Grades 1–6: In the Beginning — Session 2: God Created People (August 9)

Grades 1-3

Introductory Activity – Play Dough Sculpture

Materials: play dough (a small ball for each child)

Encourage each child to use his ball of play dough to create something. Encourage kids to press, manipulate, and form the dough into their desired shapes. After a few minutes, take a gallery walk. (Kids walk around and look at one another’s sculptures.) Tell kids that in today’s story God formed something out of earth.

Live It Out

Game – Six Corners

Materials: paper, marker, large numbered cube, music

Print numbers 1-6 on paper, one number per page. Arrange the numbers around the room to designate six different areas. Play music and encourage kids to walk around the room. Stop the music and tell kids to move to one of the six areas of the room. Roll the numbered cube and ask a review question of the kids in that numbered area. Play music and ask kids to move around again. Stop and ask kids to move to another number. Say the Life Point.

Craft – Stick Puppet

Materials: white note cards, craft sticks, thin-lined markers, masking tape, scissors

Invite a child to draw a picture of herself on a note card. When she finishes the person figure, she can cut out the figure and tape the figure to the stick. Lead kids to print the Life Point on the craft stick. Talk about the Bible story. Suggest kids use their puppets to “say” the Bible verse.

Grades 4-6

Introductory Activity – I Can

Materials: paper, pencils

Give paper and pencils to kids. Tell them to complete the sentence: “I can _____.” Encourage them to list as many things as they can. Call for kids to come together. Ask for volunteers each to name one thing from their list. Ask other kids who can do that to clap, raise hands, or another gesture. Say the Bible verse and tell kids they will learn more about God’s creation in today’s session.

Live It Out

Game – Team Bowling

Materials: 6 large plastic bottles, 6 foam balls, masking tape

Use masking tape to create the borders of the game area; tape a line through the middle of the game area. Set up 3 plastic bottles, in a triangle formation, at the back of each half section.
Group the kids into 2 teams and assign a team to a section of the game area. Give each team 3 balls. Guide kids to spread throughout their section. On your signal, teams roll the balls and try to knock down the other team’s pins. Teams should work to protect their own pins, too. After a few minutes, call teams to stop. All balls and kids should stop. Ask a review question. If a team gets the question correct, they can roll a ball toward the other team’s pins while the team remains still. Restart the general game. When a team knocks down all the other team’s pins, award 5 points. Say the Life Point. Reset all pins and begin again.
If you have a large group of kids, play with four teams. Create four sections in the game area; use 12 bottles and 12 balls. Arrange the pins in each corner.

Craft – Fingerprint Pictures

Materials: washable stamp pads, white paper, pens, markers, cleaning wipes

Talk about the Life Point. Tell kids that they can create pictures that tell about God’s creation or about their own families. Kids can press their fingers on the ink pads and use their fingerprints to make their pictures. They can add details with the pens or markers. Suggest kids print the Bible Verse on their pictures. (Use the cleaning wipes to clean fingers when kids finish making fingerprints.)