And Then God Rested (Week 12)

Manna Moment:

After creating the Earth, space, time and everything in between, God rested, not for His sake but for ours.  Rest is part of living.  During class, we focused on why rest is important for animals and us alike and how even music has a note named, 'rest'.

Where did the world come from?

We learned the last day of this poem with the hand motions that are below.  The hand motions were a great way for me to remember this delightful poem and the students were able to remember it so much better than me.

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Recount the Days of Creation

I reviewed the days of Creation as I did last week except added the 7th day to the end.  I am not a great artist but one of my students stepped in and helped me draw a person resting.

We continued to review and I used the memory cards that I had made last week and added the 7th day to the mix.  I also made a colored version because it actually took me longer than I thought to color each day of creation.  I printed a few more sets and we had a large review memory game.
I love observing these students and how they respond to the different activities I have planned.  There were several students who were very familiar with this game and knew exactly what to do and what to pay attention to.  Other students did not yet see the benefit to watching others turn over cards in order to see if they could remember where the matches might be.  And then finally, there was one student who saw the blanket of white cards and felt overwhelmed, not knowing where to start because he didn't 'know' where the matches were.
I made the analogy for these students that our world is very complex and often, we do not understand how things are or even what they are, similar to our blanket of white memory cards.  Scientists have to turn over cards and knowledge and experience and attempt to match and make connections.  Those who are paying attention, might be able to help them make their matches. (We did have some teamwork happening during the game, this was perfect!). The student that could not really choose a card was afraid of not finding the matches.  I told him that he can try and it is okay to not find a match, it might help your fellow classmates find matches or you can observe the other players and glean insights from them for his next turn.

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A Rest from Memory Match

After playing a longer game of memory match than planned, the students were ready to move.  This went into my next activity of having them jump or do jumping jacks until they were tired.  When their bodies get tired from doing physical activity, they need to rest. 

Read Aloud:  Sleep is for Everyone by Paul Showers

Sometimes I think that children do not see why they need to rest and sleep.  This book opens with the fact that even animals need to sleep.  At the beginning the book it talks about different ways that animals close their eyes, if they do, when they sleep and then goes through to showcase some scientists that tried to go without sleep for days and the effects of no sleep on the body.
God created us with a need for rest.  The fourth commandment says for us to Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy acknowledging God's good creation.

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Practicing Rest

I handed out blindfolds to all the students and had them pick a place on the floor to lay down.  While they were laying down, I sang to them the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song from Day 4 of creation.

Musical Chairs

Playing Ross King's Genesis song, we played musical chairs to emphasize that music also has 'rest' and it is intentional for the music to sound beautiful.

And there was evening and there was morning on the Seventh Day...