When dealing with such a simple faith, concrete reasoning and pure trust as one finds in a preschool classroom the trick becomes finding a way to engage them into the fact they were just told and that they already believe. This past Sunday my challenge was to engage them in the act of Creation.
In the Preschool & Kindergarten class this week they did a paper mural to help the kids act out creation. Here are the instructions given to the teachers:
(movements in italics)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep,
Put the large sheet of black paper on the wall. Covering most of the wall.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Have the children move their hands over the paper.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
Put white paper over the top half of the paper.
God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night."
Emphasize GOOD. Have the kids repeat “day”. Have the kids repeat “night”.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Put the label “Day 1” on the top left. Sit for a moment resting at the end of Day 1.
And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it.
Put blue paper between the black and the yellow paper, covering most of the top of the paper.
And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning the second day.
Put the paper with “Day 2” just to the right of “Day 1”.
And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.
Put the green paper on the middle right section of the paper and the blue paper on the middle left.
God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
Have the kids repeat “land” Have the kids repeat “sea” Emphasize GOOD.
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
Give the children pictures of trees and plants to put on the “earth”.(the green paper)
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Emphasize GOOD.
And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.
Put the paper with “Day 3” just to the right of “Day 2”.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.
Have a child put the sun in the sky. Have a child put the moon in an opposite spot.
He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Give each child a star to put in the sky. Emphasize GOOD.
And there was evening, and there was morning the fourth day.
Put the paper with “Day 4” just to the right of “Day 3”.
And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.
Give each child a sea creature to put in the “ocean”. Give each child a bird to put in the “sky”.
And God saw that it was good.
Emphasize GOOD.
God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning the fifth day.
Put the paper with “Day 5” just to the right of “Day 4”.
And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according
to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Give each child a land animal to put on the “land”. Emphasize GOOD.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Give each child a cut out of a person. Put the person on the “earth”
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground everything that has the breath of life in it I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Emphasize VERY GOOD.
And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day.
Put the paper with “Day 6” just to the right of “Day 5”.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Put the paper with “Day 7” just to the right of “Day 6”.
(I took parts of the idea for this project from various websites and other curricula on the web.)
The final artwork turned out so well! The teachers were pleased, the parents were happy and the kids were excited they got to stick stuff on the wall. This age group is naturally fidgety and genuinely interested in helping out. Using these aspects of their personality as tools to help with learning instead of flaws or quirks that must be stopped had opened up the Preschool & Kindergarten classroom into a room full of noisy, colorful, alive faith.
