Saints who Care - Teacher Notes
Religion Curriculum Content Descriptors
Religious Knowledge and Deep Understanding
Human beings are called to be co-creators and stewards of God’s creation. BEHE2 The wisdom of the saints (e.g. St Francis of Assisi, St Clare of Assisi, St Therese of Lisieux, St Kevin of Glendalough) helps people understand about being co-creators and stewards of creation; the sacredness of all creation, especially human life; and forgiveness and reconciliation. STCW3 Humans are called to acknowledge the sacredness of God and all creation, especially human life. The world is God’s gift to all generations; therefore care for all creation (stewardship) is a moral duty. CLMF4 God’s plan is that people respect all life, especially human life. All people have a responsibility to pursue peace and justice out of respect for human life and all creation. CLMJ3 |
Skills
Identify ways in which human beings are called to be co-creators and stewards of creation (e.g. caring for the environment, responsible use of natural resources). BEHE2 Promote a specific action of caring for God’s creation. BEHE2 Create print, visual or audio texts that draw on their own experiences, their imagination and information they have learnt from the wisdom of the saints about being co-creators and stewards of creation; the sacredness of all creation, especially human life; and forgiveness and reconciliation. STCW3 Identify some inferred meanings (e.g. God created; all creation is sacred; humans are stewards of creation) of Judeo-Christian creation stories, including Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Genesis 2:4b-25 and Genesis 9:8-17). CLMF4 Compare and contrast their own actions and behaviours with the moral duty of caring for all creation as taught in the Judeo-Christian creation stories. CLMF4 Identify and express ideas about scriptural texts that illustrate peaceful and just actions or relationships. CLMJ3 Make connections between scriptural texts about respecting human life and all creation and their own life experiences. CLMJ3 |
Suggested Teaching Sequence
Creation Stories
Read the Judeo-Christian creation texts (First Creation Story: Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Second Creation Story: Genesis 2:4b-25 and Noah's Ark: Genesis 9:8-17) with the class and lead students to infer that these stories are calling us to be stewards of creation.
There are more ideas on the Caritas website.
Compare these creation stories with some Indigenous creation stories. Discuss similarities between the stories, e.g. in both the Noah story and the Aboriginal Creation Story (in the You-tube video) a flood comes to wash things away after the people have done the wrong thing; all of the stories were told to try to teach the people who heard the stories something important about the way they should live to make sure they cared for each other and the world.
Discuss God's plan that people should care for creation. How do we know how to do this?
Saints who Cared for Creation
Introduce the idea that we can learn more about how to care for the environment and how to live good lives by learning about people from the past, including saints.
Introduce the four key saints (St Francis of Assisi, St Clare of Assisi, St Therese of Lisieux, St Kevin of Glendalough) one by one using the resources on the student webpages on this site and a variety of activities included in the teacher notes about each saint. Information about St Mary of the Cross MacKillop as well as resources to explore Indigenous Australian perspectives are also included on this website.
After exploring each saint, students should reflect on the wisdom that the saint has shared with us and consider how we might apply this in our own lives to become better stewards of creation.
After exploring a number of saints, students can reflect on their learning through assessment and culminating activities.
Applying ideas in our world
Students should be encouraged to think of a way that as a class or individuals they can take action to care for the environment. This could be through sharing the messages they have learnt with others, by organising a clean up or tree-planting day or some other suitable activity.
Creation Stories
Read the Judeo-Christian creation texts (First Creation Story: Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Second Creation Story: Genesis 2:4b-25 and Noah's Ark: Genesis 9:8-17) with the class and lead students to infer that these stories are calling us to be stewards of creation.
There are more ideas on the Caritas website.
Compare these creation stories with some Indigenous creation stories. Discuss similarities between the stories, e.g. in both the Noah story and the Aboriginal Creation Story (in the You-tube video) a flood comes to wash things away after the people have done the wrong thing; all of the stories were told to try to teach the people who heard the stories something important about the way they should live to make sure they cared for each other and the world.
Discuss God's plan that people should care for creation. How do we know how to do this?
Saints who Cared for Creation
Introduce the idea that we can learn more about how to care for the environment and how to live good lives by learning about people from the past, including saints.
Introduce the four key saints (St Francis of Assisi, St Clare of Assisi, St Therese of Lisieux, St Kevin of Glendalough) one by one using the resources on the student webpages on this site and a variety of activities included in the teacher notes about each saint. Information about St Mary of the Cross MacKillop as well as resources to explore Indigenous Australian perspectives are also included on this website.
After exploring each saint, students should reflect on the wisdom that the saint has shared with us and consider how we might apply this in our own lives to become better stewards of creation.
After exploring a number of saints, students can reflect on their learning through assessment and culminating activities.
Applying ideas in our world
Students should be encouraged to think of a way that as a class or individuals they can take action to care for the environment. This could be through sharing the messages they have learnt with others, by organising a clean up or tree-planting day or some other suitable activity.
Suggested assessment and culminating activities
Saint Match-Ups - Print the notes about the saints and distribute a copy to each group. Students work in a small group to try to work out which statement goes with which saint. |
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Saints Quiz - Use the PowerPoint presentation to display questions about the saints for children to answer. Students can use pictures saved to the camera roll on the iPads to select their response and hold up the iPad to show their answer. Alternatively, students could use mini-whiteboards to write their answers and hold up for review.
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Paper-bag Saints - Use the templates (available from Catholic Icing) to make paper bag puppets of the different saints students have been learning about. Students could use these puppets to "act out" situations that require action to care for creation. Students could take photographs of the puppet in a situation around the school and explain how they think the saint might have acted to be a steward of creation in this situation.
Stewardship of Creation
Catholic Social Teaching - Caritas have developed an excellent resource to support learning about Catholic Social Teaching with regard to Stewardship. This resource is available through the Caritas website. It includes a short video, projectable slides and lesson ideas.
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Indigenous Australian Perspectives
Australia's Aboriginal culture, the oldest culture in the world, is grounded in a strong connection to the land. There are many resources available (printed and online) to support the development of an appreciation of the deep spiritual connection to Country and Place that continues to guide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.