Begin: Guide reads the background, scripture & prays for the class Unwrap-Opening Activity Set the Altar 10:00-10:10 AM 10:10-10:15 AM Investigate: Tell & Wonder about the Story 10:15-10:30AM Learn By Doing & Snack 10:30-10:45AM Music (check weekly Sunday School Email for Times) Dismiss 10:55 AM Review the Cornerstone & Closing Prayer Explore the story of Noah and the Flood once the Ark is back on land. Genesis 8:10 19 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more. 13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16"Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." 18 So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19 And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.
The Book of Genesis introduces us to the theme of covenant. God make promises, and the people respond with a promise to be obedient and faithful. The Noah story presents us with the first example of covenant. In the story for this session, Noah and his family enter a new world. They have high expectations and look forward to a new beginning. The family and the animals begin to find new homes. The birds make nests, the animals find their lairs, and the people build new homes and plant gardens. In this setting, God makes a covenant with Noah that never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth (Genesis 9:11C). The sign of the covenant was a rainbow in the clouds. In the recurring theme of covenant, the ultimate promise of God is make through the coming of Jesus. We remember this at every baptism as we renew our own covenant to be obedient and faithful to God. Young children understand promises in self-centered terms ( I promise and you promise ). The rainbow in Noah s story is a concrete symbol that God made a promise that would always be kept. It is a story that will help children understand God s promises in a larger sense. Once the dove did not return, God told Noah to come out of the ark. Noah and his wife, Naaman, and his sons wives and all the animals came out of the ark. The first thing Noah did was build an altar to God. The land was fresh with new growth and a new covenant with God. Noah Story Book: The coloring pages are attached at the end of this lesson. Have the children color the pages, then cut them apart, staple them together in the middle and it will come together like a book. 2
* Pick up a Bible and show the class where Genesis is. Point out that the Bible has two main parts: OLD TESTAMENT and NEW TESTAMENT. Show where each is located. Say : Today s Bible story is one of the FIRST ONES in the Bible, so it s very easy to find. Here, I ll show you where it is. Open a Bible to Genesis for them to understand the location, but it will be more suitable for this age to read Noah s story from the children s bible in your classroom OR use the paraphrase below: A long time ago God looked at the Earth and saw that a lot of people were becoming evil. God decided that it was time to start over by destroying the Earth with water. He looked all over the Earth and saw Noah. God knew that Noah was a good man so God decided that Noah would be the one to save mankind and all the animals. God s plan was this: Noah would build an ark (Make hammer noises by knocking on a table), which is a boat, two of every kind of animal would come and walk onto the boat (Pat legs to sound like animals walking), and then it would rain for 40 days and 40 nights (Rub hands together to make rain sounds). Once it stopped raining, Noah and his family and all the animals would be safe. Do you think Noah was confused by this plan? Everyone make your best confused face right now. Can you imagine so much rain that whole Earth is covered? I can t. Noah could have easily said Forget about it, that s crazy! But he listened to God and everything that God said would happen did happen. Noah built the ark, the animals came, it rained, and then finally the rain stopped and the land became dry again. God s promises are always good even when they don t make sense to us. Wonder: Do you think Noah's job would have been hard or easy? Would it have been fun to take care of all the animals? What do you think it smelled like on that ark!? What about the noises? What would be the hardest thing to do? What would be the easiest? Can you imagine feeding all of those animals and cleaning up after them? What a job! Noah was very faithful to God by caring for the animals. I wonder what part of today s story was your favorite? What are some of the promises God made to Noah? Do you think that God will always come through when he promises something? I wonder if you have made a promise before? I wonder if it s ever hard to keep a promise? Why or why not? Do you think you can always trust God? 3
Let the kids get up and stretch their legs as you sing Rise and Shine together. Cedarmont Kids has a good version of the song on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56qweythw0k or just sing the song with the lyrics below. (More Verses on the next page) Rise and Shine Noah Song The Lord said to Noah, there s gonna be a floody floody Lord said to Noah, there s gonna be a floody floody Get my children (clap), out of the muddy muddy Children of the Lord. CHORUS: So rise and shine, and give God the glory glory Rise and shine and give God the glory glory Rise and shine and (clap), give God the glory glory Children of the Lord. The Lord said to Noah, you re gonna build an arky arky. Lord said to Noah, you re gonna build an arky arky. Build it out of (clap) gopher barky barky..children of the Lord. Sing Chorus The animals, they came on, they came on by twosies twosies Animals, they came on, they came on by twosies twosies Elephants and (clap), kangaroozies roozies.children of the Lord. More Verses on the next page (page 5). Transition times can be difficult. Help your lesson flow smoothly by giving children a two-minute warning when you re wrapping up an activity. Also, it is helpful to have the same attentiongetting signal and use it consistently with your teaching team members. Turning on and off the lights, have a special bell, create a clap sequence are all potential signals that a transition time is coming. Say: Today we learned that God made us and loves us. Call: The Lord be with you. Response: And Also with you. Let us pray: Thank you, God, for all of creation and especially for creating and loving me. Thank you for the light and the darkness, the moon and stars, all the water around us, the animals and people too. Amen 4
Continued from the previous page. Sing Chorus It rained and poured, for forty day-sies day-sies Rained and poured, for forty day-sies day-sies Drove old Noah (clap), almost crazy crazy.children of the Lord. Sing Chorus The sun came out, and dried up the landy landy The sun came out, and dried up the landy landy Everything was (clap), fine and dandy dandy.children of the Lord. SNACK TIME- animal match up: Animal Crackers are provided by the church for your snack, so incorporate snack time as part of your lesson. Remind them that God gave Noah the job of collecting two of each kind of animal for the ark. Spread out the cookies on a paper towel so that the children can help you pair up matching animals to receive as their snack. They can pretend the animals are marching together onto their own napkin/plate. Have them name the animals that are paired up, and imitate the noise each one makes. It could also be fun to get them moving a bit and have them act out the animals, too! Pin the Animal on the Ark: like the game Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but the children will use animals from the Animal Pairs Sheet to affix to the ark. If you have time, they can draw lines to the matching animals first, then cut them out. Have them close their eyes when it s their turn to pin the animal, or borrow bandanas from the church as blindfolds (we have lots!). Draw and ark on the board in your room (a simple line drawing will do!), and have the children take turns trying to put their animal in the ark. Use the blue painters tape on the back of each animal card so as not to damage the board. 5
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