rd th 3-5 June 22-23, 2013 Noah Genesis 5-9 Kids will identify what the story of Noah shows us about God Hang out with kids (10 minutes): Ask kids about their week. Get kids into groups and play games together. Large Group (30 minutes): Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. And don t be afraid to redirect kids who aren t! Pray with your team. Being with a gaggle of energetic kids can be challenging. Invite God to be with you or your team as you tell a very exciting part of God s story today. Small Group (20-30 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. As parents come in, encourage them to ask kids about the ark they made in small group. This week is all about Noah. It s a story of God s judgment, but it also reveals God s incredible mercy. Watch the videos ahead of time, so you re prepared to talk about it with kids. You can find them on CrossroadsKidsClub.net.
Goal: to help kids identify what this story reveals about God s character Why? The story of Noah shows us God s character as both a Creator and a Rescuer. Tip: Don t give kids answers today. Really help them come to their own conclusions! CONNECT 1. Share your name and one word to describe the best part of your week. (If you ve already connected before large group, move directly to question #2.) 2. What surprised/confused you about today s story? DIG DEEPER 3. Why did God rescue Noah, even though he had messed up too? (he created Noah in his image; he loved him) 4. What did God promise Noah after he rescued him (and how)? (Never to destroy the world through a flood with a rainbow) 5. Why wasn t God going to destroy the earth with a flood, even though it was going to fill up wrong things again? (he was going to send a Rescuer to save all people and take the punishment for all wrong things) 6. Hand each kid a strip of paper. Ask them to write down one thing today s story shows us about God. (Collect strips and read them or have kids share; affirm what they know. Discuss things like: God is our Rescuer, God is our Creator, God loves to rescue us, God wants everyone to follow him, etc. But let kids come to conclusions on their own.) ACTIVITY Make an ark that displays God s character: Give each kid a piece of paper with wood grains. Tell each kid to choose his or her favorite thing about God from today s story. On the wood, ask them to write it in black marker. (Continue on the next page)
On the surface of a table or the floor, ask kids to build an ark, using their pieces of paper that look like wood and have all the things they love about God. (Kids can use scissors to create an ark shape remind them that Noah would have to saw the wood, etc.) Step back and look at the ark. Ask these questions: 7. How do you think Noah felt while he was building the ark? 8. Do you think he believed all these things about God (point to words on each block)? Why or why not? (we don t know so let kids speculate) 9. How would it have been easier for Noah to build the ark if he DID believe these things about God? 10.How can we act this week if we believe God is really (READ EACH BLOCK ALOUD)? *Pray with the kids and thank God for being our loving Creator and Rescuer. Extra time? Have small groups share their arks with the entire group. Kids may then take their piece of paper home as a reminder of God s character.
1 Noah is a story that shows God s judgment and his mercy. Before the flood, God s relationship with us was as our Creator. After the flood, he became our Rescuer. Emphasize that part of God s character: he loves to rescue us. Today s lesson asks you to rip paper as a metaphor to help kids grasp the idea of God as our creator as well as get their attention. Plan ahead of time how to incorporate the papers so they re effective. Hi everybody! Welcome to Kids Club! It s great to see each of you here today. Remember, we ve been talking about the very beginning of God s Story. We talked about how God made the whole entire world as a beautiful, perfect home for us. Then he made us in his image, so we could be close to him! GOD IS OUR CREATOR Remember, we were wonderful to him. Have any of you ever made something, maybe painted a picture and hung it on the fridge or in your room? Or sculpted something really cool out of clay? Built a fort that you didn t want to be ruined? Turn and tell a friend about something cool you ve made. (Let kids tell a friend; ask a couple to share quickly.) So a lot of you understand a little of what it feels like to create something special, that you love. Imagine how God felt when he created US. Remember, he just breathed into dust and there we were! With beating hearts and brains and blood flowing through our veins. Pretty amazing. THE FALL RUINED GOD S PERFECT CREATION But remember that the snake tried to convince Adam and Eve that God didn t really love them. And they chose to disobey God, even though God had told them that death and all the wrong things in the world would begin. Worse, they would be separated from their Creator. And the world kept getting worse and worse and worse. God s amazing Creation was hurting each other. (Take the two paintings. ) It s kind of like if you painted two pictures you really liked (hold the pictures up high) maybe the most perfect beach or the wildest storm you can imagine. You hung them on the wall and as you were admiring them, they started ripping each other to shreds (rip the papers into little pieces dramatically for effect). Except this was WAY worse because we were actually made to love God back! Not just sit around looking good.
GOD WAS SAD (Look around at the pieces of paper littering the ground.) God saw that his perfect creation had chosen not to follow him or love him. They didn t even take care of each other or the animals and plants he had made. So God decided to get rid of his ruined creation by sending a huge flood to cover the whole world (with your feet, sweep the papers to the side). GOD RESCUED NOAH But God found one person who was following him. (Pick one scrap of paper and hold it up.) This guy wasn t perfect, but since he followed God, God decided to rescue him and his family! Does anybody know his name? (Let kids say: Noah!) That s right, Noah. GOD MAKES A PROMISE TO NOAH We re going to watch a video about Noah s story now. The coolest part about this story is that God made Noah a very special promise after he rescued him. It s a promise for us, too! As you watch this story, see if you can figure out what God promises Noah after he rescues him. Video: God s Story: Noah So after God rescued Noah, what promise did he make to him through a rainbow? (Let kids say: he ll never destroy the earth with a flood again.) That s right, God promised to never send a whole flood to destroy everything again, no matter how bad the world got. GOD IS OUR RESCUER Instead, God would send a Rescuer! This would be somebody who would rescue not just one man s family, but every single person on earth who would ever live. This Rescuer would actually save us from all the wrong things in the entire world! Now everybody who wants to follow God can be a part of his family. It s kind of like being his sons and daughters he even calls us his friends. We re going to watch a video about a song to remind us of how God rescued Noah. As you watch, think about how God rescued YOU, too! Music Video: Noah (God s Friends) Wow, I don t know about you, but it makes me pretty excited that God rescued us and that we can follow him and be a part of his family! WORSHIP Let s sing one more song to worship God together today. This is a song about following God! As we sing it, let s remember how thankful we are that he rescued us and that even though we mess up sometimes, we can follow him and be close to him! Song: Come With Me PRAY Ask somebody to come and thank God that he rescued Noah and that he rescued us!
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1. Black Markers 2. Strips of white paper (cut computer paper into strips, any size) 3. Blocks of wood-grain paper, cut sheets into 2x4 -ish sheets: http://www.paper- source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/faux-bois- Wrapping- Paper/3650_042/464845.html?gclid=CMHo3 vpuz7ycfqpn4aodbvkawq 4. Scissors -2 or 3 per group Bible 2 new pieces of paper per service with the following images printed, one on each page, in color: beach and storm (jpegs in curriculum folder) 1. Video: God s Story: Noah 2. Music Video: Noah (God s Friends) 3. Song: Come With Me None Tell me about Noah. What does this story show us about God? Noah s story reveals a lot about God s character as both our Creator and our Rescuer! Ask your kid to tell you about it. If you want, read this story together in Genesis 5-9 in the Bible. Or watch a video about it on CrossroadsKidsClub.net.