This month classrooms are focusing on God the Father, especially in His role as Creator. One creative catechist made this set of bean bags depicting the seven days of creation, and used them as she told the story. The tactile clues brought a new dimension to the story and served as another way to trigger long-term memory. She later used them as review and challenged her students to retell elements of the story in their own words. What a fun idea!
Beanbags are a really simple sewing project and you can make your own set with a trip to a fabric store and the grocery store. If you buy 6 inches of each fabric, you will end up with finished beanbags that are about 5 inches square. (and have enough to make several sets, since most fabrics are at least 45 inches wide)
- Day and Night (any black and white fabrics)
- Sky and Water (a swirly blue, watery-looking fabric for one side and something fluffy and white [cloud-like] for the other side. Perhaps a piece of white polar fleece or the back of a sweatshirt knit)
- Dry land and Plants (For this one, our catechist purchased a microfiber cleaning mitt and cut it apart. See the “grassy” texture? On the other side, she used a scratchy burlap.)
- Sun/moon and stars (a sunshiny gold on one side and a star print for the other)
- Birds and fish (It would be ideal if you could find a cotton print with fish or birds on it, but she couldn’t. Instead, she just cut out bird and fish shapes and used fabric glue [or iron-on webbing] to attach them to the fabric.)
- Animals/people (There are many prints available that feature dogs, cats, and horses. Any of them will work well for the animal side of this beanbag. This set uses a reptile print for the animal side and a brown striped fabric to represent the varied skin tones of all the people God created on the other.)
- God rested (This set uses a print of a king on one side, and a royal purple for the other. You could also use something representing rest for one side, such as a snuggly flannel blanket fabric.)
To make a beanbag, cut two 6 inch squares of some firmly woven or knit fabric. (Anything that will contain beans or rice should work.)
Pin them together with the right sides facing each other and sew around the sides, leaving a 2-3 inch opening in the center of one side.
Turn it right side out and add the rice, split peas, lentils, navy beans or a similar dried bean product.
Fold the raw edges in so it all looks nice and even, and sew it shut. Those of you who are visual learners may want to see all the basic concepts demonstrated here.
This activity worked well in a classroom, but would also be a great gift for a godchild.
Family Formation 
I be curious to know more about how the teacher “used them as she told the story.”
I think it was pretty simple. As she told the story from Genesis, she used each beanbag to illustrate the concepts. “In the beginning the earth had no form and darkness covered everything” (while showing the black side of the first beanbag, “and when God spoke the words ‘Let there be light,’ there was!” (white side)”And on the first day of creation, God created night and day.” At that point she passed the beanbag around so the kids could feel the textures and see for themselves, and so on throughout the story. Later in the class time, she was able to effectively use them for review because the kids had heard, seen, and touched this lesson. It just added an extra element that helped them remember.