Fun, learning activities teach children the promise of a rainbow.
The Genesis account of the flood, Noah and his amazing animal-filled ark is a favorite Bible story for children. The story of Noah teaches children the power of faith, God's love and the power of His promises. The story also lends itself to a number of activities that you can do at home or in a Bible class.
Do You Noah Me?
Create a quiz game for the students following the Bible lesson. You can divide them into teams and play for a prize or incentive. You can ask them questions such as: What does a rainbow mean? How many people were on the ark? How many animals did God tell Noah to put on the ark? Children love to do competitive activities.
Two-by-Two Animal Cracker Snack
Sometimes, the most powerful lessons are also the tastiest. For this activity, you should have animal crackers and either peanut butter (if no children are allergic to nuts), cream cheese or chocolate icing. Allow the children to identify the pairs of animal crackers and use a yummy spread to match the pair, just as Noah did.
God's Rainbow
At the end of the flood, God promised Noah that he would never destroy the Earth with water again. As a sign of his promise, he placed a rainbow in the sky. This is an excellent time to teach or reinforce color recognition skills with younger children. You can have younger children color or paint a rainbow. You can also demonstrate how primary colors can be mixed to form secondary colors.
Scientific Rainbow
Older students may enjoy learning the "scientific" parts of a rainbow, such as playing with a prism or learning the order to colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. You can define a rainbow and explain to the students that rainbows are caused by the refraction of light caused by the water falling in the air. You can easily create a rainbow using a water sprinkler or garden hose outside or by putting a clear glass of water on a window sill in your classroom.
Animal Charades
A fun, kinesthetic activity to introduce or conclude a lesson about Noah's Ark is to play a game of animal charades. Allow each child the chance to act out their favorite animal that would have been on Noah's Ark and allow the other children to guess what animal they are acting like. You can increase the difficulty of the game for older children, by not allowing them to make the animal noise.
Tags: animal crackers, that would, younger children