Noah Craft...Easy and Tasty

The 2 year olds have been learning about Noah for the past few weeks. Tonight we finished up our lessons with this craft. This is a simple paper plate craft. Each ark uses 2 plates (the cheap kind). I cut one plate into an ark shape as you can see in the picture. I painted it brown. You could let older kids do this part but I chose to do this ahead of time. I then stapled it around the edges to another white plate. This formed a pocket. During class I had the kids add colored paper to make a rainbow along the rounded edge. We then added a couple die cut animals and a bag of animal cookies. It's easy, cute, and a tasty take home! 

While we are talking about Noah I wanted to share this cute song that was shared with me by my friend Leah. 

It's sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"

Saw, Saw, Saw, 

Pound, Pound, Pound,

Build An Ark With Noah

So We Won't Drown (or you could say.....That Won't Fall Down)

I have play tools that I let the kids hold but you could also just pretend to saw and pound a hammer. They really like this song and catch on to it quickly. 

Noah Obeyed God

The 2 year olds have been learning about Noah the past couple of weeks. Their first lesson was "Noah Obeyed God". We talked about how Noah built the ark because God told him to. Even though it had never rained before and some people laughed at Noah he still obeyed God. We brought in a little people ark to use while telling the lesson. The kids got to play with this after the lesson. We also gave each child a wooden block and a hammer so they could help build an ark like Noah. Here are a couple songs we used to go along with this lesson. They were both found here on this site www.ministry-to-children.com This site has other great Noah songs too!


Noah's Tools
To the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus".

Found clip art to use to make a visual to go along with the song. Would also be cute to bring in a toy hammer, screw driver, and saw to use while singing!

Noah makes the hammer go boom boom boom
Boom boom boom, boom boom boom.
Noah makes the hammer go boom boom boom
As he builds the ark


Noah makes the screwdriver turn turn turn
Turn turn turn, Turn turn turn
Noah makes the screwdriver turn turn turn
As he builds the ark


Noah makes the saw go back and forth
Back and forth, back and forth
Noah makes the saw go back and forth
As he builds the ark

The other song we used was

Noah had some Tools
To the tune of "Farmer in the Dell".

Noah had some tools Noah had some tools
He built the ark with his tools
Like God told him to

He worked really hard He worked really hard
To build the ark with his tools
Like God told him to

He followed God's plan He followed God's plan
And built the ark with his tools
Like God told him to

My friend Arika had these for the kids to take home after the lesson. They went perfectly with the lesson and the kids loved them! They came from Oriental Trading. She printed off labels telling about the lesson and stuck them on the hammers.

Clothespin Animals

This is a cute and easy way to make any animal for any lesson you have.  We found a picture of a sheep, copied it on cardstock to make it sturdy, cut it out and added clothespins for the legs.  Easy for the children to use in the classroom during a review, as a craft, or as a take home.  The possibilities are endless!

Jesus Calms the Storm

Crafts

Here are a few craft we used when teaching a lesson on "Jesus Calms the Storm" during VBS. These could be used with several other lessons like Noah, Jesus walks on Water, Paul's Shipwreck, etc!

Ocean Bags
Snack size ziplocks work great for this craft. Place a small amount of blue toothpaste in the bag, seal it, and let the child spread the toothpaste out by rubbing over the bag. You can use stickers to stick on the outside or even place something small on the inside.


Wave Streamers
Use blue and white or dark blue and light blue streamers to make this craft. Cut pieces of streamers and either tape or glue them to the end of a jumbo popsicle stick. The kids like to help make a storm by waving the streamers (waves) in the air and then stopping when you get to the part of the lesson where Jesus calms the storm.


Ocean in a Bottle
This is a fun take home idea. I made a big one with a large bottle to use during my lesson with the 2 year olds. I found small water bottles for the kids to have. For older kids you might could let them help make the oceans but for our younger kids we made them ahead of time and sent them home after the lesson so they could have their own ocean at home to review the lesson with. They are a lot of fun. It is important to make sure you glue the lid on so it WON'T come off. I used hot glue on mine.


When rocked (not shaken) from side to side it makes neat waves!
This "ocean in a bottle" craft was made using the following recipe...very simple! This recipe works very well!!

Fill bottle about 1/2 full of water, add blue (just a few drops) of food coloring, shake to turn water blue, fill the rest of the way with cooking oil. Seal and glue lid! You may also want to add shells, fish, glitter, etc before sealing! For a different ocean in a bottle recipe click here

Trash-Filled Thursdays - Old Shoeboxes

Ask your congregation to bring in old shoeboxes and you will have a treasure unlike any you could ever buy!!!! Yes, that is right!! All you need are old shoeboxes and brown paper (mailing paper or bulletin board paper works great!). Get the boxes, wrap them with paper and off you go!! These boxes are over 2 years old. Some are showing their age, but how easy is it to replace? VERY!!! Once you get your boxes ready, you can do the following:

1. Noah's Ark - have the students build the ark
2. Tower of Babel - have the students build the tower
3. Build altars
4. Build the temple
5. Nehemiah - rebuild the wall of Jerusalem
6. Pile them up for a mountain

Of course, there are more things you can do with them. Do you have any more ideas?

Zoo Pals!!!

Zoo Pals plates, cups and bowls can be found almost in any store these days - including dollar stores. Be on the lookout, especially if you teach toddler and preschool age students. Pick up a pack or two whenever you see them and, once you get quite a few packs, the possibilities are endless!!!

1. Adam and creation - Let the children pretend to be Adam and name the animals they see.
2. Noah's Ark - Place a set (2) of animals all around the room and have the students gather the animals 2 by 2 into the ark.
3. Saul becomes king - In some of the packs you can find donkey plates and things. Get all the donkeys you can find and hide them all over the room. Have your students look for the donkeys with Saul.
4. Balaam's donkey - Give some students donkey plates to be the donkey and say what the donkey told Balaam.
5. Lost Sheep - Hide one sheep item in the room. Talk about the other sheep that are in the fold, but we have lost one!! Have the students help you find the lost sheep.
6. David as a Shepherd - Collect sheep, a bear and a lion. Have some students be sheep, one student a lion, one student a bear and one student David. Have them act out David protecting his sheep from the bear and lion.
7. Plagues - Frogs - Collect many frog items and place them EVERYWHERE in the classroom.
8. Lost Son - Collect pigs and have the students feed the pigs like the lost son did.

The possibilities are really endless with what you can do with these animals and the students love interacting with them. What else can you think of?