God Made All Things

A long time ago, there was nothing. No sun. No moon. No sky. No animals. No people. But Jehovah was there. Jehovah is our God. He is very kind. He is very strong. Jehovah made everything!

First, he said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! Now it was not dark. He made a big sun to shine in the day. He made the moon and the stars to glow at night. Then Jehovah made the sky. He made the land and the sea. He made tall trees and green grass. He made many bright flowers. He made big rocks and little ones, too!

Next, Jehovah made the animals. He made birds to fly in the sky. He made fish to swim in the sea. He made bugs that buzz and hop. He made cats, dogs, cows, bears, and even lions! Last, Jehovah made the first people. He made a man and a woman. They had a home in a beautiful garden.

Jehovah saw all that he made. And it was very good. Jehovah is the Creator. He made the whole world. He made you and me. Jehovah loves us very much.

•Print Concepts (ELA.K.F.1.1):

    ◦ Locating a printed word and distinguishing letters from words: The short sentences and clear spacing make individual words easy to identify and point to.

    ◦ Matching print to speech (one-to-one correspondence): Each sentence is brief and contains a limited number of words, making it easier for a child to track the words as an adult reads them aloud.

    ◦ Moving top to bottom and left to right on the printed page [19e]: The clear, structured layout of short paragraphs and sentences naturally guides the reader's eye movement.

    ◦ Recognizing that print conveys specific meaning and pictures may support meaning: The simple, descriptive language used allows for easy visualization, making it suitable for pairing with illustrations. Many sources emphasize the use of visuals for Kindergarten texts.

• Key Vocabulary Words: The story repeatedly uses core vocabulary from Genesis 1-2, such as Jehovah, God, made, Creator, sun, moon, sky, land, sea, animals, man, woman, and garden. These words are central to the story's meaning and are often introduced early in religious and general knowledge texts for young children.

• CVC Words (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant):

    ◦ The story integrates several CVC words, which are crucial for developing early phonics skills. Examples include: sun, man, big, not, had, fish, bug, cat, dog. These types of words are common in emergent-reader texts.

• High-Frequency/Sight Words:

    ◦ Many words in the story, highlighted in bold, are drawn directly from or are common in the Dolch and Fry high-frequency word lists. Kindergarten students are expected to recognize these words with automaticity. Examples include: a, all, and, animal, are, around, as, at, away, back, be, because, been, before, best, big, bird, but, by, came, can, come, could, day, did, do, down, each, even, first, fish, flower, fly, for, found, from, garden, get, give, go, good, green, had, he, here, him, his, home, how, I, in, is, it, kind, land, last, let, light, little, live, long, look, made, make, man, many, me, much, must, my, next, night, no, not, now, of, old, on, one, only, or, our, out, people, said, saw, sea, see, she, small, so, take, that, the, them, then, there, these, they, thing, time, to, too, tree, us, use, very, was, we, where, which, will, world, you.

The extensive use of these words helps build fluency and automaticity.