Noah’s Ark is probably one of the most well-known stories in the Old Testament, so you will inevitably teach it in Sunday School at a minimum once a year, which can be awesome for familiarity's sake! However, teaching the same story year after year can also feel repetitive, so below we have provided some easy Noah’s Ark Sunday School lesson plan ideas to help make the story feel fresh and new to those kids (and teachers) who have maybe already heard the story before. The ideas include main points, games, snacks, dress up/props, a memory verse with motions, a take-home activity, and an object lesson.
Plus, you can also get this free Sunday School lesson about Noah’s Ark.
MAIN POINT
GENESIS 6-9
We can trust God even when we don’t understand
Noah had never been in or seen a global flood before, but he still trusted God enough to spend all of that time working on building the Ark. We won’t always understand God’s plan either. Just like Noah might not have understood what was going to happen. God can always see the bigger picture though, so it’s important that, as Noah did, we trust God’s plan.
God keeps his promises
The rainbow is proof that God keeps His promises. So whenever we see a rainbow we can remember that God wants us to remember that too! God kept his promise to Noah and he keeps His promises to us too! God also promised to make a way for us to be forgiven for our sins, and Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection is how God kept that promise.
GAME
Bring Me a Branch
Supplies Needed: Pictures of olive branches or real leaves
Hide the branches throughout the room. Pick one kid to be a “Noah”. The rest of the kids get to be the doves. The kid who is playing Noah will start the game by saying “Go get me a branch”! All the kids then get to begin searching the room or area for branches. When the kids find one of the multiple branches hidden they bring it back to the Noah. The first one back gets to be the Noah for the next round of the game. Reset the game by having all of the kids face the wall.
Find Your Match
Have two sets of cards with pictures of all different kinds of animals. Pass them out to the kids in the room. Or this can work by whispering and assigning the animals to the kids just by telling them.
Examples (elephant, tiger, dog, bird, monkey, etc. it’s ok to double up too just make sure everyone can have a partner.
Then when you say go, the kids must pretend to be the animal they were given on their card and find their match.
Just like in the story of Noah as the animals came in pairs of two.
SNACK
Animal Crackers
If you really have no time, this is simple and ties in so well with the lesson!
Fruit Loops and Mini Marshmallows
Fruit loops and mini marshmallows will resemble the rainbow that God created after the flood. This can do double duty as a snack/take home! You can have them create a necklace out of the fruit loops or you can have them glue them onto a piece of paper that says “God’s Promise” to create a rainbow! Either way, this snack is bound to be a hit with the kids!
Fruit Rainbow
A healthier (and a little more time-consuming) option is to create a fruit tray rainbow either on individual plates or in cups or on a giant one that they can grab from. Examples below of what to use for each color.
RED – Strawberries
ORANGE – Oranges
YELLOW – Pineapple
GREEN – Kiwi
BLUE – Blueberries
PURPLE – Grapes
WHITE CLOUDS (Dip for fruit)– Whip Cream or giant marshmallows
DRESS UP/PROPS
Animal Costumes
While the animals will have no speaking parts if you have all of your leaders dress up/come as a different animal this Sunday it will leave a fun memory with the kids of the Sunday that all of the leaders came as animals to go on Noah’s Ark!
Boat
Whether you create a giant boat/boat entrance from scratch or just have a toy boat as an illustration the boat/ark plays a big part in the story and will help to bring the story to life!
Wood
It’s hard to imagine how big the ark was without knowing exactly how big a cubit is. So, to make the story a little more realistic and easier to understand bring in a piece of wood that is about 18 inches (1.5 feet) long. That is about how long one cubit was. Explain to the kids how many of them Noah needed to make the ark. So the ark would have been about 450 feet long (1 and ½ the length of a football field), 75 feet wide (about half as wide as a football field), and 45 feet tall (as high as a goal post).
MEMORY VERSE
GENESIS 9:13
“I have set my rainbow in the clouds – Open hands above head to form a rainbow/curve
and it will be the sign – hold both hands out in front of the body, palms facing outward like a sign
of the covenant – make praying hands
between me and the earth.” – point one hand up to God and point the other hand down to earth.
TAKE-HOME ACTIVITY
The Ark
Have the children in class make, with crayons/markers/colored pencils, a rainbow at the top of a sheet of paper and tell them there is a step 2 for them to do at home with their parents. Tell them, and create a space at the bottom or on the back, with the instructions for step 2. They will need to make the ark at home with their parents and tell them the story of why Noah built the ark and why God sent a rainbow. Then if you want to take it a step further tell them to bring the ark picture back to you next week to hang on the wall in the classroom. As they are drawing their rainbows, to drive the story home, retell the story to them or ask them questions to help reinforce what happened in the story of Noah and the Ark.
OBJECT LESSON
Building the Ark (Legos Needed)
Choose one child to be an example and ask the child to, while you are telling the story, build a boat as big as you (this is while you are telling the full Noah’s Ark story). When you finish ask if the kid is done, they shouldn’t be if they are making a full adult-sized boat. Then ask them if they could do that for a whole day, a whole month, or even for a whole year? Discuss how Noah spent years building the ark, now we don’t know exactly how long it took Noah but we know it took him multiple years. Discuss the faith that Noah had to have in God to work on something for that long. Ask them what the longest amount of time they have worked on something for was? End the day by letting them play with the Legos and continue building the adult-sized boat or make whatever their imaginations would like.
