Noah’s Animals

What's your favorite bible story? Here are some fun ways to explore this story with your family.

Karen Holford writes from Scotland. She doesn't mind that it rains quite a lot where she lives, because that means there are more rainbows. 

 

Editor's Notes: See the PDF for the accompanying pictures and activities (p. 26): http://cdn.ministerialassociation.org/cdn/ministerialassociation.org/assets/spouses/sij-archives-en/2016/sij-en-2016-3.pdf?201610131500 

Get into the Story

Read the story of Noah in your favorite Bible or Bible storybook. You'll find it in Genesis 6:9-9:17.

Use a toy ark and some toy animals to tell your family the story of Noah. If you don’t have an ark, make one out of a shoebox and draw pictures of the animals instead.

Now talk about these questions together:

• What do you like best about the story of Noah?

• Would you want to be Noah or his family? Imagine together what it would be like to spend so many years building an ark with your family.

• What do you think it would be like looking after all those animals in a ship for months and months?

• What do you think it would feel like when you finally left the ark?

• What do you think is the most important message in this story?

• What does this story say about God’s love for you?

ANIMAL PAIRS

• Gather all your toy animals together, or use animal picture cards from a matching game.

• Put the matching animals together, and see how many pairs of animals you can find.

• Next ask an adult to hide all the animals for you. Then hunt for the hidden animals and put them back into pairs.

• Did you know that Noah put seven of every kind of clean animal onto the ark? Can you find seven sheep or cows (or pictures of them) in your home?

DESIGN AN ARK

God gave Noah very careful instructions about building an ark. He told him the size and shape of the ark, and what wood to use. God probably also told Noah how to make the best places to keep all the different animals safe inside the ark, and how to store enough food for the long journey.

• Find the biggest piece of paper you can and draw a picture of what you think it looked like inside the ark.

• Imagine where the people lived, where the food was stored, and how they would keep the animals clean and fed. What kind of pen would each animal need? How would you stop the lions and tigers from eating the mice and sheep? Where would you keep the birds?

• When you’ve finished your picture, show it to your family and tell them about your ideas.

RAINBOW SCAVENGER HUNT

• Do you know the colors of the rainbow? They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and indigo (dark-purple-blue). 

• Ask everyone in your family to run and find something in your home that is red. Put the red things together in a neat pile.

• Then run and find something orange, then yellow, etc., searching for each color in turn.

• Thank God for making our world so bright and colorful.

• Then see how quickly you can put everything back where you found it—or where it really belongs!

MAKE A RAINBOW

Read Genesis 9:12-17.

• Cut a cloud shape from white cardstock.

• Gather together some colored foam, felt, ribbon, fabric, yarn, or paper in rainbow colors.

•  Cut a cloud shape from white cardstock. 

•  Gather together some colored foam, felt, ribbon, fabric, yarn, or paper in rainbow colors.

•  On the back of the cloud stick a horizontal strip of double-sided sticky tape, or just use some glue.

•  Stick strips of different colored materials onto the back of the cloud so they hang down in the same color order as a rainbow.

•  Turn the cloud over and stick cotton balls or round cotton pads onto the cloud to make it fully. 

• Punch a hole in the top of the cloud and hang it somewhere to remind you of God’s special rainbow promise.

SHOWERS OF BLESSING!

When God sent a flood, there was water everywhere, and lots of rain, too. We often forget to thank God for water, even though we use it every day, and even though we can’t live without it for more than a few days.

• Make a raindrop mobile or collage to thank God for all the different kinds of water that you enjoy, such as swimming pools, lakes, fresh drinking water, bathwater and shower water, water for your paints, and water to make plants grow, bubbles blow, and waterfalls flow. 

• Cut raindrop shapes from white, gray, or blue paper, and write one kind of water you’re thankful for on each drop.

• Cut a cloud shape from a white card and write on it, “Thank You, God, for water!”

• Use a hole punch and thread to hang your raindrops from the cloud, or stick the drops onto a sheet of paper to make a collage of watery thanks. 

RAINBOW PRAISE POSTER

• Read Revelation 4:3 and discover where there's a rainbow in heaven.

• Find a big sheet of white paper.

• Draw seven curves on the paper, like the layers in a rainbow.

• On each line write a sentence praising God using these different colored marker pens:

1. Red—I praise You, God, for loving me because . . .

2. Orange—I praise You, God, for helping me by . . .

3. Yellow—I praise You, God, for being an amazing King who . . .

4. Green—I praise You, God, for creating our world, especially ... 

5. Blue—I praise You, God, for making heaven for us, and I’m looking forward to . . .

6. Purple—I praise You, God, for Jesus because ...

7. Indigo—I praise You, God, for my family because . . .

LOOKING AFTER GOD’S WORLD

Noah obeyed God and took care of the animals that God had created. How can you and your family help to take care of God's creations?

• Cut a big circle out of paper or cardstock.

• On one side draw a picture of the earth.

• On the other side write some of the ways that you and your family can help to take care of God's creations. Perhaps you can do more recycling, buy used clothes instead of new ones, put seeds out for hungry birds, plant wildflowers, or pack a shoebox for ADRA (see ADRA.org). 

Karen Holford writes from Scotland. She doesn't mind that it rains quite a lot where she lives, because that means there are more rainbows.