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TfT Week 5 – Creation Enjoying

Week Five – Creation Enjoying

SUMMARY: Students will celebrate God’s beautiful creation.

GOING DEEPER

Students are encouraged to be curious about God’s world, to celebrate God’s incredible creation, and to develop the confidence to look at their environment with the joy of critical awareness. They will also celebrate the gift of having eyes to see, ears to hear, and hands to touch and create. Their study can give testimony to the presence of God in creation. People are also created by God. Education also tries to bring students to a better understanding of the human beings God has created.

Creation enjoying is looking at, talking about, studying creation. Ordinary things become extraordinary when seen in a new way. It is all about noticing and drawing attention to what there is to be seen in God’s world. Creation enjoying is helping to coax the “songs of joy” (Psalm 65:8) from ourselves and from our students. This beautiful creation is a gift. We all know how much fun it is when you give someone a gift and they really LOVE it; that is what it’s like for God when we and our students get out, live in and experience the gift of creation.

“Regardless of the season, how awesome is it that as adults we get to be tour guides who show our children God’s wonderful creation? When we view the whole world as God’s classroom, we get to encourage wonder in children. Using our creation-enjoyer senses, we see the eagle soar, touch a baby’s tiny hand, and feel the warmth of the sun on our faces. Children’s experiences point to the presence of our active Creator God. Creation-Enjoying helps kids understand also our responsibilities to creation and how people before us and right now are using, and maybe abusing, this beautiful world.”

Ron VandenBurg

BIBLICAL REFERENCES 

Could be used for devotions or memory work.

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

    • We are to enjoy God’s presence and bask in his glory. This passage makes clear that we can find and enjoy God’s glory and power in the creation.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

Psalm 65:8-13

Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.

    • Have you ever seen a sunset, or a mountain range or a baby’s tiny hand that made you sing?

Other Passages to Ponder:

Genesis 45:18 – Joseph’s brothers are told to go to Egypt where they can “enjoy the fat of the land.”

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

Creating enjoying results in God Worshipping. We don’t worship creation, we worship the Creator

SONGS

You can use these as part of your morning devotions or to play in the background during work.

ACTIVITIES

Ideas that you can connect to the learning that is happening or encourage in your student’s free time.

  • Learn how to take better pictures – photo challenge
  • Build a birdhouse and set it up in a good spot
  • Play outside – family outdoor activity ideas
  • Join eBird and start contributing to the database
  • Grow a plant/garden (research indoor/outdoor options)
  • Do your schoolwork outside
  • Study your backyard bugs
  • Have a picnic
  • Fly a kite
  • Take 100 pictures within a 10-meter space (appreciate the intricacies of God’s creation)
  • Rainy day idea – Watch a planet Earth documentary

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Digital books, devotion ideas, online resources, blog articles, etc.

Student Focused: 

Teacher/Parent Focused:

FORMATIONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES (FLEX)

These are experiences that connect our learning/work to real people/problems (to go beyond our normal classroom walls). These are authentic opportunities for students to practice living the Kingdom story.

Find a quiet spot somewhere outside where you can sit for a while. Spend some time in prayer and write down words that come to mind that describe the Creator. Spend some time sketching what you see (can be something close up or a landscape picture). Write down words that describe what you see, smell, hear and feel. Take your sketch and word bank and write a Psalm of Praise. Share your Psalm of Praise with someone (e.g., could be with the person you connected with during the Community Building week), ask your teacher if you could lead your classroom devotions or find a creative way to share it on social media.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS/SENTENCE STARTERS

It is said that we don’t learn from doing, but from reflecting on what we do. Give students time and space to reflect on their experiences and learning this week.

  • How did/can you look at your environment with “the joy of critical awareness?”
  • What does paying attention to creation teach us about the heart of The Creator?
  • Why should we enjoy creation?
  • Who is somebody that has taught you to be curious about God’s creation?
  • When was a time you found yourself in awe of The Creator? Tell me about that experience.
  • Where is your favourite Creation Enjoying place?

TEACHING FOR TRANSFORMATION (TFT)

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS & STUDENTS – Provided by Prairie Centre for Christian Education

Introduction: Continuing Christian Education at Home2020-04-24T10:15:41-06:00

Teaching for Transformation is a model for how to integrate Christian faith and learning. For several years Edmonton Christian has been using this model to guide teachers and students through what it means to play our roles in God’s story.  Some of what we do can get a bit technical but essentially it means that we are asking each other to see God’s story and then to live that story. Teachers have been using deep hopes and storyline and something called Formational Learning Experiences to help students play their role in God’s unfolding story.

TFT offers 10 ways to think about how we play our roles in God’s story.  These 10 things are called Throughlines. You have probably heard about them already.  There are lots of ways to be on the lookout for these throughlines but it’s not enough to simply list them or just talk about them.  We are invited to BE those throughlines.

The Prairie Centre for Christian Education, an organization that supports our schools, has put together some resources that will help to integrate the throughlines into this new online learning journey that you are going through.

As we go through the weeks we will attempt to provide you with some of these resources that will help your family dive into a throughline.  There will be an overview of the throughline, scripture connections, related songs, activities and digital resources. There will then be suggestions for how you and your family can BE the throughline.  As you engage in the activities we invite you to post pictures to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter using the hashtag #edmchristianathome of your family engaging in the throughline.

Hopefully, this resource will be helpful for you and your family.  Feel free to pick and choose activities as you see fit. Perhaps, as families, you can find creative ways to integrate some of these activities into a lesson that was presented by a teacher.  Perhaps teachers have already been using some of these resources and suggested this already. This resource is only a suggestion but it can be a great part of the learning.

Previous Weeks

Week 1 – Community Building

Week 2 – Beauty Creating

Week 3 – God Worshipping

Week 4 – Servant Working

Special Resource – Deep Hope

2020-10-19T09:36:28-06:00

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