How to Teach a Creation Unit or Theme

Spreading the story of Creation over several lessons can be a great way to go deeper and appreciate the awesome, creative nature of God.

Each individual day of Creation Week can be taught as a unit or group of lessons. Each lesson explores one day of creation, while lesson seven finishes it off with an overview and charge to appreciate and take care of the creation God has blessed us with. You will find here an example of how the unit might be taught once each week over seven weeks.

The Overview

Giving an overview of the creation week at the beginning of each lesson keeps the individual lessons in context. A simple way to do this is to tell the “Creation Story” each time you meet using various methods before delving deeper into the particular day assigned for the week.

Children might lose interest if you were to use the same visual aid to repeat this overview each week, so try several different methods. For example, even if you had only one set of visual aid pictures, you could present in the following ways over the seven lessons:

Week 1: Use a printed visual aid with pictures of each day.
Week 2: Show a slideshow of the same visual on a laptop, tablet or phone.
Week 3: Write numbers one through seven down the left side of a paper (or on the chalkboard or whiteboard) and let the children help you fill in the story beside each number.
Week 4: Ask one of the children to show the original visual aid with pictures and explain it to the class.
Week 5: Divide the group so that each group will draw one of the days of creation on a large piece of paper. Each group will then show their picture to everyone in the correct order. For fewer children, then, you and the children can each draw one or more pictures and talk about creation as you are drawing.
Week 6: Use any of the visual aids above, but while you are showing it, the children can use their imaginations to make sound effects or perform actions that go with each day. For instance, on day one, a child flips the room lights off and on or puts their hands over their eyes. For day two, children could make sounds of water splashing. Even preparing how they will act out each day allows the children to learn this story even more.
Week 7: Ask the class to vote on which methods you will use to present the story of creation this last time through review.

Ongoing Classroom Activities

If you are teaching these lessons as a unit, you will be able to plan learning activities that span several lessons. View these as class projects that the children can add to and perfect over several weeks.

Creation Table: Dedicate one large table in your classroom to the discovery of the creation. Stock the table with items such as a magnifying glass, microscope, telescope, tweezers, scalpel or knife (for use only with the teacher), ruler, measuring tape, scales, hammer and board to hammer on, water, camera, paper for notes or drawing, encyclopaedias or books about nature and anything else you can think of that helps in exploration and discovery. You can use these tools each week to explore new items you bring to class. I suggest you bring new things every week to keep it interesting.
Creation Bulletin Board: Use a large bulletin board or attach a long and wide strip of paper to the wall. Divide into 7 equal parts and label each with a number (1-7). Alternatively, use 7 poster boards. You or the children can attach (or draw) items onto the appropriate days as you cover each lesson. You could also supply small Ziploc or plastic bags so the children could put items in them and bring them to class. Parents could help fill the bag if you let them know beforehand. Just tape or blue-tac the bag straight onto the paper if you like. Your display will grow each week.
Creation Boxes: Use seven boxes (fruit boxes from the grocery or shoe boxes from a shop are good) as you did on the Bulletin Board in the previous section. Instead of attaching items to a bulletin board, just place them in the appropriate boxes each week. You can also use the boxes for review by removing items and letting the children remember which day of creation God created them. They can place them in the correct box.
Creation Walk: Make a checklist of items related to a particular day of creation. For younger children, you could just use pictures. Take the children on a walk and help them find the items on the list. Alternatively, collect items on your walk to add to your classroom collection.
Library Corner: The public library will have many books about all aspects of nature. You could check out books related to your lesson each week and bring them to class. Part of your class time could be used to show pictures or share what you learned from the books.
Creation Mural: If you are artistic or know someone who is, then use a large piece of paper, canvas, or whiteboard and add to a picture each week as you study it. By the end of the seven weeks, you will have a complete picture. Alternatively, the children could add to the picture each week. You must plan this out to know what should be added each week.
Internet and the Computer: Don’t forget the internet as a resource. Ideally, you could have a laptop and internet connection in your classroom. If not in your classroom, you might use someone’s office or invite the children to your house for lunch. You can use images from Google or Flickr for some wonderful pictures highlighting particular creation aspects. YouTube has video clips of fun things like sunrises, flowers opening up, eggs hatching open, storms…just about anything, really. If you are unfamiliar with any of these things, how about connecting with one of the young adults or teens and asking them to help you do this as a project? They might come to your class and share with the children or teach you how to do it yourself.
Guest Speaker(s): If you know someone who is an expert or has an interest in certain fields, they could come and speak to the children about the wonders of God’s creation related to their area of interest. Some suggestions might be anatomy, medicine, sports science, animal science, botany, astronomy, farming, marine life… the list is endless and depends on who you might know.

Items to Collect and Use

Here are a few hands-on items that you might use for the lessons. You can combine them with the above classroom activities or have them on hand to enhance your teaching. I’m sure you will think of more!

Day 1 (light): black paper and white paint, torch, candle, prism, magnifying glass, various papers or items to shine light through, overhead projector, lamp, laser light, items that reflect light, black light, glow sticks, heat lamps, glow-in-the-dark stickers…
Day 2 (air and water): containers to hold and pour water, funnel, sponges, straws, purchased “capsules” that turn into animals when placed in water, a bowl of water and items that float, dry ice to make fog (with adult supervision), jug to boil water and make steam, ice, pictures of the sky and storms (sunsets, rain, tornadoes, cloud formations, etc), recorded or downloaded sounds of storms or rain sounds, a fan to experiment with wind conditions…
Day 3 (land and plants): various kinds of soil and sand, clay to mould, photos of landforms (mountains, rivers, shorelines, islands, deserts), various plants, seeds, leaves, branches, flowers, roots, fruit, vegetables, whole grain bread so you can spot grains and seeds, spices in unmarked jars so children can guess what smell it is, soil and water for mud pies, sandbox for sand castles…
Day 4 (sun, moon, stars): sunglasses, prism, glow-in-the-dark stickers, magnifying glass, anything that reflects sunlight, astronomy books, various items from day 1…
Day 5 (birds and fish): live birds or fish, dead fish to examine, chicken eggs, feathers, binoculars to spot birds in the sky outside, sea shells, nests, bird sounds on CD, books on native birds and fish…
Day 6 (animals and people): Anything that will allow children to test their senses ie. hearing tests, vision tests, things to smell and guess or items in a bag to touch and guess without seeing. Items to discover things about the human body, i.e. scales, weights to lift, stethoscope for hearing heartbeat, measuring pulse or blood or hair to look at under a microscope. You could bring a doll and talk about babies and how they grow. Anything to do with animals, i.e., live animals, animal skins or furs, recordings of animal sounds, items used to care for animals, puzzles, or books about animals…
Day 7 (taking care of the creation): Anything about recycling, i.e. empty containers so children can look for the recycle symbol on the bottom, items made of recyclable materials, rubbish items for the children to think of ways to use again instead of throw away, newspaper articles about the earth…

Be Prepared

From a very young age, children hear various views about how the world came to be. Television, school, church, parents, family, and friends often offer quite different versions. Even among Christians, there is not complete agreement, which can be disconcerting.

Take time to read about various views on the Creation. Learn what you can and teach only what you know. But don’t feel you have to have all the answers before teaching the Creation Story. Any scientist still has questions or could no longer call themselves true scientists. Any Christian who believes they have found all the answers about God has lost their awe of him.

Explore the wonder of God’s creation alongside the children in your class. Experience awe together. Encourage questions. Ask your own. Let God’s creation proclaim his nature through the things he has made.

There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand. They are made clear by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do. Romans 1:20 International Children’s Bible (ICB)

“All things were made through him. Nothing was made without him.” John 1:3 (ICB)

“The deepest places on earth are his. And the highest mountains belong to him.
The sea is his because he made it. He created the land with his own hands.” Psalm 95:4-5 (ICB)

“The heavens tell the glory of God. And the skies announce what his hands have made. ” Psalm 19:1 (ICB)

The Overview

Ongoing Classroom Activities

Items to Collect and Use

Be Prepared

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