Build an ark toy box. Each student decorates his little box as his own ark. Let them work with finger paints so they will have fun getting messy. At the end of each class day, he is to return everything to his ark box. They learn obedience and consequence if you assign a light penalty for students who don’t put away their things in the ark every day at the end of class.
All children love to color. Use the rainbow story to help with their color recognition skills. Print coloring pages with Noah’s ark themes from the Internet or pick up coloring books at Christian book stores. Print out mazes that the ark has to travel through to find dry land. Use this activity to teach the children a few problem solving skills.
Create animal cutouts, dove paper puppets, and animal shaped name tags. Ask the children to draw a pair of their favorite animal to go into your classroom ark. After they draw the animal or you print out animals for them to color, cut them out. Use popsicle sticks to glue on a stand to keep the animal upright. This lesson helps you introduce children to learning about animals. Teach them about a different animal every day. Use a paper plate to re-create the ark. Fold the paper plate in half. The semi-circle goes on the bottom. Draw the ark hutch and cut it out of the paper. Glue the bottom of the hutch top to the flat end of the paper plate. Noah’s Ark was most likely made of wood, but allow your children to paint the ark as they wish.
At faith-based bookstores or church bookstores, you may be able to find a Noah’s Ark jigsaw puzzle for the children to put together. This is another problem solving lesson as well as a lesson in identifying shapes and colors. Sing-a-longs get kids engaged in what they learn. In the book, “Bible Stories,” Mary Tucker advices searching the Internet for songs that kids can sign about the ark. When singing those songs use a tune the kids are familiar with, such as “The Teensy Weensy Spider” to sing along to. Singing helps both children and adults grasp concepts faster. Ask questions about the story afterwards and reward correct answers with candy.
Form a circle and put two children in the center of the circle. As the teacher, form the circle with the students. Ask the children to name one animal that Noah brought to his ark. Give them a moment to try to work together to choose one animal. If they don’t, choose one for them. Ask them to make the sounds that the animal makes. Then let them pick the next two students to enter the circle. While reading the story to the children insert breaks to ask questions. Request they act out the action when they respond. For example, explain that all the animals had to be crowded onto the ark. Ask the children to huddle together to see what it was like to be crowded on the ark.