There is an action at the end of most of the lines. Read the line, then tell your child or children what action they should do or noise they should make. Then do it with them. Playfully, of course!
Everything was dark, at first. (Put your hands over your eyes. Shut them tight!)
You couldn’t see a thing.
Then God said: “Light!” (Say: “Light!”)
And it wasn’t dark anymore, it was bright! (Open your eyes!)
Then God separated the dark from the light.
He called the light ‘day’ (Shout: “Day!”) and the darkness ‘night’. (Whisper: “Night.”)
And that was the end of the first day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
Then God said: “Sea!” (Can you make a wavy motion with your hands? Or pretend that you’re surfing on the waves and go: “Wee!”)
He said: “Sky!” (Look up and draw the shape of a cloud with your finger.)
And then he said: “Heavens!” (Why not pretend that you’re looking through a telescope?)
And that was the end of the second day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
Next God said: “Earth!”
And mountains pushed their way up through the seas. (Make a mountain shape with your hands.)
God said: “Plants!”
And trees and grass and flowers wiggled up out of the ground. (Can you wiggle? Can you make wavy branches with your arms?)
Then God said: “Fruit!” And flowers sprouted from stems and fruit from wavy branches. (Can you pretend to smell the flowers? Can you take a bite of pretend fruit?)
And that was the end of the third day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
God called for the Sun, next. (Make a great big sunny smile.)
Then he called for the Moon. (Say: “Moooooon!”)
And he finished off the night sky with a chorus of shining stars. (Wiggle your fingers. Sing ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’.)
And that was the end of the fourth day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
God said: “Fish!” (Make a fish face!)
And there was loads of splashing and swimming and whatever it is that octopuses do.
(Pretend you’re a fish, whichever one you like!)
Then God said: “Birds!”
And they came to him, flapping (can you flap your arms?) and tweeting (can you make a tweeting sound?) and squawking. (Go on, make a sound like a parrot!)
And that was the end of the fifth day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
God said: “Animals!”
And there were wild animals. (Make a wild animal sound.)
And there were farm animals. (Make a farm animal sound.)
And there were creepy crawly animals, too. (Move your hand like a spider or a snake.)
Then, finally, and best of all, God said: “People!”
And there was a man. (Point to a man or a boy.)
And there was a woman. (Point to a girl or a woman.)
Made in God’s image - to talk with him and take care of the world he had made.
And that was the end of the sixth day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
Then God looked at everything he had made.
“It’s all good,” he said. (Hold one thumb up.)
“Really good!” (Hold a second thumb up.)
And so, on the seventh day he did what anyone would do when six good days’ work was done.
He rested. (Pretend to go to sleep. Make a little snoring sound.)
And that was the end of the seventh day. (Shout: “Hooray!”)
This story is taken from The playalong Bible, written by Bob Hartman, illustrated by Susie Poole, and published by Tyndale.
