Use this preschool Bible lesson to teach children about the 3rd day of creation when God made the plants. This lesson plan was first written for children age 2-5. It could also be used as the Bible lesson for Sunday school or children’s church. 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 Objectives: After this lesson, the children will demonstrate:
The understanding of what God created on the third day of creation by showing hand motions.
Target Age: 2 year olds – 5 year olds
- PRINT this lesson plan
- Bible: Genesis 1:9-13. There is a separate book to use as a visual if you would like to use it.
- Multiple sets of 2 pictures each of fruits, vegetables, flowers, water, land, plants and trees, Ziploc bags
- Misc. flowers, plants (real or fake), an apple, knife, large flat dish, water, large rock that will fit in the middle of the dish, large bag that holds everything
- newspaper to cover the tables, chocolate pudding, a few potatoes cut in half, a few apples cut in half, construction paper, bowls for the pudding, seeds of different shapes, sizes, colors (any that you can find will be fine), the following written on a slip of paper: “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.’” Genesis 1:11, marker to write the children’s names on their papers
- 1 styrofoam cup per child, dirt, seeds, Bible Verse written on a slip of paper, tape, marker to write the children’s names on their cups
- Don’t miss all our creation coloring pages.
- 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 Third Day of Creation
- Matching Game – have 2 pictures each of fruits, vegetables, flowers, water, land, plants and trees. Make multiple sets. Place in a Ziploc bag or paper clip each game separately so multiple children can play their own game or with a partner.
Read Genesis 1:9-13 aloud to the children. There is also a book that you can print out that has the story along with simple pictures to help the children understand what is being read.
“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)
**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 story to the children. Point to the pictures as you read the story so that the children can better understand what you are saying.
Read the story again, but this time, bring out the items from the bag as you talk about them. Following are the 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)
Discuss the Bible Reading
When you are finished reading the story the second time, ask the children the following questions so that you can know they understood it.
“Who was in the story?” God
“What was all together at the beginning of the story?” Water
“What did God create in the story today?” The Land, Trees, Plants, Fruit
“What number day was it in the story today?” Three
Bible Lesson Craft / Activity
Use the following activities to reinforce the learning goals. If time is short, move on to the evaluation portion of the lesson plan.
Activity: Fruit/Vegetable Stamping
- Have the children choose a piece of construction paper
- Let the children glue the saying onto their paper
- As the children are gluing, walk around and write their names on their paper
- Have the children flip their paper around so that they have a blank page
“What did God create in our Bible Story today? (allow for responses….plants, flowers, fruit with seeds) Today we are going to use fruit and vegetables to stamp a picture. (hold up the potato) Who can tell me what this is? (allow for responses) Right, it’s a potato. A potato is a vegetable. (hold up the apple) Who can tell me what this is? (allow for responses) Right, it’s and apple. An apple is a fruit. As we learned during our Bible, apples have seeds in the middle of them.
We are going use the potatoes and apples to stamp a picture onto our paper. But we’re not going to use paint or ink. We are going to use chocolate pudding to make the picture. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Then when we are finished, we can sprinkle seeds onto our picture. God made the fruit, vegetables and seeds during our story today. So we are going to use fruit, vegetables and seeds to make a picture.”
- Pour a little of the pudding into each of the bowls (you can always add more when it runs out)
- Demonstrate to the children how to dip the potato or apple into the pudding, just enough so that the bottom has pudding on it, and stamp it onto their paper.
- Allow them to continue to stamp a few times onto their paper, making sure that everyone has a turn with the potato and apple.
- As each child is finished stamping, give them some seeds to sprinkle onto their paper.
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 at this age.
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. Won’t that be great? Let’s get started!”
- Give each child their own styrofoam cup
- Let the children tape their Bible Verse onto the side of their cup (some of the children might need help with this)
- As the children are taping their verse onto their cup, you can go around and write their names onto the cups
- 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.
“We are going to practice what we have learned so far about what God has created.”
“First there was darkness and light” (cover eyes with hands and then release)
“Then there was water and sky” (make waves with hands & arms & then wave up in the air)
“Then there were dirt and trees” (wiggle fingers in front of you for dirt & grow up like a tree)
* Repeat the saying along with the hand motions. Then ask the children what God created on each day of creation and have them do the motions by themselves and say what He did.