This Bible lesson from Genesis 1 was originally written for children’s church age 5 – 11. It could also be used as the lesson for children’s Sunday school about God’s work of creation. This lesson is part of a series of Bible lessons about creation. Be sure to consider your own ministry context and modify it as needed. Please leave any feedback or suggestions for improvement in the comment box at the bottom of this page.
Bible Story: The third day of Creation from Genesis 1:9-13
Learning Objective: After this lesson, the children will demonstrate understanding of what God created on the first, second and third day of creation by answering questions.
Target Age: Kindergarten – 5th
Items Needed:
- [print_link] this lesson plan
- Bible: Genesis 1:9-13. There is a detailed account of these verses below to help emphasize the importance of these few verses.
- Large bag, misc. flowers or plants, an apple, knife, large flat dish, water
- Styrofoam cup (1 per child), dirt, seeds, Bible Verse written on a slip of paper, tape, markers
Worship
- You can print off these Creation Songs and use to lead the children to sing before the Bible lesson.
Teaching Plan: The Second Day of Creation
Bible Lesson Introduction
If time allows, begin with a review of the previous two lessons in this series, Creation Day #1 –Creation Day #2
Following are some questions to review what God created on the first and second days of Creation. The answers are in italics.
- “What did God create on the first day of creation?” heavens, earth, light
- “What did God create on the second day of creation?” the sky to separate the water
- “What is the difference between ‘making’ and ‘creating’?” to make something is to already have ingredients and just putting them together and to create something means to make something out of nothing
- “Did God create or make the world?” create…He didn’t have anything to start with
Bible Lesson
Have the children open their Bibles to Genesis 1:9-13. To help them find it, use the following questions. Answers in italics.
- What is the first book of the Bible? Genesis
- Which part of the Bible is Genesis in? Old Testament
Read Genesis 1:9-13 aloud to the children.
“God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place. Let dry ground appear.” And that’s exactly what happened. God called the dry ground “land.” He called the waters that were gathered together “oceans.” And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land produce plants. Let them bear their own seeds. And let there be trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it. Let each kind of plant or tree have its own kind of seeds.” And that’s exactly what happened. The land produced plants. Each kind of plant had its own kind of seeds. The land produced trees that bore fruit with seeds in it. Each kind of tree had its own kind of seeds.
God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning. It was day three.”
NIrV (New International Reader’s Version)
Discuss the Bible Reading
- God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place. Let dry ground appear.” And that’s exactly what happened.
God created dry ground! Why do you think He created dry ground? (allow for responses) He created dry ground because not everything that He was going to create would be able to live in the water. So now He made dry ground appear so that the earth wouldn’t just be covered with water.
- God called the dry ground “land.” He called the waters that were gathered together “oceans.”
God is naming things again here. He named the land and now He finally named the water.
- And God saw that it was good.
God is pleased with His work. He sees that what He has done is good. This shows that God has feelings and that He thinks about things. He made dry ground and stood back to admire what He did. He looked at it and saw that it was good.
- Then God said, “Let the land produce plants. Let them bear their own seeds.
This is the first living thing on the earth that God has created. Up until now He had been preparing the earth for living things. He makes sure that the plants have their own seeds. Why do you think plants need seeds? (allow for responses) Right! God needed the plants to be able to make more plants, so He gave them seeds.
- And let there be trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it. Let each kind of plant or tree have its own kind of seeds.”
So not only did God create plants with seeds, He now creates trees with fruit. The fruit also needed to have seeds.
- And that’s exactly what happened. The land produced plants. Each kind of plant had its own kind of seeds. The land produced trees that bore fruit with seeds in it. Each kind of tree had its own kind of seeds.
Things happen the way God says they will.
- God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning.
Again, God is looking at His creation and saw that everything He had created so far was good.
- It was day three.
What a big day the third day of creation has been! God made dry ground, plants and trees with fruit. He also named the land and the oceans.
Bible Lesson Activities
Use the following activities to reinforce the learning goals. If time is short, move on to the evaluation portion of the lesson plan.
Activity: Day 3 Demonstration
**Before class, put all of the items inside of the large bag so that it will be a surprise to the children during the story.
Read the Bible Story again (just the verses), but this time bring out the items from the bag as you talk about them. Following are words to look for:
“God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place.”
(bring out the large dish and water. Pour the water into the dish.)
“Let dry ground appear.”
(bring out the large rock and place it in the middle of the dish…show the children how the water is separated)
“Let the land produce plants.”
(bring out the plants and flowers and place them on the side of the dish…they probably won’t fit inside of it)
“And let there be trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it.”
(bring out the apple and cut it in half to show the seeds)
Activity: Bible Verse Memorization
Then God said, “Let the land produce plants.” Genesis 1:11 (New International Reader’s Version)
Have the children do the following hand motions along with repeating the words after you, to help them learn the Bible Verse:
“Then God”— hold hand up with fingers towards the sky…the hand is raised to the heavens and then downward in a sign of respect
“said”—the index finger rolls forth from the mouth in a circular motion
“Let the land”—have hands close to body, with fingers spread out, and make a circle with hands away from the body
“produce plants”—hold one hand sideways with fingers in a form of a “c”, then “push” other hand through it as though it were a plant blooming
“Genesis 1”—hold up 1 finger
“11”—hold up 1 finger on each hand and put them side by side
Do this a few times with the children. Make it fun for them to do the motions and say the words. Involving them in active learning is essential for memorization.
Activity: Planting Seeds
“What did God create in our Bible Verse today? (allow for responses) Right, God made the plants. How do plants get started? (allow for responses) Plants get started from seeds. God didn’t need seeds. He is powerful enough to just make the plants without using seeds. We aren’t even close to being powerful enough as God, so we need to have seeds to grow a plant. That’s what we’re going to do today. We are going to plant a seed. You will be able to take it home and help it to grow into a plant. You will need to water it and let it get sunshine in order for it to grow.”
- Give each child their own styrofoam cup
- Let the children write their name on their cup and decorate it however they would like
- Let the children tape their Bible Verse onto the side of their cup
- After the children are done with taping the Bible Verse, demonstrate how to put the dirt into their cups.
- Give each child a seed (or a few seeds depending on what kind you got)
- Demonstrate to the children how to push their seed into the dirt and make sure that it’s covered.
Evaluation: Put three chairs across the room – mark them Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. Ask the children to walk to the chair that corresponds with the day that God created each item you will list. The list follows:
- seed-bearing plants (third)
- the sky (second)
- called dry ground “land” (third)
- light (first)
- called the light “day” (first)
- trees with fruit (third)
- called the darkness “night” (first)
- called the gathered water “seas” (third)
Need More Help? The check out all our free children’s Bible lessons or find free Bible crafts online.
Last week we studied Creation Day #2 – While I was reading the scripture a 3rd grader decided to stand up beside me and gesture while I read. Then a 5th grader joined him and was upset that I was finished reading, so I started over. I LOVE the Bible memorization activity in this lesson. I would have guessed that that activity would have been best for the preschool crowd, but I know the kids will be so excited after their own attempts to act out last week’s lesson. Thank You!