Happy Earth Day!

Although we encourage everyone to participate via Zoom because personal connection is important, we are also making the materials from each week’s family faith development meeting available to families for home use!

Do you all know what Earth Day is? And what it’s for? [Allow kids to answer]

It’s to celebrate the earth, and inspire people to learn about the earth and take care of the earth.

So we’re going to end our class by celebrating the earth.

And I hope this week, on Earth Day, which is on Wednesday, you and your families will have a chance to do something to take care of the earth.

But right now I’m going to show you something to help you learn a bit about the earth.

Show an apple, and a knife.

Ask the kids whether they’ve been eating a lot of apples or other fruit.  What’s their favorite fruit?

I like apples a lot.  And I’m going to use this apple to show you something about the earth.

Imagine that this apple is the earth….this very earth where we and lots of other creatures live, and where all our food comes from.

Now I am going to cut this apple “earth” into 4 roughly equal parts.

Imagine now that these 3 parts represent the part of the earth’s surface that is covered with water, because that is how much of it is covered with water.   

Now this quarter of the earth represents the part that is the land.

Now I am going to cut this quarter into two roughly equal parts so that we have 1/8th.  We set aside one of these pieces because it represents the parts of the land that people can’t live or work on – the deserts, the north and south poles, swamps, high mountains.

These parts of the Earth are important too.  They’re just not the parts where we spend our lives.  

What is left for all of us to live on is 1/8th of the surface of the earth.

Now I am going to take this part and cut it into roughly 4 equal parts.

Each of these is 1/32nd.  We will set 3 of these aside because they represent places where the soil is too poor to farm (maybe it’s rocky, too wet, too steep, or too cold to produce food).  They also represent the cities, houses, highways, factories, schools, churches, parking lots, golf courses, where people live and play and work, but do not grow any food.

What we have left to grow our food on is this little piece.  1/32nd of our planet.  

Now I am going to peel it.  The peel represents the farmable surface or the topsoil of the planet, the skin of the earth’s crust upon which all humankind totally depends.  It is less than 5 feet deep.

I think that this is a good way to remember how important it is to take care of the Earth.  It’s important to take care of the whole Earth, because it’s where we live, and where all the other animals and plants we share the Earth with live.

But it’s VERY important to take care of the part of the Earth where we grow our food, because it is such a small part of the Earth as a whole. 

We made the letters for Happy Earth Day! with our bodies!