Lesson Elements
Unit Games
Unit games are something for kids to do in the first few minutes of class to get them focused and also review things that don’t always come up in each lesson but are more thematic—like the days of creation, the ten commandments, the books of the Bible, the attributes of God, and the fruit of the Spirit. For the first couple of units students will be learning about the days of creation. The directions and supplies for the games are found in the Appendix.
For this unit’s game (Days of Creation Hide & Seek) you will need to print off the Creation Cards (found in the appendix) or bring in items to represent all the things God created on each day of creation. You will need to hide them all around the classroom before children come in.
You will also need to print the Days of Creation Cards (found in the appendix) and tape them to some cups or baskets so that students can put the items they find into the correct “day” of creation.
Prayer Time
Every lesson begins with prayer! Each week a different type of prayer is going to be introduced and practiced. Thankful prayers, asking prayers, praise prayers, and I’m sorry prayers. This is known as the ACTS prayer model. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. We will be using the easier to understand terms. Consider finding a printable poster that illustrates these four types of prayer.
Here is another idea for teaching prayer in the classroom from Turning Our Hearts Blogspot which I found on Pinterest:
http://turning-our-hearts.blogspot.com/2012/02/teaching-our-children-to-pray.html?spref=fb
This would be a great addition to the classroom to emphasize the importance of prayer. Kids could write prayers and stick them in the envelopes and even take turns praying for each other’s requests.
Consider using “circles” or mats for children to sit on during prayer time. This will help prayer time to feel special and more intimate. These could be paper circles, cushions, placemats, pieces of rugs, whatever is on hand. I crocheted some scrap yarn into circles! They also help keep fidgety children from wiggling around as much and help them know what’s expected of them. Finding their own circle gives them a purpose when they first come in and creates a sense of routine. Have them pick their own color, or attach names to them, and place it on the floor where you want them to sit.
Also consider using a “Prayer Buddy,” such as a stuffed bear. This is mainly to help students feel special and more comfortable praying out loud—it works kind of like a distraction from everyone staring at them—and also it’s like a marker to help them learn to take turns.
Lesson
This unit is all about learning what God created on each day of creation. The basis of the lessons is the Days of Creation Songbook, which is a free printable I found on Pinterest, and the Days of Creation Numbers, which are also a free printable on Pinterest. The songbook and numbers will both need to be decorated before the first class so they can be used throughout the unit. The teacher will hand out the Days of Creation Numbers evenly to students and then lead the students in the song (from the Creation Songbook) each week, so they learn what God created on each day. While they sing the song, the students will put their Creation Numbers on the wall whenever the day number that they have is sung about. This is the interactive part of learning what God created on each day. They will have to pay attention and listen.
Lesson Craft & Discussion
After the song each week they will learn about a day of creation while they decorate a page of their own songbook to take home at the end of the seven weeks. This unit is seven weeks simply because there are seven days of creation! Week 8 will be a review week where they can play games and get prizes for answering questions correctly and for reciting their Bible verse, Genesis 1:1.
Review Lessons
Review week may actually be the most important part of each unit. Kids will really look forward to review week if you make it a fun time and you provide incentives! Make sure you do the games! Games for review week and for practicing the memory verse are found in the appendix. On review week you will print off the review questions and play the game with the kids.
At the end of the lesson have the kids recite their memory verse one at a time, and whoever says it right gets a prize! You can also reward them for trying their best. The most important part is creating incentive to memorize the Word of God.
For that reason, I really, really recommend you make a prize box and keep it well stocked with pencils, bouncy balls, sticky toys—anything you would normally find in the dentist’s prize box or the party favor aisle at the store works great! Kids don’t usually care about the quality of the toy as much as the experience of receiving it and feeling accomplished, appreciated, and special!
You could also make a separate prize box of more special things that is reserved for memorizing their memory verse and keep the regular prize box for good behavior, or being part of the winning team on review week.
You could even make it more interesting by buying or making tickets and creating a system where they earn tickets for good behavior, or correct answers in class, and then they are able to buy things out of a prize box at the end of the unit.
Snack Time
Snack time is optional. Some kids need snack time and for others it can simply be a distraction. Snack time can be before, during or after the lesson, whatever works best for your classroom.
Play Time/Game Time
This is free time, but if you have kids who enjoy games you can use this time to reinforce the lesson with Review Games, found in the appendix.
Lesson Preparation & Supplies
Unit Game
Supplies needed:
Creation Cards
Days of Creation Cards.
Suggested optional supplies:
Instead of the Creation Cards (which are pictures of the things God created) you could bring in stuffed animals, or plastic toy animals to show all the animals God created. Some animal sets also include trees and rocks. Also be sure to include dinosaurs since God clearly created all of the animals on days 5 & 6 and this fact is constantly under attack.
Glow in the dark sets of stars could be used on Lesson 4, which will be about the sun, moon & stars.
For Day 3 pieces of real fruit & vegetables or toy versions could be used.
You will still need to print off the Days of Creation Cards to attach to some baskets or cups so the student can sort the items into the correct days.
Prayer Time
Suggested optional supplies:
Circles for children to sit on and a prayer buddy (such as a stuffed bear).
Lessons
Supplies needed throughout this unit:
-Days of Creation Numbers
https://www.looktohimandberadiant.com/2012/05/creation-numbers.html
-Tape, poster putty, or adhesive magnets
-Days of Creation Songbook
The Days of Creation Numbers will need to be printed onto cardstock, colored and cut out. You could even laminate them, if you have a laminator. The original link is for making a coloring book, which would also be a great take-home activity to be added to the lesson, but I just printed them onto cardstock and cut out the numbers. This is what they look like:
You will need tape or wall putty to safely stick and restick the numbers onto the wall each week. You could also attach sticky magnets to the backs of the numbers and use a magnetic board, like a whiteboard.
The Days of Creation Song Book will have to be printed off and the pages decorated. This is what your Days of Creation Songbook should look like. I used a binder from the dollar store and page protectors for the pages for easy page turning and to keep the fluffy clouds and stickers protected. Feel free to get creative!
Crafts, Lesson Illustrations & Snacks
Every week students will be making one page of their own Days of Creation Song Book! You can keep the pages stored in folders with their names on them so they don’t get lost or confused with others in the classroom until week 7 when the whole booklet can be put together and taken home.
Lessons with special supplies or snacks are marked with an *asterisk.
Supplies for each lesson:
You will need a cover and all seven pages of the book for each child. You will also need glue, crayons, and markers each week.
The rest of these supplies are simply what I used to make each page of the book. Check out the original blog post for other ideas and a full supply list. Remember, you can also do your own thing! Just keep it as simple as possible and try to keep glue to a minimum so pages don’t wrinkle as much.
Lesson 1: Yellow and black construction paper, cut into two triangles to form a rectangle that fills the page.
*Lesson 2: Cotton balls and blue tissue paper. A balloon.
*Lesson 3: Foam or felt flower stickers. Green pipe cleaners. Fruit/nuts/seeds as a snack and illustration.
*Lesson 4: Star stickers. A yellow construction paper sun and a white construction paper moon, or kids can draw them. Some kind of honey snack or cereal to eat as an illustration.
Lesson 5: Stickers of fish and birds, or children can draw them. Blue tissue paper for water, or blue crayons or markers.
Lesson 6: Various shades of brown felt or construction paper (for the people God created) cut into an oval like a face, pieces of pink felt or paper cut into the shape of lips, brown yarn (for hair), google eyes, land animal stickers or pictures, or allow the kids to draw the animals.
Lesson 7: A blue construction paper circle and ripped green construction paper or tissue paper for the earth. Optional: a picture of a church to show that we go to church as a way to honor God and rest from our work, like on the Sabbath. A stapler to staple the pages all together.
All of these supplies can be kept in the classroom ahead of time and used as needed, or prepped each week. Each lesson corresponds with its day of creation and page of the booklet. I recommend preparing them all beforehand. Some lessons have extra supplies that are used as an illustration for the lesson.
Lesson 8: Lesson 8 is the review! All you will need is prizes and the supplies and directions for playing the review games, found in the appendix.