LearningCycles series Let There Be Light Creative Activities for Cultivating Gratitude and Care for Creation

The LearningCycles series offers a creative approach to faith formation based on different learning styles, appropriate for K-5th graders.  Each LearningCycles unit generally includes seven workshops: Art, Story & Games, Drama & Activity, Music, Kitchen, Movie, and Publishing.  This series works well for whole family/intergenerational catechesis and is a great basis for grandparent camps or other vacation bible schools.

The creation story is one that children in most religions all over the world are familiar with in some way. There are multiple ways to tell the story and multiple ways to hear or interpret it, but any way you look at it, this is THE foundational story of humankind and the world we live in. It is important that children learn the story, but it is equally important that we find ways to encourage them to imagine and wonder.

The hope of this LearningCycle is to teach children that we live in a magnificent, intricate world brought into existence by a loving Creator who has now given human beings the responsibility to care for this wonderful creation. This cycle offers a great opportunity to introduce concepts of care for the earth, our common home.

• Art Workshop – Paint recycling cans to engage with concrete ways that we might care for creation.
• Publishing Workshop – Create Sabbath mobiles to reflect upon the creation and celebration of the Sabbath.
• Drama Workshop – Go on a photo scavenger hunt and create a collage of pictures portraying different aspects of creation.
• Movie Workshop – Watch a short movie about creation and discuss what it means to be a creator. (Supporting DVDs can be found for sale here.)
• Story Workshop – Hear several different creation stories from around the world, talk about them, and create your own storybooks of creation.
• Kitchen Workshop – Hear the story of creation and find snack foods or candies that represent each day of creation and use these to make a Creation Trail Mix.
• Music Workshop – Learn songs about creation and the world God made.
• Garden Workshop (Bonus) – Plant bulbs or seeds and decorate pots and discuss the beauty of God’s creation and our responsibility to care for it.

Click to find additional resources for use with this unit.