Goal:
To learn the importance in both Judaism and Christianity of a day of rest and worship.

Materials:
Find a copy of the book The Creation, by Steven Mitchell
Gather materials for making a mural: long paper, markers, colored pencils, crayons etc. Label the section of the mural paper as follows:
First day: light and darknes/day and night
Second day: sky and earth and seas
Third day: all kinds of plants
Fourth day: sun, moon, and stars
Fifth day: living creatures of sky and seas
Sixth day: living creatures of earth

Activities:
Read Background

Introduce the story by saying something like:
“The Sabbath is a very old Jewish celebration. Long, long ago, when the Jewish people worked hard for many hours every day planting in the fields and caring from their farm animals, the seventh day of the week was set aside so they could rest from their work and worship their god. For the Jews, the seventh day was their day of worship and they called it Shabbat. The Jewish Shabbat began at sundown on Friday and ended at sundown on Saturday. Today Jews celebrate Shabbat in many different ways. Some customs include setting the Friday evening Shabbat table in the home with the best dishes, with wine, with sweet braided bread called challot and with candlesticks. A blessing, or special words, is spoken to mark this time as holy before the meal is eaten. On Shabbat morning, the family attends services in the synagogue. On Saturday evening a special blessing is said thanking God for the Sabbath and a new week has started.

But others observe Sunday as their Sabbath, their day to rest and worship their god. Who are these people? What is their religion called? Making the seventh day of the week a day of rest and worship comes from an old, old story of how the world was made. We think that when this story says ‘day,’ it is really talking about a long period of time—maybe even thousands and thousands of years!

Read The Creation by Steven Mitchell

Discuss: Why do you think things happened in that order?
Why do you think people were created last?
Why do you think God rested? Why should people stop work and rest?

Make a mural of the story—a long picture that tells the story from beginning to end.