Noah’s Ark is such a fun Sunday School theme for the younger children. This past weekend it was the topic for the lesson in my Pre-K/Kindergarten Sunday School Class. We had a great morning learning about God’s message to Noah. Our normal Sunday school class includes circle-time with a discussion of the bible lesson, songs, a story, and a discussion about what we are thankful for to add to our Blessings Jar.
After circle time, we have a craft and/or activities and then snack before the parents come to pick up their children. Usually our class is under an hour, so we try to make the hour as fun and educational as we can, to drive home the bible lesson of the week.
Craft Activity for Noah’s Ark Lesson
Materials:
To prepare for class this week, I was looking for a fun and age-appropriate craft that I felt the children would enjoy decorating, but also enjoy playing with as a reminder of the lesson. I found these adorable stuffed animals that you can decorate to make your own! With the discussion of all the animals Noah brought on the Ark two-by-two, I thought this was a great tie-in.
Since I had planned this lesson in advance, I was able to caution the children’s parents ahead of time that we would be using non-washable markers. This gave them the ability to plan their child’s attire appropriately. I also taped a large piece of paper to the table to protect it from also getting decorated. The product description says you could use paint or any kind of permanent marker, we had a brand-new package of Sharpie® Permanent Markers, and they worked perfectly. Luckily, I didn’t notice any marker stains on any of the children, as they were warned when they started that they needed to be cautious and roll up their sleeves.
I remember from my childhood singing the Noah’s Ark song, so I was thrilled to find a Youtube version of the song! Also, to prepare for circle time, I bookmarked the Noah’s ark section of a children’s bible and found multiple illustrated children’s books about Noah’s Ark to use during the circle time. Snack was a very easy decision this week – animal crackers, of course!
At our church, the younger children have a mailbox that they check every Sunday that could hold a surprise or messages /announcements. For the Noah’s Ark theme, I decided to put in a little animal surprise for each child. I found these adorable little zoo animal porcupine balls to surprise the children with when they checked their mailbox.
During circle time as we were reading the bible lesson and the books about Noah’s Ark, some of the children didn’t know what a flood meant, so we had a quick conversation about puddles, rivers and rain. We discussed how all the animals had to go on the boat to survive, even to their shock, snakes, skunks and lions! And of course, God’s promise to never flood the entire world again. The Arky, Arky song was a huge hit which we continued to listen to during our crafting time as well. I was surprised by how long some of the children spent decorating their animals, and decided to continue reading poems and singing Noah’s Ark songs while they worked. Luckily, I had extra animals so those who finished early could start on an additional animal.
Once the majority of the class was done crafting and snacking on animal crackers, we had each child bring their stuffed animal onto the “ark” which was a different table in the room and sang about the animals going on two-by-two. At this point the parents were already starting to show up and Sunday school was complete.
I really enjoyed lesson planning for this week. The craft was so simple and every animal was unique and beautiful just like the children. I believe the children will continue to play with their hand crafted stuffed animal at home, and will be reminded of how Noah listened to God’s message and saved the animals.
