Faith Formation Resources

Books for Children and Youth

Picture Books 

• Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth 
• Secrets of the Vegetable Garden 
• ABC Earth-Friendly Me 
• Recycle! A Handbook for Kids 
• Not for me, please! I choose to act green 
• Why Should I Recycle? 
• Life in the Boreal Forest 
• Senorita Mariposa 
• Ada’s Violin 
• Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World 
• We Are Water Protectors 
• The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story about Recycling 
• A is for Activist 
• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia 
• The Keeper of Wild Words 
• Tree 
• Outside In 
• Our House Is On Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet 
• Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat  by Sylvia A. Rouss  

Younger Elementary 

• Hopping Ahead of Climate Change: Snowshoe Hares, Science, and Survival 
• How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids 

Middle Reader 

• Kid’s Guide to Helping the Planet
• What Every Child Should Know about Climate Change 
• Journey for the Planet: A Kid’s 5 Week Adventure to Create an Earth-Friendly Life 
• Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 
• A Long Walk to Water 
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Young Readers’ Edition 

Teen 

• No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference (book) 
• We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide and The Young Activist’s Guide to Building a Green Movement 

Faith Formation Leaders 

• God’s Blue Earth: Teaching Kids to Celebrate the Sacred Gift of Water 

• A People’s Curriculum for the Earth  by Bill Bigelow and Tim Swinehart offers a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems and graphics to help breathe new life into teaching about the environmental crisis. 

• Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children 
   by Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac 

• Picture Book Theology: A website of curated children's books that connect scripture to story and images; do a search on "creation" 

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Elementary School Age

Curriculum

• Abundant Life Garden Project – Abundant Life Garden Project  Individual, downloadable Sunday School and Vacation Bible School lessons from the Episcopal Church on Water, Soil, 
   Seeds, Animals, Harvest, and St. Francis 

• Godly Play including Story of Creation  

• What’s So Amazing about Polar Bears – 6-lesson series on care of creation What's So Amazing About Polar Bears? Teaching Kids to Care for Creation  - The Pilgrim Press 

• God’s Blue Earth – 6 lesson series on sacredness of water God’s Blue Earth | Teaching Kids to Celebrate the Sacred Gifts of Water – The Pilgrim Press 

• Caring for Creation (Ryan the Rhino) - PDF  (greenanglicans.org) 

• The World's Largest Lesson (globalgoals.org) 

• Creation Care Kids - Catholic Creation Care (based on Laudato Si) 

Activities 

• Learning with Nature: A How-to Guide to Inspiring Children through Outdoor Games and Activities by Marina Robb, Victoria Mew & Anna Richardson. 

• Earth Day Scavenger Hunt 

• Ecology Crafts for Kids: 50 Great Ways to Make Friends with Planet Earth by Bobbe Needham 

• Celebrate Creation With Wondering Questions from  Building Faith 

At Home 

• 10 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day at Home (scroll down to bottom of page) 

• Earth Day resources for parents 

• How To Raise Kids Who Care About the Environment from HuffPost.com 

• Earth Day (nationalgeographic.com) 

For Parents (and other adults who care about kids) 

• Brooks Berndt blog posts about how environmental injustice affects kids 

• Creation Justice webinars from the United Church of Christ 

• Environmental Justice Ministries webpage of the United Church of Christ

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Youth (Middle/High School) 

Curriculum 

• Consumerism and sustainability: Faith-based lessons - Story of Stuff  

• Climate Justice curriculum for youth and young adults from the Episcopal Church  

Videos 

• Our Children’s Trust to the short films page, especially highlight “Trust 350” for youth depicting the effects of climate change in their own backyard: Short Films — Our Children's Trust (ourchildrenstrust.org) 

• Earth School - An Immersive 30 Day Nature Adventure | TED-Ed  

Learn from youth-led organizers and activists  

• ACE – toxic tour and speakers/workshop leaders  Services - Alternatives for Community and Environment (ace-ej.org) 

• Future Coalition 

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Incorporating Creation Care into Intergenerational Ministries 

• With your congregation’s CE Director, organize an art show featuring children’s art about care of Creation and display the art in your gathering spaces. 

• Create a family worship service around the Just Peace Players’ presentation “Hey! Save the Earth!”  

• If your congregation has a community garden, work with the children to plant seeds and tend the garden in the spring and early summer.  Harvest garden produce for people to pick up at coffee hour. Visit to the garden after worship one summer morning with refreshments. 

• Walk the grounds around the church building with a group from your church. Consider your surroundings, including the land the building sits on, the air you are breathing, and the plants near you. Who are your biotic neighbors? Also, consider the houses, buildings, businesses and other “human-made” neighbors. Reflect on the interactions that occur between you and these multi-faceted surroundings. Are they harmful? Beneficial? Neutral? How do your natural surroundings affect your physical or spiritual existence? Your feelings? Your values? 

• Encourage church youth to attend summer camp at Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, CT, summer camp at Pilgrim Day Camp in Framingham, MA or Irons Homestead Summer Camp  in North Situate, Rhode Island. 

• Develop a library of children’s and adults’ books on Creation care and justice, recycling, climate change, threatened species, deforestation for church school teachers and youth to use. 

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  Also see: Environmental Action Projects for Children and Youth

Photo by Filip Urban on Unsplash