Noah's Ark and the Flood

Greetings, friends! What an exciting opportunity you have to teach children the truth this week. To help you do that, here are the lessons I've used to teach kids about Noah's Ark and the Flood.

But before we get to Noah, there's an interesting story about one of his ancestors in Genesis 5. Enoch was a man who walked with God and got to Heaven without dying! How can we not want to spend some time talking about a person like that? More than being simply an interesting story, Enoch shows us what it means to have an intimate relationship with God, and what our final reward will be for a life of faithfulness.

Then, we get to faithful Noah, who built a huge boat even though it had never rained before! But Noah wasn't perfect. He made a mistake after the Flood that caused his family big problems.

These lessons about Enoch, the Flood, and Noah's mistake include object lessons, games, interactive storytelling, and a snack idea. You'll find some extras that you can add to the lesson inexpensively or for free that will help you extend your teaching on Noah and the Flood.

It's important to note that the story of the Flood is a tragedy. Whereas we can celebrate God's faithfulness in saving Noah and his family, we can't overlook the fact that everyone else died as a punishment for their sin. The account gives us the opportunity to talk about the consequences of our sin and how Jesus saves us from the ultimate penalty. The story also shows God's emotions, which can lead to a very informative discussion on our emotions as humans made in God's image.

This collection has some heavy ideas to teach, but you can do it! The Lord is with you, mighty teacher.

To set the stage for a discussion on the Flood, make sure that you've covered Creation and the Fall first. Everything makes more sense when presented in context!

Recommended Extras

Noah's Ark is one of the most popular stories in the Bible, so there are a lot of great resources you can use to help teach it. Here are a few of my favorites.

Paid Resources

The Animated Kid's Bible – I'm going to mention this DVD collection every week we're talking about Genesis. If you haven't picked it up yet, I strongly recommend it. It has episodes for every major story in Genesis. And the episode on Noah and the Flood shows how bad the world was (in a kid-friendly way) when God decided to punish the earth. Take a week to show the episode either before or after you teach the lesson below.

The Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible: Noah's Ark – Here's a classic video to show with a more realistic animation style. If you have the time in your schedule, it would be beneficial to kids' understanding to show one of these two video options the week before you teach your lesson and the other the week after you teach your lesson.

Bible Fun Factory: Genesis 1-24 – Another independent author, Mary Kate Warner shares her original ideas for intro activities, lessons, and games. This first volume of her series will give you all you need to teach a second lesson on Noah and the Flood.

N is for Noah – This children's book written by Ken Ham and his wife, Mally of the Answers in Genesis organization will entertain as well as teach. If you don't prefer showing videos in your class, you can read this book to them either as a review or as another lesson in itself. Ken and Mally have included enough questions and activities to make it a complete Sunday School lesson. Even older kids will enjoy it as a nice change of pace. And if you like the book, consider gifting each of your students with a copy of the N is for Noah Coloring Book . It would be a great help to them in cementing their understanding of the Biblical story.

Free Resources

Ministry-to-Children has provided a coloring page in four panels summarizing the story of Noah's Ark.

Free Sunday School Curriculum includes some fun activity pages in their lesson On the Ark.

Truth for Children published a craft idea in which children cut out colored pieces of tissue paper and paste or tape them into a rainbow pattern.

Enoch Disappears! Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this Sunday School lesson about Enoch to teach kids the importance of having a personal relationship with God and about what our final reward will be.

Needed: Bibles, random objects, trash bags or strings to tie children's legs together

Intro Game: "What's Missing?" Place a variety of objects on the table or around the room. Have students close their eyes, and then take one of the objects and put it in your pocket or outside the room. Have students open their eyes and guess what's missing. Give them hints if they can't figure it out. The first student to correctly guess what was missing then gets to take the next object. Play until everyone has had a turn taking an object or as long as time allows.

Lesson: (Note: Always allow students to give their answers to the questions before you clarify the teaching.)

We were taking objects out of the room and pretending like they were disappearing. Do you think a person could ever disappear like that?

Read Genesis 5:21-24 (quoted here in the NIV) – "When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away."

Read Hebrews 11:5 (NIV) – "By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God."

What happened to Enoch? (God took him away. He disappeared. People were looking for him but God took him away and made him disappear.)

Where do you think God took Enoch? (To Heaven.)

Why do you think God took Enoch? What was so special about Enoch that he got to go Heaven?

The Bible verses we read said that Enoch was a man who walked with God, and had faith, and pleased God. That means Enoch was friends with God and did all the right things that God wanted him to. That made God happy and God took Enoch to Heaven.

Do you think we can be God's friends and do what God wants us to do?

What are some things we can do to be God's friends and learn what He wants us to do? (Read the Bible, go to church, pray, etc.)

Why do you think it's important to read our Bibles if we want to be God's friend?

When we read our Bible, we're reading God's words to us. He told the people what to write so that we can learn what God wants to say to us. And if we want to be God's friend, we have to know and listen to what He says.

Why is important to pray to God if we want to be God's friend?

When we read our Bible, we're listening to what God said to us, but when we pray, God listens to what we say to Him. God cares about us and He wants us to tell Him about what's happening in our lives. God is our friend. And sometimes, God will help us with a problem that we tell Him about. Other times He just wants us to talk to Him.

Why is it important to go to church if we want to be God's friend?

When we go to church, God teaches through other people. We also get to help other people be better friends with God by praying for them and encouraging them.

If we do those things and if we really are God's friend like Enoch was, then God will take us to Heaven one day and we will live with Him forever and ever.

Game: Walking with God – Have students pair up side by side and put one of each of their legs in a trash bag or tie them together to set up for a three-legged race. Mark a start and finish line. If kids fall down, make them start over.

Round 1. Cooperation. The Bible said Enoch walked with God. You can imagine two friends taking a walk and talking together side by side. So, we're going to practice walking with someone else. The team who walks together the best to the finish line wins. That means that you'll need to work together and walk slowly this time.

Round 2. Speed. But sometimes, things in life are happening very quickly, and we still need to be able to walk with God when things get busy. This time, the first team to get to the finish line first wins. But, remember, if you fall down, you have to start back at the beginning.

Round 3. Hopping. And sometimes, life is crazy, but God is always right there with us. So, this time, you're going to walk with God by jumping together to the finish line.

Round 4. Crab Walking. And sometimes, life is really hard. Things happen and we get sad, but God is still with us through those hard times. So, this time, I want you to walk like a crab with your partner to the finish line.

When we walk with God in life, we will eventually get to the finish line. The finish line that we're all going for is Heaven. God might not take us away like He took Enoch, but when we die, God will take us to be with Him in Heaven.

If time allows, you can have the students pair up with another teammate and repeat the rounds.

Closing Prayer: God, we thank You that You are our friend and that You want us to be with You in Heaven. We pray that You will help us to be friends with You. Help us to read our Bibles and pray so that we can talk to You. And help us to always want to go to church so that we can learn about You and help other people to be friends with You. Amen.

Noah's Ark and the Flood Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this Noah's Ark and the Flood children's Sunday School lesson to show kids why Noah was saved and how we can be too.

Needed: Bibles, Legos or building blocks of some kind, a picture of a rainbow, Bingo sheets and animal crackers

Intro Activity: Build a couple of simple objects out of building blocks beforehand. A tower, wall, or small house would work well.

When the children come in, give them some blocks and show them your example. Ask them to build the same thing, just like you did.

Do the same thing with your second object.

When they're finished, say something like, Now that you're all expert block builders, I have an assignment for you. I want you to build a boat that is 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Do you think you can do that? Can you make a boat that big?

Well, we're not actually going to make a boat that big, but one man and his family did.

Lesson: Summarize Genesis 6-8 using the Bible story below and asking the included questions as you read.

God saw that all the people had become wicked and that they only thought about bad things all the time. It made God sad and He was sorry that He had made people on the earth. He said, "I will destroy everyone and everything on the earth, because I am sad that I made them."

Why was God sad that He had made people? (Because all the people were doing bad things and thinking bad things.)

Can you believe that God was sad? Did you know that God gets sad sometimes?

God does get sad. The Bible tells us that God also gets mad. He's not always happy. If God gets sad and mad, do you think it's okay for us feel those ways sometimes?

God never does anything wrong. So if it's not wrong for God to feel bad about something or to get angry, then it's not wrong for us to feel sad and angry. We just have to be careful what we do when we feel those ways.

Everyone, pretend to be God and act sad about the wrong things people were doing.

So, God felt sad about all the wrong things people were doing. What was God going to do about that?

He was going to destroy everything that lived on the earth. He was going to kill all the people and all the animals too. Remember that God made everything, so He can destroy it if He wants to.

But Noah found favor with God. Noah was a righteous man, who walked with God.

What does it mean to be righteous?

If you're righteous, it means that you have a good relationship with God and that you always try to do the right things.

Everyone, pretend to be Noah and give me your biggest smile. Noah was happy because he was in a right relationship with God.

So, because Noah had a good relationship with God and because he did the right things that God wanted him to do, God was happy with Noah. God told Noah what He was about to do. "I am going to flood the earth," God said, "and I am going to destroy everyone and everything on it because they have all become wicked. But you, build an ark. It will be a very large boat that you and your wife and your sons and their wives can go into, and then you will not drown like everyone else when I flood the earth. Also, I will bring a few of every kind of animal to you and you are to put them on the ark with you so that you can keep some of every kind of animal alive and safe from the flood."

Then God told Noah how to build the Ark-boat and Noah did everything that God told him to do.

Everyone pretend that you're building a really big boat. Cut the boards. Hammer the nails into the boards.

Noah made the ark because God told him to. Would you do something if God told you to do it?

How can we find out what God wants us to do?

We can find out what God wants us to do by reading our Bibles, and praying, and coming to church. That's how God tells us what He wants us to do.

Everyone, pretend that you're reading your Bible. Now, pretend you're praying. Now, pretend you're in church.

When the Ark-boat was finished, God told Noah and his family and some of every kind of animal to go onto the boat. Then God made it rain very hard for forty days and forty nights.

Everyone, make the sound of rain coming down.

It rained so much and the water got so high all over the earth that even the tops of the mountains were covered with water! And everyone and everything on the earth drowned.

It was a very sad time because everyone died. They didn't listen to God and so God had to punish them by flooding the world.

Everyone, make a sad face for the people who died.

But Noah and his family and the animals with him were safe on the Ark-boat.

Everyone, make a happy face that Noah and the animals were safe.

Finally, after one hundred and fifty days, the water started to go back down and the Ark-boat that Noah and his family and the animals with them were on came to rest on a mountain called Mount Ararat.

Everyone, pretend that you're in a boat and that it just landed on a mountain.

Then God said, "Noah, you and your family and the animals with you can come out of the ark. It's safe now."

Everyone, cheer that Noah and the animals made it safely through the Flood.

So, Noah and his family and the animals with them came out of the ark and spread out again all over the earth. And Noah thanked God for saving him and his family in the Ark-boat.

Everyone, pretend to be Noah and thank God for saving you from the Flood.

And God put a rainbow in the sky, promising, "I will never flood the whole earth again." (Show your picture of a rainbow.)

God said that He would never flood the whole earth again, but does that mean that God won't destroy everything again? (No.)

(Read 1 Peter 3:7 , quoted here in the NIV:) "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly."

God isn't going to flood the whole world again, but this verse tells us that He is going to destroy it again. What does this verse say God will use to destroy the world? (Fire.)

The Bible says that at the end of the world, God will destroy everyone who is evil, and everything, with fire coming down from Heaven. Just like He did with the flood, God will destroy everyone who is bad and thinks about bad things.

But what can we do to escape that fire and not be destroyed?

We can be like Noah. We can believe in God and have a good relationship with God and do the right things that God wants us to do. Then, God will save us from the fire and we will live forever with Him.

Game and Snack: Ark Animals Bingo – Create Bingo Cards using the names of different animals that might have been on the ark. Use animal crackers as the markers. Put all the animal crackers on a plate in the middle of the table. When you call an animal's name, kids will grab an animal cracker from the middle to put on their card. Tell them that their goal as they're marking their card is to make matches with their animal crackers because God told Noah to take two of every kind of animal on the ark. When you're finished with the game, kids can eat some of the animal crackers.

Some ideas for animals include Dog, Cat, Horse, Rhino, Monkey, Dove, Pigeon, Giraffe, Elephant, Lion, Lizard, Snake, and Camel.

Closing Prayer: God, we thank You that You saved Noah from the Flood and that You will save us when You destroy the world again. Help us to be friends with You like Noah was and always do the right things. Amen.

Noah's Big Mistake Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this children's Sunday School lesson to teach kids about the dangers of alcohol and the need to be forgiving when others make a mistake.

Game: Try Not to Laugh – Make funny faces at the kids. The first one that laughs has to get up and make funny faces at the group. Keep playing until everyone has had a chance to stand up. If some are good at not laughing, call on them to make faces.

After the game, say, It's fun to laugh at other people when they're being silly and they want you to laugh at them. But it's mean to laugh at people when they make a mistake. We're going to talk today about a son who laughed at his father when his father made a mistake.

Lesson: Ask students, What do you think? Are Christians allowed to drink alcohol – beer and wine and things like that?

What happens if somebody drinks too much alcohol?

They can get drunk and make bad decisions. They can get sick and throw up. They can become addicted to alcohol and spend too much time and money on drinking instead of doing other things that God wants them to do. Sometimes, they can even get mean and hurt other people.

In our story today, we're going to find out what happened when someone in the Bible drank too much alcohol.

(Summarize Genesis 9:18-29 using this Bible story and asking the included questions as you read.)

After Noah and his family and the animals with them came off the Ark after the Flood, Noah started a farm and planted some grapes. When the grapes were ready, he took some of them and mashed them up into grape juice. Then he let the grape juice sit and get old for a while and, eventually, it turned into wine.

Noah drank the wine and he drank so much that he got drunk and was lying naked inside his tent!

What mistake did Noah make in this story? (He got drunk.)

And when Noah got drunk, what embarrassing thing did he do? (He took off all his clothes and laid around naked.)

Noah's son, Ham, saw his father, Noah, lying there naked in the tent and he thought it was so funny. He went out and told his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, "Dad's sleeping in the tent naked!" And Ham made fun of Noah.

Do you think Ham should have made fun of Noah? (No. God doesn't want us to make fun of anyone and we should especially show respect for our parents.)

So Shem and Japheth, Noah's other sons, walked in backward and laid a blanket over Noah so that no one else would see him naked.

Do you think that was a nice thing that Shem and Japheth did for Noah? (Yes. They didn't make fun of Noah when he made a mistake, like their brother, Ham, did. Instead, they helped Noah by covering him up.)

So when Noah woke up, he yelled at Ham for making fun of him, but was happy with Shem and Japheth.

Remember, God doesn't want us to get drunk because He doesn't want us to make mistakes like Noah did. And God doesn't want us to make fun of other people, either. We should be like Shem and Japheth and help people when they make a mistake, not make fun of them.

Does God make fun of us when we make a mistake? (No.)

God helps us when we make a mistake. He helps us say we're sorry and He helps us not to make those mistakes again.

So, if we help people when they make a mistake like Shem and Japheth did, then God will be happy with us.

Game: Try Not to Laugh (Take 2) – Hold the ultimate silly tournament. Students pair up and make funny faces at each other simultaneously. The first one to laugh is out. The other pairs up with another winner until you find the one child who is the best at not laughing.

Remind students that sometimes we have to keep ourselves from laughing so that we don't hurt someone else's feelings.

Closing Prayer: God, thank You for warning us about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. We also thank You for teaching us how not to laugh when someone makes a mistake. Instead, show us how we can help someone when they make a mistake. Amen.

These children's Sunday School lessons are available for your Kindle app or in bound book form in my books, Created: Children Sunday School Lessons for Genesis 1-11 and Omnibus: 99 Children Sunday School Lessons for the Old Testament .

Visit my page for Genesis children's sermons for simplified versions and other resources to tell these stories to kids in your worship service.

You can follow these lessons with the next major story in Genesis, the Tower of Babel. You'll also find there a lesson on the Book of Job because Job's story takes place during the time of Genesis.

Thank you for your work teaching kids this week, and may God's Spirit be with your spirit! - Steve