship over the Earth.
Here are some of the activities my students completed:
Nature Hunt activity: Get your students outside (magnifying glasses are a plus!) and have them hunt for things God created! Let them spend some time studying these plants, flowers, bugs, sticks, etc. and marvel at how incredibly creative God is!
God’s Glory on Display magazine collage: Students love to make collages! Give your students access to a bunch of magazines and let them go to town hunting and cutting out pictures of things that God made. Let them glue the pictures on to their collage page, “God’s Glory on Display”
Days of Creation: I divided my students into groups and had them read Genesis 1-2:2 and record the different things that God created on each specific day of creation. They recorded their answers in this graphic organizer:
Stewardship activity: Stewardship, or the idea of taking care of something you don’t own, is an important biblical concept. God has blessed us abundantly. As Christians we know that everything belongs to God and He has given us the privilege of taking care of it, for His glory. The students thought of how they could honor God with their stewardship of their time, their money, they possessions, and the Earth.
What Do We Worship? Prayer activity: Appreciating nature is not a Christian idea. The world is full of people who worship the creation, but we know that we need to worship the Creator above the creation. The students wrote prayers, thanking God for giving us creation to use and enjoy. This activity helps keep our worship in proper perspective.
God Created the World Globe Craft: Then we made a three-sided craft:
1. God created the world in 7 sequential days
2. Psalm 24:1was our theme verse for the week –> The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
3. “Some of my favorite things God created” drawing prompt
Digging in the Bible: Lastly, we got digging in our Bible and looked up different verses that talked about the Earth. The students worked in pairs: they read the passages and then identified the main idea of each verse.
These activities would work with your students too! I designed them for use with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (though younger students could do with more teacher/parent assistance). This was a fun and easy mini-unit that really gave my students (and myself!) a renewed appreciation for the beautiful world around us and the stunning creativity of our God.
You could spread these activities out over a week or do a focused Earth day unit and get all of these done on one day. These print-and-go pages are meant to make your life easier and simplify your lesson planning.
Download the print-and-go pages here –> http://bit.ly/EarthDayBibleResource
Happy Earth Day!
