Here is the next in our series of children’s church lessons about the days of creation. On day four, God made the Sun, Moon and stars. This lesson was originally designed for as a kids church lesson for children age 5 – 11. It would also work as the Bible lesson for children’s Sunday school. 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 fourth day of Creation from Genesis 1:14-19
Learning Objectives: After this lesson, the children will demonstrate:
The understanding of what God created on the first, second, third and fourth days of creation by working in groups and explaining it to the teacher.
Target Age: Kindergarten – 5th
Items Needed:
- [print_link] this lesson plan
- Bible: Genesis 1:14-19. There is a detailed account of these verses below to help emphasize the importance of these few verses.
- Flashlight, apple, fork
- #s 1-20 written on ½ sheets of paper, #s 1-20 written on small strips of paper, CD player, CD, Bowl, Tape
Worship
- You can print off these “Creation Songs” and use to lead the children to sing before the Bible lesson.
- You can also try the “My God is so BIG” preschool song.
Teaching Plan: The Fourth Day of Creation
Bible Lesson Introduction
**Review Creation Days #1-3**
Following are some questions to review what God created on the first, second and third 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 did God create on the third day of creation?“ land, plants with seeds, plants with fruit with seeds
“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
Bible Lesson
Have the children open their Bibles to Genesis 1:14-19 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 1:14-19 aloud to the children.
“God said, “Let there be lights in the huge space of the sky. Let them separate the day from the night. Let them serve as signs to mark off the seasons and the days and the years. Let them serve as lights in the huge space of the sky to give light on the earth.” And that’s exactly what happened. God made two great lights. He made the larger light to rule over the day. He made the smaller light to rule over the night. He also made the stars. God put the lights in the huge space of the sky to give light on the earth. He put them there to rule over the day and the night. He put them there to separate light from darkness.
God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning. It was day four.”
NIrV (New International Reader’s Version)
Discuss the Bible Reading
- God said, “Let there be lights in the huge space of the sky.”
Wait a minute! I thought God created light on the first day of creation? He did, these are specific lights that He created. Let’s look ahead at what they are and why they were made.
- Let them separate the day from the night.
Oh, that’s why. God needed something to separate the day from the night. He gave us something specific to mark the days with.
- Let them serve as signs to mark off the seasons and the days and the years.
What do we have that helps us keep track of days, years and seasons? (allow for responses) Right, we have calendars to help us keep track of those things. God gave us the lights so that we could have a sort of “calendar” to go by.
- Let them serve as lights in the huge space of the sky to give light on the earth.” And that’s exactly what happened.
God made the lights to give light to the entire earth.
- God made two great lights. He made the larger light to rule over the day. He made the smaller light to rule over the night.
What did God make today? (allow for responses) God made the sun and the moon today. He made the bigger light, the sun, be in the daytime and the smaller light, the moon, for the night. God made it lighter in the day and darker at night on purpose. Why do you think He did that? (allow for responses) I’m not sure, but can you even imagine a world where we didn’t have any darkness? (allow for responses)
- He also made the stars. God put the lights in the huge space of the sky to give light on the earth. He put them there to rule over the day and the night. He put them there to separate light from darkness.
So, He didn’t just make the sun and the moon, but He made the stars too? Why do you think He made the moon and the stars for the night? (allow for responses) I don’t know, but maybe with one big light and many little lights it keeps it dark enough more than one really big light.
- God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning. It was day four.
Again, God was pleased with what He had created on the fourth day of creation.
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: Moon Phases
“Now, let’s experiment with why the Moon has phases. All it takes is a bright flashlight and an apple on a fork makes a great Moon.”
- Have a child come up and hold the flashlight. They are the sun.
- Have another child come up and hole the apple on the fork. The apple is the moon and their head is the earth.
“If you hold the apple out at arm’s length just above the flashlight while facing the Sun, you can’t see it. This is New Moon. The Moon is still in the sky, but we can’t see it because of the bright sunlight. Now keep the apple at arm’s length and turn slowly counterclockwise and watch what happens. That’s right! You see the apple go through phases, just like our Moon. When your back is towards the Sun, you see the apple as whole, and it will be Full Moon. The Moon will rise on the opposite side of the Earth at the same time the Sun goes down. Keep turning and you’ll see the phases reverse as the Moon moves back towards the Sun again.”
Activity: Bible Verse Memorization
“God made two great lights. He also made the stars.” Genesis 1:16 (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:
“God”—the hand is raised to the heavens and then downward in a sign of respect
“made”—the fists twist on top of one another, as if they were putting something together
“two”—hold two fingers up
“great lights”—the middle finger is flicks the front of the mouth
“He”— the hand is raised to the heavens and then downward in a sign of respect
“also made”— the fists twist on top of one another, as if they were putting something together
“the stars”—the index fingers rub against each other as the hands are held up pointing to the sky
“Genesis 1”—hold one finger up
“16”—hold 3 fingers up (make sure it’s the middle three fingers) and twist the wrist
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: Bible Verse Cake Walk
- Before you start the game, tape the numbered ½ sheets of paper on the floor in a large circle (only tape down the numbers corresponding to the number of children you have in class that day
- Put the small numbered strips of paper into the bowl, with numbers on them corresponding to the number of children you have in class that day
“You are all going to start by a number on the floor. I will start the music and you will all walk around the circle. When the music stops, you stop by a number. I will then pull a number out of this bowl and whoever is standing by the matching number, says or signs the Bible Verse.”
Optional Activity: Read a children’s story about the moon such as Fool Moon Rising.
Evaluation:
Put the children into 4 groups and assign each group a day of creation. Each group must be able to tell the teacher what God created on that day of creation. If you have time, assign the groups a different day of creation (doing this 4 times so that each group will have explained each day of creation.)
Need More Help? Then try our free Bible story book about Creation or browse all our story of creation teaching materials.