Noah & the Flood--Ocean

Younger Students: Considering how the rain came down, yet the boat did not sink; buoyancy.
Older Students: will take the laws of buoyancy to create their own ‘ark’.

Scripture: Genesis 6-9 with an emphasis on Genesis 6:14-16—the ark itself

Memory Verse for this rotation: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”—Psalm 124:8

Concepts to be learned by children:
* God’s power over all creation is amazing.
* God makes and keeps promises.
* God communicates with people.
* God desires for us to be kind, obedient, and faithful.
* God takes care of all creation.

Materials:
• Doughnuts & water for participants (found in the kitchen)
• Memory verse prompts
• Journal page—one per student
• Glue sticks to adhere Journal Page
• Journals (Shepherds have)
• Pencils for journals (Shepherds have)
• Crayons for Journaling
• Younger Students:
1. Boat to serve as “the ark”
2. Tub with some water in it
3. Watering can with water in it
4. Several other items that are not buoyant.
5. Copies of miniature arks
6. scissors
7. tape
8. glue
• Older Students:
1. Plastic bottles
2. Duct tape
3. Scissors
4. Straws
5. Wood pieces
6. Fabric
7. Other items that could be used for boat making
8. Tub with some water in it
9. Watering can with water in it

Objectives:
* Students will review the story of Noah & The Flood
* Students will consider the ark’s creation and God’s communication with Noah.
* Students will participate in a reflection/closing prayer time.

Presenter Preparation:
Prior to Sunday Morning:
1. Read the scripture passage and do the Leader’s Bible Study
2. Read through the lesson plan provided and ask Stacy about any questions you have.
3. Plan your opening and closing prayers, if you decide not to use those provided.
4. Consider the age group you’ll be working with each week and any adjustments you’d like to make to the lesson.

Sunday Morning:
1. Retrieve doughnuts, a pitcher of water, cups, and napkins from the kitchen
2. Be sure the room is set up as you desire
3. Look through supply box to familiarize yourself with its contents
4. Do any other preparations you feel necessary.
5. Know that we are thankful you are teaching!

Procedure:
A. Welcome & Introductions at approximately 9:50 a.m.
1. Have the appropriate number of snacks available for each of the participants prepared before they arrive.
2. Greet the children and introduce yourself, wear a name tag if possible. Shepherds have name tags for the children in their bags. If necessary, ask the shepherd to supply children without tags with a temporary badge.
3. Open with a brief prayer. An example might be: God, we thank you for your son, Jesus, who became like us and lived on the earth. Please help us to learn more about Jesus today. Amen.
4. Give the students their snack

B. Story Review/Telling from the CEV Bible at approximately 9:55 a.m. (This can be done as they enjoy their doughnuts)
1. Read the story
a. PreK through 2nd graders: you may read from the Bible, or use the kid-friendly version below, if you like.
b. Grades 3-6th—go ahead and read the story from the Bible, pausing to allow them to chime in on key words as they follow along. (It is possible to have the children read, but this often leads to other children not listening.)

The people on earth had become so cruel and violent that God regretted making the world and decided to destroy all the creatures living on earth. Noah was the only good person who lived right and obeyed God. Noah had a wife and three sons. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. His sons also had wives.
God said to Noah, Get some good lumber and build a gigantic boat three stories high with a roof. I’m going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes. But I promise that you and your family will be kept safe. I want you to bring on the boat two of every kind of animal and bird and reptile, a male and female of each, and bring enough food for all the people and animals on the boat.

Noah did everything God told him to do. After the ark was built, Noah and his wife; his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and his sons’ wives went into the ark. They took with them two of every animal on earth. Seven days later it started to rain. The sky opened like a window, and rain poured down without stopping for 40 days and nights. The water got deeper and deeper until the ark was floating high above the ground. Even the highest mountain peaks were deep beneath the water. All the people and animals on earth were drowned. Only the people and animals on the ark survived the flood.

After the rain finally stopped it took 150 days for the waters to go down enough for the ark to come to a rest on a mountain. Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven, and it just flew back and forth over the water. Then Noah sent out a dove, but the dove found no place to stand and it returned to the ark. Noah waited seven days, and again sent out the dove. This time the dove came back to him with an olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had gone down. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove again; and it did not return.

When the waters were dried up, God told Noah, “Go leave the ark. You and the people and the animals with you can go live on the earth, have babies, and fill the earth again with people and animals.

Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices to God. (Noah brought seven pairs of some animals on board the ark, but you don’t need to go into this unless the kids ask where he got the animals for the sacrifices.) And God told Noah, “I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who lives after you: I promise never again to cover the earth with a flood.”
This promise is called a covenant. As a sign of this covenant, God said, “The rainbow that I have put in the sky will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. “ When we see a rainbow, it reminds us of God’s promise to care for creation and to love and care for us.

C. Application:
1. What a story, huh? I think about so many parts of the story and how God made it
happen and I am in awe…is there any part of the story that you think is really unbelievable? How did the animals know to come? How did Noah find enough food to put on the ark? How did the ark not sink? How did the animals live together and not eat each other? How did the heavens create all of that rain when there wasn’t water nearby?
2. God is amazing, isn’t He? He took care of making everything happen, in spite of
those questions. One of the questions I really ponder is how God knew what the ark had to be like and how He was able to tell Noah exactly what to do to build such an amazing boat…there had never before been such a boat! The ark was HUGE…the ark was 450 feet long and 75 feet wide and three stories tall, with 15 feet between each story…wow! The ark also had to withstand being tossed on the water above pointy peaks and not get a hole or sink, it also had to withstand forty days and nights of rain pouring onto it, plus lots of weight from all the animals and people!
3. Today we’re going to think more about the ark and what it was like to build it
and how amazing God is to know exactly how Noah had to make the ark. And, we want to remember how obedient and good Noah was for doing exactly what God asked of him.


YOUNGER STUDENTS
4. Do boats sink or float? Float.
5. That’s right. Boats float because they are buoyant. Can you think of any other things that might be buoyant? Let students give answers.
6. What was the ark made of? Wood. Correct, it was made up of wood and wood is buoyant and was a great thing for God to tell Noah to build with.
7. Here I have a tub of water…we’re going to pretend that the tub of water is the water that God put on the earth for the flood. We’re going to try other items and see if they would have been a good or bad thing for Noah to have used to build the ark. Let the children try out the different materials to check for buoyancy.
8. God sure knew what He was doing when He told Noah to use wood, didn’t he!
9. To help us remember how neat the ark was, we’re going to make our own little model ark to take home with us today.
10. Pass out the ark models; for younger groups you may want to have them pre-cut out so they simply have to fold them and get them put together. Otherwise, you can assist them in getting the arks cut, folded, and taped together

OLDER STUDENTS (3-6TH GRADERS)
4. As we talked about, it was very important that God give Noah very good instructions, otherwise the ark would not have fulfilled its purpose of saving the people from the flood. The ark needed to be able to survive being in the water, as well as handling all the water that fell down on to it.
5. Today you’re going to get a chance to create your own mini-ark or boat and see if it is able to stand up to our “flood”. You can break into groups, if you like and use the supplies provided to create a boat. When we get near the end, we’ll test the boat and see whose is able to withstand a flood!
6. When the students have created their boats, you can place them in the tub and then pour water over them. You can decide if you’d like to see whose holds up for the longest count or if you simply want to see if they can handle a certain amount of water.
7. Great ark building, everyone; let’s keep in mind that thankfully Noah had God’s plan to follow so that his ark would save all of creation!

D. Reflection/Closing beginning no later than 10:18 a.m.:
1. Let’s try saying the memory verse together: You may use the prompt cards provided in your box. “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”—Psalm 124:8 You may repeat as many times as you like, stopping to have the repeat pieces of the verse as you see fit. You may also ask them how God helped Noah and discuss the application of the verse to the story.

OPTIONAL: If time, you may utilize the children’s journals to reflect on what they’ve learned. Journals are carried by the shepherds; they also have pencils. Utilize the Journal page provided for the different age groups. Use a glue stick to help them affix the paper to their journals.

4. Close with a prayer. Encourage children to offer petitions, if they’d like. It is helpful that with younger children you give them a prompt to go off of: Example: “Is there any person you’d like to ask God to bless” or “What is something you’re happy God created?” “Is there some idea that you, or someone else has had that you are thankful God gave them?” Using the last prompt, here is an example of a closing prayer: Lord, thank you for your love and care for the world and everything in it. Help us to be kind and obedient like Noah. We especially thank you for the great ideas you’ve given to your people, ideas like __kids can name ideas/gizmos/etc. that they are thankful for…t.v., cellphones, refridgerators, electricity… ____ Amen.

E. Tidy and Dismissal:
Be sure that they find a responsible person and that everyone has found one such person before you depart. Please take all supplies and put them in the box and return the box to the white cart found in the hallway. If you have any questions, concerns, or need additional supplies, please contact Stacy during the week or put a note in her mailbox, which is located by the office. Thanks!

THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR FAITH WITH OUR YOUNG PEOPLE!