Creation Games Idea:
Obstacle Course with Remote Control Cars

Idea originally posted by Member CoreyUMC

During our four-week Creation Story rotation, our Game Workshop had an obstacle course spread across the floor (just some stuff we collected and spread around). Then we placed SEVEN sheets of paper with the numbers one through seven on them (one for each day of Creation). The kids then drove remote control cars we brought in -- going to each of the seven cards in the correct order and saying what happened on that day before moving on.

Kids loved it.  Finding remote-control cars was pretty easy as several families had them. Just remember to have extra batteries!  One car had a rechargeable battery pack that needed plugged in. It lasted all of 8 minutes so the next Sunday I simply bought another car I found at Wal-Mart for $12. We taught with that car for three weeks in a row so I felt like it was a good investment.

Optional follow-up suggested by another member:
After doing the "7 Days of Creation Race," do another race where kids have to "name a way they can be good stewards of Creation" when they land on each of the seven cards. Work in pairs, one person driving and the other person doing the talking.

To view a lesson written using a "remote control car" idea, check out the Psalm 100 Games Workshop,

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Creation Game Idea

"How Few Can You Do?" is a popular scripture condensing game here at Rotation.org.

Begin by reading through the entire scripture. Then have student circle all the places you see God's name and all the synonyms for "created" or "made."

You begin by splitting into teams and giving each a printout of the scripture. Explain the rules at the beginning of each round. Explain that they will not only share the "most important" words they chose in each round, but why they didn't choose another word. Explain that they can change their mind about words based on what the other teams say in their explanations.  Adjust the number of words to be chosen in each round and number of rounds based on how long your passage is.

Round One: Circle the 12 most important words in the passage. If you choose "God" you do not need to circle it again even though it appears many times. Treat it as one instance.

Have each team share and defend their ten (by explaining why they thought that word was important).

Round Two: Keep only 8 of the 12 words. Put an X through the other four.

Have each team share and defend their chosen 8 (by explaining why they thought that word was important).

Round Three: Keep only 4 of the 12 words. Put an X through those not chosen.

Round Four: Only keep 2 of the 12 words by circling them with a bold circle.

Have each team share and defend their ten (by explaining why they thought that word was important).  Can you get it down to just one word? Try it and see!

Round Four: Have each individual person "vote" on a single word that they think is the "most important word in the passage." Tally the votes, discuss and debate their choices.

Teaching Tip:  As teams share the words they selected in each round write them on the board. If another team also chooses that word, write "+1" next to the word.  This way you can keep track of the choices picked by the entire group.  Good for debate too!

At the end of the game, take a vote on "which word or two" is the most important.

Lots of ways to play this! The point of the game is to discuss the meaning behind the words and identify any words which describe the passage's main theme. In Creation Story, for example, the final two words often end up being GOD and GOOD.

While you don't actually play "limbo," "How Few Can You Do?" is like word-limbo!

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Three Great Creation Story Games

from the Bible Skills and Games Workshop Lesson Plan by St Elmo's Choir

Summary of Games:

The teacher chooses from several of the following games:

• Who Am I? -- Students will identify what part of creation is taped to their back by asking other class members questions. Discover that what God created was named as "good."
• Creation Twister - "Thank - Care - Restore - Enjoy"
  A twister game with a twist!
• Creation Pictionary - guess what item a teammate is drawing. Discuss why do you suppose God found his creation "good."

Scripture Reference:

Genesis 1:1-2:4

Lesson Objectives:

• For participants to play together as they continue to explore creation, discovering that God created everything and called it "good."
  
  

Leader Preparation:

• Read the scripture.
• Select the games you will play based on the time and space you have. Note the supplies and preparation requirements for each game (shown below with each game). Familiarize yourself with the rules for each game you will play.
• Regardless of which game(s) are played, gather a whiteboard, an appropriate marker, and Bibles.

Lesson Plan

Opening

Greet your students warmly, welcoming them to the Bible Skills and Games Workshop. Introduce yourself and any other adults. (If needed, have the children introduce themselves.)

Tell the students what they will be doing today.

Dig

Ask participants to tell you what they remember from the Creation story. Allow all responses, if possible write (or draw) their answers on a whiteboard.

Say:  Now let's see how well we did at what we already know about the Creation story. Let's read the story together.

Do:  Make sure that everyone has access to a Bible. Depending on the age of your students, ask questions about where in the Bible we find the Creation story, is it in the Old or the New Testament, what book, and which chapters.

Read the story. Point out the parts they got right in their preview.

Play the game(s) you have chosen.

Closing

Close with a prayer, thanking God for creating everything, including us, and calling it all good!

Here are the descriptions of the four games to choose from:

Game: Who am I?

Students try to guess "which day of creation" is on their back.

Supplies needed:  Marker; blank stick-on labels, one per student  (or use masking tape)

In advance: Write on labels—creating one per student—things from creation (for example a star, land, elephant, tree, water, mountain, human, sun, cloud, etc.)

To play:

1. Place a sticker on each participant's back.
2. Tell participants they have been assigned an object that God created and their job is to find out what that object is. To do so, they must ask other class members, "Yes" or "No" questions with the goal being that everyone discovers who/what they are.
3. Play the game! When they figure out what they are, have them say, "God created __their object__ and saw that it was good."
4. IF you are up for the ultimate challenge, have the class members NOT able to talk. Then have them give clues to each other through mime/charades.
5. Maybe have two or three sets of stickers - easy, intermediate and expert.
6. You can also time your group and see if they can beat their own time each time they play!

Game: Creation "Twister"

Supplies needed:

• A real "Twister" vinyl game or a canvas drop cloth on which you have created rows of colored Twister dots.
• A real "Twister" spinning wheel.
• Marker and cards.

In advance:

TAPE or WRITE the following words to the "dots" of the Twister floor cover.

Red Dots: Thank God for Creation
(Something in creation I'm thankful for)

Blue Dots: Care for Creation
(Ways I care for creation)

Yellow Dots: Restore Creation
(Things that need fixing or are being hurt in creation)

Green: Enjoy Creation
(Things I can do to enjoy God's world and rest in it)

Write these same four things on corresponding colors found on the spinner wheel.

To play:

1. Have several students assemble around the outside of the board in their socks.
2. Have at least one student and leader run the "spinner."
3. Each time the spinner is spun, the person spinning calls out either "thank," "care," "restore," or "enjoy" and whether it's to be done with your left/right hand or left/right foot.  For example, "Left foot on Care!"
4. As soon as everyone puts their left foot on one of the "care" dots, students must shout out a "way to care" for creation. "Take care of animals!" etc etc etc. Don't spin again until one or two people have said something helpful.  Then spin again.

Game: Creation Pictionary

Supplies:  3x5 index cards cut in half; drawing paper; markers/pencils; a timer

In advance:  You'll want to create a stack of "pictionary" cards for kids to step forward, select, and draw.

Create approximately four cards each of the following categories:

1. Create a list of important words and phrases from the Creation Story scripture, such as, "In the beginning when God created," and "It was good." etc etc.

2. A day of creation and what was created on that day, such as, "Day 1: Light"

3. Things people can do to take care of the world, be stewards of God's creation, such as, "recycle," "don't litter," "plant a tree."

4. Things people can do to ENJOY God's good creation, such as: hiking, gardening, resting, watching the stars.

To play:

1. Break into groups of 3-5.
2. Have one member of each group come up at a time to see a clue. Once they have received the clue they are to go back to their group and draw that item for their group. Make sure groups know the artist CANNOT talk and the artist cannot write words on the page. Set a time limit on how long the artist has to draw.
3. **You can keep score BUT in an effort to eliminate some of the competition, make points extremely absurd in number so that no one can remember the real score (i.e., This clue is worth 546,688, 998.)
4. After each round of clues, have the students discuss what they think God liked about their item—why they think that God decided that a particular creation was "good."
5. Play as long as you like or as long as you have clues.
6. For an extra challenge, use Play-Doh as your medium instead of paper/pencil. Here students have to mold the clues. This is better for your older classes.
   
   

Creation

Games Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activity:  

The children will hear the Creation story from the book Crazy Clothesline Characters and experience mystery containers that hold objects which provide a sensory experience of the story. They will then play a Cranium-type game to recall the activities of creation.

Scripture Reference:  Genesis 1:1-2:3

Memory Verse:  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

Workshop Objectives — After completing this Rotation, the children will:

• Learn that “Genesis” means “beginning” and that it is the first book in the Bible and includes many stories, including the creation story.
• Learn that God is the Master Creator who existed before anything and created everything.
• Learn that God created everything and labeled it as good.

Leader Preparation:

• Read the scripture ahead of time.
• Gather the Materials 

Materials needed:

• Crazy Clothesline Characters by Carol Mader, (ISBN 0-7644-2140-9)
• Seven black gift bags, numbered 1 to 7, with black tissue paper. (The book suggested using oatmeal boxes painted black. Any black container will work as long as it is big enough to hold the materials listed below.)
• 9x13 pan, or similar size
• Daily items for each gift bag:
• • Day 1. Flashlight
  • Day 2. Ziploc bag, filled with air
  • Day 3. Jar of water, bag of sand and soil, flower or leaves, apple.
  • Day 4. Sun, moon, stars, planets
  • Day 5. Toy bird, fish
  • Day 6. Plastic animals, mirror
  • Day 7. Small pillow
• Two large cube boxes made into two dice.  One with numbers 1-6. Other with the five “Cranium” categories used in the lesson; the sixth side should be “Your Choice”
• Cranium Cards. (See attachments at end of lesson. If you wish to change some of the activities, you can use the docx. The pdf version is not easily edited.)
• Playdough
• Whiteboard markers
• Scoreboards, one per team. If laminated, can be used over again. (See attachment.)

Arrival Setup

• Get Bibles for every 2 children.

Presentation

Opening – Welcome and Lesson Introduction: 
Greet the children and introduce yourself. Wear your nametag.

Dig-Main Content and Reflection

Bible Story:
Gather the children on the floor around you. Have the gift bags in a box where the children can’t see them.
Distribute Bibles, one to every two children.

Say: We are learning about the creation of the world and everything in it.
The Bible is divided into two parts:
The Old Testament contains stories and writings from before Jesus was born.
The New Testament begins just before Jesus was born. It tells about Jesus’ life and ministry, and about what happened shortly after he died and rose from the dead.

Ask: Where in the Bible would we find the story of creation? (Old Testament)
Does anyone know the name of the book that the creation story is in? It’s the first book of the Bible. (Genesis)
Have the students find the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1, in their Bibles. Make sure it is noted that Genesis is the first book in the Old Testament.

Note: Even though you’ll be telling the story to the students, the exercise of finding the story is still important. We will do this every week.

Mystery Containers Story:

Say: Today, we are going to experience the story of creation through a fun story. Then we will play a game to see how much you recall. So, listen carefully. Plus, you’ll be helping me with the story.

Read "Mystery Containers Story" from Crazy Clothesline Characters
Put the items back in their bags so you are ready for next week. Class can help with this.

Creation Cranium:

Say: So God created everything in the world! It was all planned and had a purpose.
Now we are going to play a game to see how well we know when and what God created.
We are going to play a game similar to Cranium. Has anyone ever played?
It’s a fun game where you have to do all sorts of different funny things to get your team to guess the answer.

The object is to complete your team calendar so you can rest on the seventh day! When you answer a question correctly, you can mark that day off your calendar with a dry erase marker (if laminated, regular marker if not).

You will roll a pair of dice. On one die will be the day of the week that your question will come from. The other will be the type of activity you will have.

In our version, we’ll have the following types of activities:

• Cameo:  Act It: The person who rolls the die will try to get his or her team to guess the answer on the back of this card by acting out without making any noise.
• Factoid:  Determine It: Your team must determine whether the statement below is True or False. I’ll read the statement aloud, pass the card to you, and then start the timer. You may talk among yourselves but the person who rolled the dice must provide the answer.
• Polygraph: Know It: Your team must correctly answer the question below. I’ll read the question aloud, pass the card to you, and then start the timer. You may talk among yourselves but the person who rolled the dice must provide the answer. (For younger children, you may provide choices if they are not already given.)
• Sculptorades: Sculpt It: The person who rolled the die will try to get the team to guess the answer on the back of this card by sculpting the subject in playdough with no talking or gestures. I’ll read the hint aloud, pass the card to the artist, and then start the timer.
• Cloodle: Draw It: The person who rolled the die will try to get the team guess the answer on the back of this card by drawing clues on paper with no talking, letters or symbols. I’ll read the hint aloud, pass the car to the artist, and then start the timer.

Divide the class into two to four teams. Ideally, 4 or 5 children on a team. Let the team with the next birthday go first.

The first team to answer a question for each day of the week wins.

To make it go faster, if they repeat a day that they already have, you can let them either roll again or pick the day that they want.

Filler Time (if needed)

If you have time, allow the children to take turns selecting an animal and then trying to get others to guess it through either Act It, Sculpt It, or Draw It.

Reflecting and Closing
Discuss all the wonderful things God created. Close in prayer thanking God for all that is good!

Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help tidy up. Close the door and turn off the lights. Store your materials back in the cabinet. 

 REFERENCES

• Creation Lesson Set from River Community Church, Rotation.org, Amy Crane link,
• Mader, Carol. Crazy Clothesline Characters. Loveland, CO: Group Pub., 2000. Print.
• Cranium, Hasbro, ASIN B0036RNWOA. Print.

  A lesson written by Ann Wright from
Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church
Raleigh, NC.

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.
Photo credit: Cranium Sculptorade  by ValMan, via photopin. Licensed under Creative Commons.

To download the attachment of Cranium game cards, click on the underlined words "Creation Cranium.pdf")

7 BAGS OF PROPS ~ 1 FOR EACH DAY

This idea wasadapted from the book, Creative Clothesline Characters - 40 Ways to Tell a Bible Story (a book by Group now out of print but occasionally found online).

In this Storytelling Game, after introducing the Bible story of Creation, students are randomly assigned 7 bags of props/costume. Each bag represents one of the days of Creation.

Assembling the Bags

• Assemble 7 paper grocery sacks or shopping bags.
• Collect 2 or 3 props for each bag that represent a day in the Creation story (see suggestions below)
• Add a costume or piece of fabric that creatively represents that day.
• Write a reflection question on a slip of paper and put it in the bag, one for each day. This will be asked and answered after the kids tell "their day" to the rest of the class using the props in their bag.

Assign the Bags

• Make a game out of the bag assignment by racing to grab a bag or rolling a dice, or arranging from oldest to youngest student, or asking trivia questions about the scripture reading and assigning bags to those who correctly answer. This is purely a fun gimmick, the lesson is really "in the bag!"

Storytelling with the Bags

1. Let a confident student go first -- opening their bag, laying out their props/putting on their "costume," and having everyone guess "which day is in that bag."
2. Then have the student tell the story of that day using the props. Give them prompts if needed.
3. Have the student read their reflection question to the class and invite the student and others to answer.
4. End each day's story with the student or teacher saying "And God saw what he had made and said," with the students responding, "That's Good!"
5. Then place the bag with its props on a table -- where eventually all the bags will be placed (after their story is told) and then ARRANGED IN THE CORRECT CREATION ORDER by the class.
   
   If you have fewer than 7 students, have the teacher also take a bag or use the bags not taken in a second round of storytelling-game-bag assigning. If you have more than 7 students, double up on some of the bags.

Prop Suggestions

Genesis 1:1-5, Day 1: God hovered over the water, created light and separated it from darkness.

A bag of water and a bowl, a flashlight. Sunglasses.

Genesis 1:6-8, Day 2: God created the sky and separated it from the waters below.

A blue hand towel in a bag of water, a bowl. (kids squeeze the water out of the towel).  Rain boots.

Genesis 1:9-13, Day 3: God created the dry land, seas, plants and trees.

Dirt, a garden trowel, a plant that needs planted in the dirt. Gardening gloves.

Genesis 1:14-18, Day 4: God created the sun, moon and stars to mark the seasons, days and years.

A sheet of black paper, white paint and paintbrush, glue and silver glitter. Artist's beret or Smock.

Genesis 1:20-23, Day 5: God created the creatures that live in the sea and the creatures that fly.

Ocean creature and bird toys, stuffed sea creatures/birds.  Scuba mask and/or swim fins.

Genesis 1:24-31, Day 6: God created the land animals and humans in his image.

A stuffed land animal and modeling clay to make animals and humans.

Genesis 2:1-2, Day 7: God rested and blessed the seventh day as holy.

A blanket and pillow and party cup. A pair of binoculars to look over all Creation.

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Creation Obstacle Course

Interested in a unique way to introduce the account of creation found at the very beginning of the Bible?

A Neighborhood Community Day at Flippen UMC offered an opportunity to provide activities for children from the neighborhood. Rainy weather moved our Creation Obstacle Course indoors, but we enjoyed exploring the days of creation from Genesis with the following obstacle course.

Notes:

At the bottom of a closet I had found "wooden ice cream cone shapes" which were reused as Station Signs giving instructions for each step of the course.

Using supplies found in storage at the church or brought from home I designed simple activities for the children to move through celebrating the creation of the world as found in
Genesis 1 - Genesis 2:3.

Set-up & Directions

Day 1: "Let there be light..."

A push light and beanbags were all that was needed for this activity.  The kids enjoyed tossing the beanbags at the light to try to turn on the light.

Day 2: God separated the waters.

The original plan called for a larger bowl of water and two smaller bowls, one higher to represent the clouds and another lower to represent the seas. Children would use spoons to move water into both smaller bowls. To avoid a wet floor, we substituted clear floral marbles for water.

Day 3: "The earth brought forth vegetation."

Potted plants provided a slalom path for the children to move through.

Day 4: "God made the two great lights - the greater one to rule the day and the lesser one to rule the night - and the stars."

Children walked a wooden balance beam (board) from the sun to the moon, both cut from craft foam.

Day 5: "So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature with which the waters swarm..."

Once again avoiding messy water, we used a fishing pole—a large S hook and some wire—to hook fish—which were old shower curtain hooks that I had saved. (Sometimes being a pack rat does come in handy. )

Day 6: "God made the wild animals of every kind. So God created humankind in God's image."

A deck of animal cards came in handy for this portion of the obstacle course. Each child picked a card then moved across the room as though they were that animal.  A big hit!

Day 7: "...and God rested."

A comfy comforter, a three minute timer and a challenge to rest after all that activity.  Possibly the hardest part of the course.

We love Dena K's above Creation Obstacle Course!

Here are photos of our set-up, first showing the full layout taken from opposite ends of our hallway, then individual day stations. Note: I created our station signs using coloring pictures from this site https://www.coloring.ws/creation.htm.

Day 1 & Day 2

Day 3 & Day 4

Day 5 - had three things they could do here.

• Rotating Fish Game - Catch a fish (for older children).
• Wooden Undersea Puzzle - Place fish into the sea (for younger children).
• Squeeze a bird to hear it sing (Audubon Birds).

Day 6 & Day 7