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Curriculum > Youth > Year 2 > Lesson 1

CONCEPTS IN LESSON

Explain the different components of the lesson and the reasons for them them as we go through the lesson
Highlight how God creates (by speaking)
Then highlight how Adam creates in the same way (by speaking)

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Device that allows class to view this video clip (from the movie Akeelah and the Bee)
Game of Pictionary – which should include:

White board or paper pad
Writing utensils
Pictionary cards
Optional: A playing board

OPENING PRAYER

OPENING QUESTION

We start today’s class with the opening question. One of the teachers will ask the question and then to give you some time to think of an answer, the teacher asking the question will also answer first to give you some time to think.
Once the teacher answers the question, we'll go around the circle.
When it's your turn, start with your name and then answer the question to the best of your ability.
Here's this week's question: What's something new that you've done recently?

TRANSITION TO VIDEO CLIP

Our lessons this year will be organized by sessions.
A session will consist of 3 classes grouped together by a shared idea found in the three Bible stories that we'll be reading during those 3 classes in that one session.
So our first session is going to be about stories that help us think about how God communicates with us and how we communicate with God.
So to get started with today's lesson, the next thing we're going to do is watch a movie clip.
We usually watch a movie clip every class.
The movie clip is meant to help us think about how at least one of the themes that we'll see in the Bible story (that we'll read in class) is still alive and well in the stories we tell and listen to in the here-and-now.
Sometimes we'll watch the clip after the opening question, sometimes near the end of class.
Today, we're going to watch the movie clip after the opening question.
The movie clip is from the movie, "Akeelah and the Bee"
Akeelah is studying for the National Spelling Bee. And, she has a coach.
In the clip, she's having her first lesson with her coach.
As we'll see, there will be some disagreement about the best way to prepare.
Let's see what happens

WATCH VIDEO CLIP

ASK – answers are in parenthesis

So what are the two sides of the argument that Akeelah and her coach are having? (rote memorization vs understanding the power of the words)
According to the clip, how are larger words made? (with smaller words)
At one point in the clip, the coach says, "W.E.B. Dubois, Martin Luther King Jr and JFK used words to change the world." Do you agree? If so, how do you think words change the world?

TELL

Today, we're going to read two stories that are about words and language
We'll read the first number of verses in Genesis, the first book in the Bible, and we'll read a few verse from chapter 2 in Genesis as well.
There's a number of things we could talk about because there's a lot of things happening in these verses, but the main thing we're focusing on today is about language.
So pay attention to the role that words have in the story.
Note: Every class will have a Bible story in it. And we will read it aloud, one student per verse, from the Bibles in the classroom.
Let's do that now (read the story) and see what happens

READ SCRIPTURE GENESIS 1:1-13; 2:18-20

Recommend class reads it out loud; one person per verse

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

ASK – answers are in parenthesis

In the first story, verse 1 and 2, what was there before God started creating? (darkness, formless void)
What does God do in verse 3? (God speaks)
What does God say? (Let there be light)
Was there then light? (yes)
In verse 5, how does God separate the light from the darkness? (by calling the light "day" and by calling the dark, "Night")
In verse 6, what does God do? (speaks again… "And God said")
Then again in verse 9 and 11, what is God doing? (speaking… "And God said")
In verse 11, how does God separate the land and the water? (called the dry land "earth" and the gathered waters as "seas")
At the end of verse 12, how does God see creation? (Good)
In the second story, verse 19, why does God send the animals to Adam? (to see what Adam would call them)
And does Adam do that? (yes, he gave names to the animals)
In giving the animals names, what does Adam learn/realize/see? (that there was no partner for him)

TELL

You may not have noticed it, but almost every single one of your answers was about God speaking
God said "Let there be light."
God named the light "day" and the dark "night."
God said "Let the waters be gathered in one place"
God said "Let there be vegetation"
And then later on, Adam names the animals
At the beginning of the passage, we see that God starts with a big mess of nothing. Just swirling darkness and chaos.
And then, God uses words to single out and separate one thing from another thing
It's almost like God is untangling wires. Imagine how you have to pull one wire out of the big mess of wires or how you have to untangle headphones.
The story we just read tells us that God did a similar thing, only God used words to separate that big mess. God "untangled" light from darkness and then called the one, "day" and called the other, "night."
And just like that, those two wires of "night" and "day" were no longer part of the tangled mess, but were separated and organized by being properly named.
Fun fact: The simplest definition of language is the "naming of things."
As we can see in this story how the "naming of things" is a very useful tool that God uses to create with
And then, we see that this very same tool that God used to create what we live in, God gave to us to use! God even encourages Adam to practice the use of language in the second part of the story.
So when the coach from the movie clip says that "W.E.B. Dubois, Martin Luther King Jr and JFK used words to change the world," he's right!
What today's story tells us is that all of us have been given this gift of language, a gift whose purpose shapes and forms the world we live in.
How cool is that!?
So, next week and the week after, we'll talk about how words play an important role in our relationship with God
But for now, we'll practice putting words to chaos, like God did in the story, but we'll do it by playing the board game of "Pictionary"

EXPLAIN ACTIVITY

There will be two teams.
One team picks a draw-er.
The draw-er is given a word to draw (from a pictionary card)
The draw-er's team has one minute to guess what the draw-er is drawing.
If that team guesses correctly, they get 1 point and it's the other team's turn.
If that team doesn't guess correctly, then the other team gets 10 seconds to yell out their thoughts or ideas. If they get it correct within that time frame, then they get the point and it is their turn.
We'll play until we run out of time.

DO ACTIVITY

TELL

In this activity, we looked at the chaotic lines (some more chaotic than others) on the board and we gave names to those chaotic lines
And for some of us, once those names were given, then the chaotic lines suddenly made a lot more sense
This is how words work - and how words create.
They help us see what exists.
They help us understand what we are looking at.
And, as we get better as using them, we can then use words to help others see and understand.
And that's good news.

CLOSING PRAYER

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Genesis 1:1-13 and Genesis 2:18-20

Creation And Naming Of Animals

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