Creation Story Scripture: Genesis 1:1 2:4 Objective: God is Faithful! Bible Memory Verse: Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. THEME OVERVIEW This year children are on a trip to visit attractions located at Faith City. Your site is a Museum site. Your site will be the Creation Exploration Museum filled with each day of creation. While children visit with you, they will learn about creation by exploring each day hands on. Through the connection lab, the children will learn about Faith through a science experiment. SETTING THE SCENE OVERVIEW Room Décor for this site will be a Museum that has six different exhibits for each day of creation. The wall opposite of the door will be a focal wall with an eight foot dinosaur. For door décor, hang Creation Museum sign. In the room, create six exhibit areas by using black table clothes to divide the room. Exhibit Day 1 will be an area covered in black butcher paper. Exhibit Day 2 will be covered in sky blue butcher paper with clouds hanging from ceiling. Cloud Touch box will be displayed here. Exhibit Day 3 will use blue and tan butcher paper to create sand/land and sky area. Palm tree, flower vines, and water activity will be displayed here. Exhibit Day 4 will be covered in black butcher paper with Christmas lights used to make stars. Planets will be hanging from ceiling. Exhibit Day 5 will have dark blue butcher paper to create sea. Turtle and Octopus will be displayed here. Birds will hang from ceiling. Exhibit Day 6 will have blue, tan, and green butcher paper to display Garden of Eden area with Adam and Eve on display. This area will have tree and animals too. Exhibit Day 7 will have memory verse displayed on banner for ceiling. Be sure to include the Bible story and memory verse in your room. Should you need any ideas or assistance in decorating, please utilize our decorating team. Each teacher will be provided with a basic room kit to use for decorating your site. Museum Room Kit: Black table cloths (to divide room into exhibits); Clouds and touch box; Palm tree and vines; Christmas lights and planets; Turtle, octopus, and birds; Adam and Eve; Small animals for Garden area; Door sign; Memory verse banner GETTING STARTED ACTIVITIES When the children arrive in your site, welcome them to the Museum and choose from the following activities to help them get acquainted with you and one another (you may use your own activity if you have one): VBC 2013 Faith City Page 1
Flashlight Tag: Choose one child to be it. Let him use a flashlight to tag others in the class. Tell it they can tag any person by shining the light on the other person s body. When the light touches another child they are out and must go sit down on the floor. After a while, let another child have a turn being it. After the activity, ask the children what it was like to play this game in the dark. Ask them to image what it would be like without light in the world. (Use this to reference later during Bible Time). Creation Tower: Split everyone into teams of five. Hand each group a stack of newspapers and a roll of masking tape. Have children create the highest newspaper tower, using only the newspaper and masking tape. Give teams two minutes to strategize. Then give each group 8 minutes to create a tower. Measure how high each team s tower is and the highest tower wins. Talk with the group about how easy or hard it was to create a tower out of few supplies. (Use this to reference later during Bible Time). ABC Game: Have children sit in circle on floor and go around the room and say their name and something God created that begins with the same letter of their name. For example, April and God created Apples, Stacy and God created sand, etc. Allow everyone a turn then let others say the name of the person on their right and something God created that begins with the same letter of their name. Use this game for everyone to get to know each other. BIBLE LESSON Tips: Direct children to the Bible area of the room. Hold your Bible in your lap as you tell the story and use lots of expression as you tell the story. Refrain from reading the entire story from the lesson. Use questions to engage the children. End this section with a prayer time. Introduce: today s Bible story by giving the kids a little bit of information about the site where they are visiting today. Tell the children that today they are visiting Faith City s one and only Museum where they will use science and hands on activities to explore Creation. Ask children if they have ever been to a Museum. Allow children to share their favorite thing about the Museum. Take a few minutes talking about all the different things people might see at the Museum. Tell children that today we will learn about Creation. Be sure to tell children that this is a true story from God s Word, the Bible. Remind them that the Bible is divided into two parts the Old Testament and the New Testament. Tell the children that today s Bible story is found in the first book of the Bible Genesis and that today you will walk around the Museum and explore as the story it is being told. Tell: Have children enter First Day of Creation Exhibit. Ask the children to close their eyes, hand out a few flashlights among the crowd for the children to turn on, and turn the lights off. While children have their eyes closed, ask them to think about the empty dark space that existed before God made the earth and the planets. The Bible tells us that God was there, even before anything was made. VBC 2013 Faith City Page 2
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, Let there be light (children will open eyes and turn on flashlights). He called the light day and the darkness night. Do you like the darkness? Or day? What is your favorite part about day and night? Have children move to Second Day of Creation Exhibit. Have children take turns touching clouds in the touch box. God said, Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water. Ask children what they are touching in the box. Have all children reach up into the air and say, God called the vault sky. Discuss with the children what the sky is. What does the sky really feel like? Is there enough sky for everyone on the earth to enjoy? What is it like to be up in the sky? What is your favorite thing about the sky that God made? Have children move to Third Day of Creation Exhibit. And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters he called seas. Then God said, Let the land produce plants and trees. And it was so. Use a Water Experiment to explore water and land. Set all containers that will not float into an empty large tub. Pour water from one end of the tub and ask children, Is the water moving in a straight line? What happens as water reaches obstacles? Now take out containers that do not float. Ask children, What happens to the water when we take out the obstacles? Allow children to take turns putting in objects that float and do not float. Talk about water and what it does with each obstacle. Discuss how powerful God is to have gathered the water and created dry land. Have children move to Exhibit Fourth Day of Creation Exhibit. God said, Let there be lights in the sky. He made two great lights the sun and moon. He also made all the stars and planets. Use the spinning ball gravity activity to discuss how gravity is different on each of the planets. You will need a jar with a wide mouth or neck, a small rubber ball and a flat surface to work on. First, place the ball on the table, and put the jar over it, mouth down. Next, keep the jar against the table and spin it in a circular motion. Lift the jar once you begin to see the ball spin inside of it. You will see that the ball will come off the table and continue spinning in the jar. Once it loses speed, it will stop spinning and fall out. The science behind this experiment is the spinning motion. The ball is trying to escape the confines of the jar, but the jar keeps it inside as it spins. The spin and speed of the ball keeps it in motion inside the jar. Once it loses speed and stops spinning, gravity will pull the ball back down from the jar. Gravity on earth is different than in space. God s power and attention to detail is amazing that he would even make planets unique. Have children move to Exhibit Fifth Day of Creation Exhibit. God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth across the sky. God created all great creatures of the sea and every winged bird according to its kind. VBC 2013 Faith City Page 3
Use Action Activity and have children act like birds and sea animals based on a picture you give them. For example, give each child different bird, fish, octopus, turtle, etc. pictures then have them act it out (birds will make bird noise and flap arms like wings, etc.) Have children move to Exhibit Sixth Day of Creation Exhibit. God said, Let the land produce living creatures. He made all land animals; lions, giraffe, monkeys, dogs, cats, bears, etc. Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image so they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over all the animals. God made people as his special creation. People were created in God s own image. God gave people a body with a spirit and a soul just like God. He made us special to fellowship and worship him. Use Mirror Activity and allow children to pass around a small mirror. Have children name one thing they see in the mirror that God created just for them. For example, one child may see blue eyes, another may see small nose, another may see brown curly hair, etc. Use this activity to reinforce that each child is specially made by God. Have children lay in the middle of the floor looking up at the verse on the ceiling for the Seventh Day of Creation Exhibit. God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Review Memory Verse and do Faith Demonstration to close out your discussion of creation. Pray: Close this time of Bible Story with a prayer. MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITIES Teach your site memory verse through one of the following games (or use one of your own): Creation Review: Have the children repeat the verse several times to become familiar with it. Then have them say the verse while doing one the following activity that represents the days of creation: 1. Holding hands above head opening and closing hand (like flashing lights) 2. Swaying back and forth to imitate ocean waves. 3. Pat the ground to represent earth. 4. Twinkle fingers above head for stars 5. Flapping arms out to side of body for birds. 6. Jumping up and down to imitate monkey activity 7. Lie on the floor with lights out for rest. Memory Verse: By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3 Verse Match Relay: On sheets of paper print out the memory verse. Make 8 copies of the verse on paper. Tear the paper in half so that you now have 8 sets of the memory verse on 16 pieces of paper. Loosely wad up the memory verse sets into balls and toss them into two buckets (Each bucket will have 4 sets of the memory verse in it). Place buckets at one end of the VBC 2013 Faith City Page 4
room. Draw a line on the floor with tape at the other end of the room. Divide children into two teams. Explain to them that they are going to compete the Memory Verse in this relay by running down and getting two pieces of paper out of the bucket. If they pull out a first and last part of the memory verse, they will yell the verse out load to their team and race back. If they pull out the same halves of the memory verse, then they wad the paper back up and run back to team for next players turn. Continue until all matches have been found and team can recite the verse from memory. CONNECTION LAB Overview: In today s lab, you will have the children participate in the science project. This activity can be used at the end of your walk through creation experience. This is a Faith Demonstration that is use to discuss the concept of faith with the children. Supplies: Banana and needle Activity: Use the Faith Demonstration to discuss having Faith. You will need to prepare a banana by pre-slicing it in the peel. The quick method is to insert a long, thin needle straight into the banana along a ridge. Push the needle from side to side, slicing through the soft inside. By feeling the outside of the banana, you can tell when the needle is cutting completely through the inside without tearing the outer peeling. When the needle is finally pulled out, its puncture mark should not be noticeable. Repeat this process several more times along the ridge until the inner banana is completely sliced along its length. Hold up the pre-sliced banana. Ask if anyone could possibly believe that it is completely sliced, even though it has not been peeled. Talk about real faith involves the action of stepping out and making a commitment. Ask for a volunteer to unpeel the banana. Of course the idea seems crazy. Who has ever seen a banana sliced before it was unpeeled. However, faith sometimes involves seemingly impossible events such as creation. Take time to ask the children in your class, What does faith means. Allow them time to share. Remind them that having faith means believing in something we cannot see or touch. When we pray to God, we are praying in faith because we cannot see God but we know that he is real. Ask children do they have faith that creation is a true story? Encourage children to believe in creation based on the fact that it is in the Bible and that the Bible is a true source of information. REVIEW QUESTIONS Before children leave the room have them review the lesson with a game or with just questions and then remind the children of today s memory verse and key concept. Game Idea: Prepare a list of 10 or more questions pertaining to the Bible lesson and write down actions on slips of paper (jump five times, sing Jesus Loves Me, do two sit-ups, act like a monkey, do ten jumping jacks, VBC 2013 Faith City Page 5
etc.). Have everyone sit in a circle and draw one slip of action papers from a hat. Read action aloud to group. You will ask a review question to that person. If the person gets the question correct, then everyone else in the class will do the action. If the person gets the question wrong, then he or she will do the action alone. What part of the Bible did our lesson come from today? What did God create on the first day of creation? What did God create on the second day of creation? What did God create on the third day of creation? What did God create on the fourth day of creation? What did God create on the fifth day of creation? What did God create on the sixth day of creation? What did God create on the seven day of creation? What was God s most important creation? What is Faith? VBC 2013 Faith City Page 6