Grades 1–6: In the Beginning — Session 1: God Created the World (August 2)

Grades 1-3

Introductory Activity – Creation Charades

Materials: animal names and other natural world items on strips of paper

Guide a child to draw a strip and read the word. Then he can act out the creation item so other children can guess. Repeat with several children as time allows. Tell kids that today’s Bible session will focus on the creation of the world.

Live It Out

Game – Ball Toss

Materials: foam ball or paper wad ball

Guide kids to sit in a circle. Toss the ball to a child. Ask her to name something God created. Then she can toss the ball to another child. Continue listening to ideas and tossing the ball. The kids should not toss to someone who has already had a turn to answer. Make sure all kids receive the ball. The last child can toss the ball to you. Tell kids that you are going to toss the ball again, in the same order. Toss the ball to the same first child, she tosses to the same next child, and so on. Toss the ball in the same circuit again, repeating the Life Point as you toss it; encourage kids to speed up their tossing. Challenge kids to toss the ball in reverse order as you repeat the Life Point again.

Craft – Finger-painted World

Materials: paper plates, blue and green tempera paint or finger paint, markers

Give each child a paper plate. Guide kids to print the Life Point around the edge of the plate. Invite kids to use the paint and their hands to create a representation of the Earth in the middle of the plate. Talk about the Bible story as kids work. Repeat that God created everything from nothing. Say the Bible verse as you wash hands and set paintings aside to dry.

Grades 4-6

Introductory Activity – Life Point Battleship

Material: large pieces of paper, small sticky notes, markers

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 words of the Life Point 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 it is a hit, 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 Point in order. Tell kids that today’s session will focus on God’s creation of the world. Replace the words on the grid and play again as time permits.

Live It Out

Game – Spell the Answer

Materials: letter tiles

Spread the letter tiles on a table or the floor. Guide kids to sit around the tiles. Ask a review question. Kids can work together to find letters and spell the answer to the question. (Form smaller groups of kids if necessary.) After kids have spelled the answer, talk about it. Then ask another question. Talk about the Life Point and lead kids to spell creation. Say the Bible verse together.

Craft – Creation Comic

Materials: paper, thin-line markers, pencils Guide kids to create graphic, comic-book-style versions of the Bible story. Suggest they draw six panels and fill in the panels with parts of the Bible story. As they draw, talk about the world God created. Suggest that each panel a kid draws represent a day of creation. Talk about the Life Point and the Bible verse as kids work. Pray and thank God for His creation.