CST
Contact personnel at a nursing home or assisted living home in your area and ask if they can suggest a list of things residents might appreciate receiving from a group of third graders. Many administrators are happy to contribute ideas. They might even supply the names of residents who do not receive many visitors or much mail and would enjoy either or both.
Guide the children to work in small groups. Have them create skits to illustrate ways that children their age can express themselves positively. Encourage them to create skits that model good manners. Encourage them to portray scenes at home, school, church, or the community.
How we take care of the space we live and work in demonstrates our responsibilities to one another. We can show respect to one another by respecting our shared space.
Talk with your parish priest about setting up a teaching Mass for children and their parents. You may want to consider using the Chapel for a smaller setting. You could offer to help the celebrant by identifying the items at the time of their use during the Mass. Perhaps beforehand the priest could explain the vestments and the seasonal color being used. This would enable parents and children to be more involved during future liturgical celebrations.
Provide each child with a large unlined index card and a crayon or marker. Attach a loop of yarn long enough to hang the card around a child’s neck. Instruct each child to write a word or phrase on the card that expresses a “hidden quality” the child possesses that others may not be aware of (e.g., I am kind, I share, I help others). As an option, tell the children that they can draw pictures or symbols that express their qualities.
Bring in a tree leaf, flower, rock, container of water, and any other created object that may be of interest to the children. Sit together in a circle. Pass around each object. Encourage the children to share what it feels like, its color, and how it help us to live. Do this with each object. Close with a discussion on how all of these things were created by God. God made them to help us enjoy his Creation. Explain to the children that each of us has a responsibility to protect God’s Creation.
As the Church continually states in her teachings on stewardship, we have an obligation to respect and care for God’s creation. There is, fortunately, a growing awareness that we need to make greater efforts to conserve our natural resources, recycle what we can, and be less wasteful in general. God calls us to be good stewards of every gift has has given us. Stewardship involves governments, corporations, communities, families, and individuals.
Our Church teaches that we are one human family. As children of God, we are brothers and sisters called to be responsible for one another. Loving our brothers and sisters throughout the world requires that we work for peace and justice.
The Catholic Church teaches that every human being has been created by God in his divine image and is precious to him. This is why the sanctity of human life and the inherent dignity of the human person are the foundation of Catholic social teaching.
We are asked to love and honor the life of every man and woman and to work with perseverance and courage so that our time, marked by all too many signs of death, may at last witness the establishment of a new culture of life, the fruit of the culture of truth and of love.
Our Church teaches that the need to promote and preserve the dignity of individuals is essential to justice. Catholic social teaching calls us to give preference to the needs of the poor and vulnerable. This raises an important issue that is often overlooked. Although we may seek to ensure that those in need receive the basic necessities, often the administration of social programs can sometimes dehumanize those who need help.