Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Sand Writing
Materials: shallow boxes or deep trays with a thin layer of sand (one per team), creation words written on cards, craft sticks (optional)
Group kids into teams. Guide teams to stand around the sand trays. Call on a player from each team to come to you. Show the players a word. On your signal, the players move to the sand trays and write the words in the sand. (Players cannot make any sounds or say any words.) The rest of the team should try to guess the word that the player is spelling. When the word is guessed, award that team a point. Choose another player to spell a different word. Remind kids that they heard about the creation of the world in the previous session. Say that today they will hear more about the people God created.
Live It Out
Game – Grab a Chair
Materials: chairs
Guide kids to make a circle with the chairs. Ask one child and remove his chair from the game and stand in the middle of the circle of chairs. Tell other kids to sit in chairs, facing the middle. Call out a characteristic, such as: “Blue eyes!” All children with that characteristic should stand and move to a different (empty) chair. The child in the middle should also try to sit in a chair. The child left standing should move to the middle of the circle. Ask a review question. The child in the middle of the circle can answer the question or choose someone to help him answer it. Call another characteristic to continue the game.
Characteristics can be hair color, eye color, gender, number of brothers/sisters, long/short hair, glasses/not, clothing color or type, age, number of letters in first name, etc. At some point, call out something that applies to everyone, so all kids would change chairs at the same time.
Craft – Fingerprint Silhouette
Materials: construction paper, tempera paint (various colors), gingerbread-type people figures, markers
Tell kids they can make silhouettes of the people figures. A child can choose a figure and place it in the middle of a piece of paper. Then she can dip her finger in paint and make dots or prints around the figure. She should continue to make dots and fill in the space around the figure; she can use all one color or multiple colors. When she has filled the space, she can remove the figure to reveal the silhouette. Talk about the Bible story as kids work. Tell kids write the Life Point in the silhouette space.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Creation Mural
Materials: large pieces of paper, markers, crayons, tape
Tape long paper on the walls; lay crayons and markers nearby. If desired, divide the paper into six sections.
Lead kids to think about the creation story from the previous session. Or guide kids to open their Bibles to Genesis 1. Tell them to draw pictures about God’s creation of the world. They can draw what God created on the different days or make an overall mural of the created world (as you choose). Tell kids that today you will look more at God’s creation of people and His plan for them.
Live It Out
Game – Verse Hunt
Materials: large pieces of paper, small sticky notes, markers
Say the Bible Verse together. Talk about the Bible story. Group kids into two teams. Lead them to draw a 10-by-10 grid on their paper. They can write the letters A-J across the top to label the columns and numbers 1-10 down the side to label the rows. Tell teams to position the grids so that the other team cannot see it. Lead teams to write the verse on the sticky notes, one word per note. Then they can place each word/note onto a square in the grid.
To play, lead Team 1 to call out coordinates (such as C5). Team 2 will say “hit” if a word is in that square and “miss” if no word is in that square. If there’s a hit, then Team 2 will give that word to Team 1 to put on the wall. Team 2 now takes a turn to call out coordinates. When both teams have located all the other team’s words, the teams work to put the verse in order. Say the verse together. Replace the words on the grid and play again.
Craft – Tape Resist Painting
Materials: paper, finger paint (or paint and paintbrushes), easy-release tape, pens
Talk about the Bible story and the Life Point. Lead kids to write the Life Point on their paper. Then they can use the tape to cover all the words of the Life Point. They can cover words individually, in a block, or create a design with the tape over the words. Make sure all the words are covered. Kids can fingerpaint over the paper and tape. After a kid is finished painting and washes her hands, she can carefully remove the tape to reveal the design.
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