Sunday School Lesson 1 | Day 1 of Creation: Light

I love the story of Creation and teaching it to my little dears. It is a short passage in the Bible, but we teach each day of Creation separately. Our aim is, first and foremost, to help the kiddos understand that God is the Creator of all things. Then we try to help them learn what God created during each day.

I made a Creation booklet which you can download here or by clicking on the image below. To download the Romanian version, click here.

I started by showing them this picture. (This is not my original idea; it’s inspired from Bible Kids Fun Zone. I have a subscription and LOVE the lesson plans and printables available there.) To get the puzzle, click here or on the image below.

“What is this?” I asked my kiddos. They totally ignored our “Raise hand to speak” rule (which we had just finished revising) and started calling the answers out. Ahem! Hands please!

“It’s a puzzle. More importantly, it’s a puzzle of the world we live in now. But, in the beginning, our world was quite different! In fact, there were no trees, clouds, sun, people, animals, water or fish.” As I told them this, I removed each piece from the puzzle until there was nothing left.

“What do you see now?” I asked them.

“Nothing!” “Black!” “Dark!” “Paper!” they replied.

“That’s right! It was dark! BUT, in that darkness, Someone was there! God was there! “

To prove just how dark it was, I took out my shoe-box and asked each kiddo to take a look through the front hole. (This is an idea from by Janae from I Can Teach My Child. Please visit her post for instructions on how to make and use this box.)

I asked them again, “What do you see?” to which the responded, “Nothing!”

“But then,” I told them in a hushed tone. “God SPOKE!” And He said: “Let there be LIGHT!”

I asked each kiddo to look through the hole again. As they looked, I said, “Let there be light!” and switched on the flash light.

“I can see the light!” my little dears squealed!

After each child had a turn, I brought out some glitter bottles to help us re-tell the story of Creation. (There are many versions of how to make these glitter bottles floating around the internet. To make my two bottles, I used a tube of silver and gold glitter glue, black and white watercolor paint, fine and bigger glitter, some clear – and I stress CLEAR – Elmer’s school glue and warm water. I shook the bottles until the glue was evenly distributed. Simple, really.)

“So,” I recapped, “In the beginning, there was darkness…” I shook the black glitter bottle. The kids were mesmerized watching the glitter swirling about.

“But God had a plan. And He spoke out of the darkness and said, “Let there be light!” and light appeared.” I brought out the yellow glitter bottle and gave it a good shake.

Using the bottles, we recapped the first day of creation, and then we moved on and played a sorting game. We sorted Day and Night activities. (Click here to download the English version and here for the Romanian version).

We finished off the lesson by doing a craft, as shown in the picture below. (This craft was inspired by Preschool 4 All. I added some yellow and silver tissue paper to make it more interesting.)

Of course, I made a Take Home booklet for my kiddos. Click here or on the images to get the English version or here for the Romanian version).

I’ll be back next time with Day 2 of Creation 🙂

19 thoughts on “Sunday School Lesson 1 | Day 1 of Creation: Light”

  1. This is awesome, I love the idea of teaching each day separately! It’s even better if the kids enjoy it too! I hope everything is going good and can’t wait to see what you and Filip have been getting up to in your home schooling sessions! Love the Sunday school sessions,

  2. Hi Lavinia,
    I love your work that I’ve seen on TPT! You have an eye for little details and so much creativity! I Just wanted to say hi from across the world in Georgia (and from a fellow Romanian)

  3. I love this lesson. I am going to use it for my kiddos in Sunday School. Can you explain how you added the paint into the bottles? What kind of watercolor paint did you use. I am only familiar with the kind that comes in a tray and you have to dip a paint brush into it. Is that the kind that you used to mix into the bottles?

    1. Laurel,
      I used the water colour paint that comes in a tray. I popped out the small, hardened circle of paint and put it in some water and used a paint brush to rub over it until it dissolved to the shade of colour I needed. I hope this helps 🙂
      – Lavinia

      1. Thank you Lavinia for responding so quickly. I thought it would probably have to be dissolved somehow. Your method seems quick and easy. I can’t wait to do this with my class.

        – Laurel

  4. Lavinia,
    I just made my bottles and I wanted to let you know that I could not find a paint tray with black paint in it so I used Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint and it worked great. I just added a pea size drop and mixed it into the water. This paint is water based and so I guess that is why it worked. Now if I could only get my “light” bottle to look as yellow as yours. I might try a drop of yellow paint. I’ve already added some white paint. But it looks cloudy. I’ll experiment a little more and see how it turns out. Thanks again for your great lesson plan. I know my class is going to love it.
    -Laurel

  5. Just came across this on Pinterest. These lessons are truly a blessing! Thank you for being so generous and sharing all these free printables.

  6. Laurel callahan

    Just found your pin as I was looking through Pinterest for a visual for Creation! Love this! What a blessing! I’ll be trying this out for this Sunday’s 4-5 class!! Will let you know how it went.?Thank you

  7. Your work is such a blessing! Thank you so much! I am hoping to incorporate the Creation lessons into my VBS teaching this summer!

  8. Hi Lavinia,
    Thank you for such detailed information on this Creation Unit. It is really such a blessing. 🙂

    I am trying to print the Day 1 booklet. On my screen, on Day 1, it says “Today I learned” but when I go to print it, it says “Today I learnt”. I don’t think this is correct grammar and I would feel bad about sending it home with the students. Do you have any thoughts on why it’s doing this for me?

  9. I have looked at several of your lesson plans today! They are absolutely great! I love the little details. We are going to use the tiny water bottles and make these as our craft this week for Sabbath school. Thank you! We are spending 2 weeks on each day because kids need and like the repetition. Next week we are making glow in the dark light covers for their bedrooms. Thank you so much for sharing your little handout LOVE IT!

  10. I just came across this and I love it!! You did an awesome job explaining “ “Light” and visualization using the shoe box! God bless!

  11. Love these Sunday school lessons. I like that you start at the beginning and teach them in order. Do you have the rest of these lessons & printables some place? I would love to keep going after Abraham and Isaac. I’m not seeing any more downloads beyond that.

    Thanks for your time!
    Sarah

  12. This is my last year teaching preschool 4’s. I have almost come to peace about my decision but I’m just ready for something else.

    I wanted to thank you for sharing all of your things. I especially love how you tell the Creation Story and I have used your ideas for many years. You are amazing and I just wanted you to know that. 🙂

  13. I’m a Taiwanese. I read the lesson1, l really love your ideas to children, and can’t wait to use your resources on my kids. Wish that you can share more ideas about Sunday school!

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