Tapestry of Faith: Moral Tales: A Program on Making Choices for Grades 2-3

Activity 7: Clean Up

Part of Moral Tales

Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Plastic tubs or baskets to store markers, pens, stickers and other art materials
  • Waste basket lined with a bag
  • Bag(s) for recycling paper products and/or empty plastic containers
  • Damp sponges or paper towels to wipe tables used in group feast

Preparation for Activity

  • Find out whether your congregational building has a recycling program and, if so, how you can organize clean-up to participate in it.
  • This session may generate more than the usual amount of food-related trash. Make sure you know the proper way to dispose of waste and the best place to store extra food or beverages at your congregation.

Description of Activity

Invite the children to return the meeting space to being as neat and clean as they found it. Ask them to put away the materials used in the session. Remind the children that other people may use the space, and should be able to find it clean and ready to use.

Engage the children in thinking about materials that can be recycled. Specifically identify and assign any clean-up task that will help the children understand and accept their own responsibility as users of the meeting space. Use the clean-up activity to help children think about how their actions affect others and gain good feelings from participating in a group effort.

If your congregation has a recycling system, ask a child or pair of children to take the recycled materials to the bins. If your congregation does not have a recycling system, this may be a good Moral Tales project to initiate! In the meantime you might want to suggest that a different child each week take home a bag of recyclables. First, ask parents if they wish to participate in this project.

If you have used play sand, pack loose sand in secure containers and sweep or vacuum floors.

Including All Participants

All children should assist as able.