Our next thematic unit will be on the days of creation. My mom gave me of the ideas in this unit from when she used to teach Sunday school years ago.
Teaching our children to grow in their love and knowledge of God is one of our greatest pursuits as parents. Showing that God is the Maker and Creator of all things is a great place to start with little ones. Just yesterday, Big Brother was telling me during some post-nap cuddle time that, “God made the trees…and flowers…and moon…and stars…and bathrooms…and potties!” :)
I would strongly suggest to open up your {adult} Bible and read each day of creation directly from the Good Book. So for today, open up to Genesis 1 and read verses 1-5.
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| (Go here to download this image) |
To go along with the first day of creation, we’ll be making a light box.
Here’s what you’ll need: a shoebox, black paint, a paintbrush, a knife or scissors, and a flashlight.
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| 1. Cut two holes in the shoebox using the scissors or knife. Put one hole on the opposite end of the other, but not directly parallel…you don’t want your child looking directly into the flashlight. Then give your little child the paintbrush and some black paint. Let him/her get started painting the entire inside of the shoebox. (Just make sure you keep a close eye…I stepped away to answer the phone and now have a large lovely black spot on my rug). |
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| 2. Let it dry. |
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| 3. Once it’s dry, ask him/her to look in the hole and tell you what they see (intended response: black, darkness, “I can’t see anything”). |
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| At first they’ll see this, but once you turn on the flashlight and place it in the other hole… |
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| …They’ll see this! |
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| Big Brother loved holding the flashlight himself and turning it off and on while he looking through the peeping hole! |
Talk to your child about how big God must be to make light for the whole world! Then you can introduce this song…there will be a new verse to add for each day!
Love this idea! I love the song and singing too, it was great!
Love this idea. Great way to remember Creation.
Great idea.
As you're thinking about this, you might consider something that could be progressive. Here's what I mean. Genesis 1 is a poem that celebrates God's ordering of the world out of chaos (formlessness and void). If you read the poem as a whole, you'll notice some interesting things. Stuff like the refrain "evening… morning… day x."
What I think would be neat for your ideas here, though, is the way parallel structure of days 1-3 and 4-6. Notice that in days 1-3 God is creating habitable space for the "inhabitants" that are created in days 4-6.
Day 1: habitat: heavens and earth, pulling light from darkness –> day 4: inhabitant: sun, moon, and stars (greater and lesser lights)
Day 2: habitat: pulling apart the waters –> Day 5: birds of air, fish of the sea
Day 3: pulling land out of waters –> day 6: land creatures and humanity
And idea would be to create a progressive canvas in days 1-3 that could be filled in on days 4-6. Just a thought from a theologian, not a brilliant children's education specialist!
That sounds like a fun idea Eric! I’m going to have my kids doing that! What a great way to visually to combine what she did and have them watch it progressively add on in order. Thanks you guys!
BTW, I would love to see how you expand and think about teaching the second creation account too (Gen 2:4-24)!
Blessings, cousin!
that is not a 2nd creation. it says in the final verse of chapter 1..God looked at all he had created. Chapter 2 is just recounting the creation and summarizing the creation of it and Adam and the garden. .
ABC Jesus Loves Me – the free preschool Bible curriculum – has several other ideas in its curriculum. Check them out!
http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/3-year-old-curriculum/weekly-lesson-plans/87%1A3rd-year-week-1
I love this idea – we're doing it this week and I know it's going to be a hit while sharing the Good News with our kids.
Thanks for your ideas! I decided to do a Creation unit with my 2 1/2 year old and then saw that you were doing one as well! I was able to use several of your ideas and my son loved them!
http://foranundividedheart.blogspot.com/2011/03/creation-unit-day-1.html
I just wanna say, thank you for all you do. I'm so glad I found this blog just in time to teach my own child. The creation project is amazing :) and we're starting tomorrow ;) God Bless you beautiful family!
I put a link to here on my post. I hope you don't mind. I love your ideas.
Chelsea
http://fhe4kids.blogspot.com/
We have been doing this all week. It has been so much fun for us. My little boy loves it. We have been doing the songs too. I love love your site!
I like your activity and song. I’m trying to think up activities for the days of creation to put on my blog to go with my Bible storybook, The Creation. I found this thanks to other people’s pins on Pinterest. My blog is http://honeycombadventures.com if you would like to watch my progress.
I did this and the kids loved it!! Thanks for the idea!!
Thanks so much for the idea. Really got me going to make learning more fun for my 2 1/2 year old son.
He really enjoyed the fact that God made the sun so that we can see in the shoe box :)
ARG!!!! SOMEONE HACKED THIS WEBSITE…when i click on the Day one song at the end an array of pics pop up…one is inappropriate. HATERS SUCK!
I love your creation theme! I am planning on doing creation for my 3 and 4 years old sunday school class. I especially love the song that goes with every day. It has been bothering me that I don’t know the name of the melody that you used. Wondering if you could supply that?
This is really the best I’ve seen on the web for a toddler/ preschool lesson about creation! I’m going to pre-paint the box because we have another art activity planned for that day but this craft illuminates in such a great way the fact that there was no light and then there was! I already had all of the supplies, using some leftover chalkboard paint and a shoe box.
Thank you for posting the great idea and for the sweet and simple song!
Such a great idea. I will use it in our playgroup. thank you
Is the “one” image inside the box?