Parenting is basically a full-time job as a cruise director on a ship you never signed up for. You’re constantly trying to keep the little humans entertained, fed, and from jumping off the furniture. Throw in a desire to actually teach them something meaningful about faith, and the pressure is on.
If you’ve been looking for a way to make Bible stories less of a “sit still and listen” chore and more of an adventure, you’ve come to the right place. The story of Noah? It’s basically the original blockbuster movie. It’s got a massive flood, a giant boat, and a ton of animals.
I’ve been down this road with my own kids, and I’ve learned that the secret sauce to getting them to remember the lesson is making it hands-on. We’ve built, painted, and probably eaten our way through this story more times than I can count. So, grab your glue sticks and your patience (you’ll need it for the glitter), because here are 10 Noah’s Ark activities for kids that are actually fun.
1. The Animal Crackers Ark Snack
This is the activity you turn to when you need a win and a snack simultaneously. It’s ridiculously easy, and honestly, the kids love it way more than they should.
Building Your Edible Vessel
You just need a few things: a sturdy paper plate, some blue frosting (for the water, obviously), and a package of animal crackers. Oh, and you need the “ark.” I’ve found that graham crackers work best. Break them in half and use a little extra frosting to stick them together to form the shape of a boat on the plate.
- Spread the blue frosting all over the plate. This is the flood. Go wild with it.
- Stand your graham cracker ark in the middle.
- Start loading the animals! Have your kids pair the animal crackers up two-by-two and place them on or around the ark.
Pro tip from my kitchen: Buy the generic animal crackers. The name-brand ones are fine, but the knock-off brands usually have weirder animal shapes, which leads to hilarious conversations about what exactly a “bison” is doing on the ark. 🙂
2. Toilet Paper Roll Ark Craft
I don’t know about you, but our house runs on a currency of empty toilet paper rolls. I refuse to throw them away because I know they are just craft projects waiting to happen. This is one of the best uses for them.
Upcycling Your Way to a Bible Lesson
First, save up two rolls per kid. You’ll also need some paint, construction paper, and glue.
- Take one toilet paper roll and cut it in half lengthwise. This will be the base of the ark.
- Take the second, uncut roll, and flatten it slightly. Glue it on top of the two half-roll pieces. You should have a two-tiered boat shape.
- Paint the whole thing brown. Let the kids go to town. My son once painted his rainbow colors “because God promised.” I mean, he wasn’t wrong.
- Once dry, cut a small strip of construction paper for a ramp.
- Now for the best part: the animals. You can draw simple animal faces on clothespins and clip them to the edge, or just draw them on paper, cut them out, and glue them inside.
It’s a great way to talk about how many animals had to fit in one space. Ever tried to get a toddler to understand spatial reasoning? This helps.
3. The Rainbow Promise Collage
After the rain stops, God puts a rainbow in the sky as a promise. This is a core part of the story, and it’s also an excuse to let your kids go wild with color. My daughter gets genuinely emotional about rainbows. She calls them “God’s smile.” It melts my heart every single time.
Creating a Colorful Reminder
You don’t need fancy art supplies for this. Raid your recycling bin and your craft closet.
- Cut a large arch shape out of a piece of cardboard.
- Gather anything colorful: scraps of fabric, old magazines, tissue paper, yarn, buttons.
- Let the kids fill in the rainbow stripes by gluing the items down in color order.
While they work, you can chat about promises. Ask them, “What’s a promise you can make to someone?” It turns a simple craft into a deep conversation without them even realizing it.
4. Sock Puppet Pairs
I love this activity because it requires almost zero prep if you have a laundry basket. We always seem to have single socks that have lost their partner. Finally, a use for them!
Giving Lost Socks a New Purpose
You’ll need those lonely socks, googly eyes (do I even need to say it? always have googly eyes on hand), and some glue or markers.
- Give each child a sock.
- Have them turn the sock into an animal. A trunk for an elephant, ears for a monkey, a mane for a lion—all easily done with felt or just drawn on with fabric markers.
- Here’s the twist: they have to work with a partner to make the matching animal. So if your child makes a giraffe, their sibling or friend has to make one too.
This teaches the “two-by-two” concept perfectly. Plus, you end up with a zoo of puppets for imaginative play afterward. Fair warning: you will be subjected to a very loud puppet show later.
5. Sensory Bin: Wash the Animals
If your kids are anything like mine, they love anything involving water. This activity leans into that love while re-telling the story of the flood. It’s messy, but it’s a contained messy, which is the best kind.
Setting Up the Play Scene
Grab a big plastic bin. Not a tiny shoebox, a real bin. You need room for the splashing.
- Fill the bin with water. Add a drop of blue food coloring if you’re feeling fancy.
- Throw in a collection of plastic animal figurines. The little Schleich ones are perfect, but the cheap tube ones work too.
- Give your kids some sponges, washcloths, and maybe a little scrub brush.
- Tell them the animals need to be clean before they get on the ark.
They will happily scrub those plastic creatures for a solid 30 minutes. It’s a great sensory experience, and you get to talk about how Noah took care of all the animals. Just put a towel down on the floor first. You’re welcome.
6. Build an Ark with LEGOs or Blocks
This is the easiest activity to set up because you probably already have the materials scattered across your living room floor, waiting to be stepped on. Ouch.
Engineering Challenges for Little Builders
Simply challenge your kids to build an ark. But don’t just let them build aimlessly. Give them parameters to make them think.
- The Size Challenge: “Can you build an ark big enough to hold 10 animals?”
- The Roof Challenge: “How do you make a roof so the animals stay dry?”
- The Waterproof Test: Take their creation to the bathtub or sink and see if it floats. (Spoiler: LEGOs usually do, wooden blocks might get waterlogged).
IMO, this is the best way to get them to engage with the practical problems Noah might have faced. It’s a stealth learning activity disguised as play.
7. Dove with an Olive Branch Craft
Remember the dove that brought back the olive leaf to show the water was going down? This is a hopeful part of the story and makes for a really cute, simple craft.
Symbolizing Hope and Peace
This one is all about handprints, because who doesn’t love a handprint keepsake?
- Trace your child’s hand on a piece of white cardstock and cut it out. The thumb makes the head, and the fingers are the feathers.
- Glue a small twig (from outside) or a strip of green construction paper into the handprint’s “fingers” to look like the dove is carrying it in its beak.
- Glue on a googly eye.
- You can attach a string to hang it up as a reminder that even when things look gloomy, there’s hope on the horizon.
My kids love looking back at their handprint crafts to see how much they’ve grown. It’s a sneaky way to document their childhood, too.
8. Freeze Dance: The Animals on the Ark
Alright, this one is for when the kids have the wiggles and you need them to burn off some energy. It’s a game, so they don’t even realize it’s a “Bible activity.”
Combining Movement with the Story
Put on some upbeat kids’ music. Explain the rules:
- When the music plays, they have to move around the room like an animal you call out. Stomp like an elephant, slither like a snake, hop like a kangaroo.
- When the music stops, they have to freeze in place.
- Here’s the ark twist: when you shout “Flood!” they all have to run to a designated spot (a rug, a corner, a blanket) that you’ve declared the “ark.”
It’s hilarious to watch them try to freeze mid-slither. And the mad dash for the ark when you shout “Flood!” really drives home the idea of seeking safety. Plus, it might just tire them out enough for naptime. Win-win.
9. Sequencing Cards
This is a bit more of a “sit down” activity, but it’s crucial for helping kids understand the timeline of the story. The story of Noah isn’t just about the boat; it’s about building, waiting, the rain, and the promise.
Telling the Story in Order
You can easily make these yourself.
- Take a piece of paper and divide it into four or six squares.
- In each square, draw a simple scene:
- Noah building the ark.
- The animals marching in two-by-two.
- The rain falling and the ark floating.
- The dove bringing back the leaf.
- The rainbow in the sky.
- Cut the squares apart and mix them up.
- Have your child put them back in the correct order.
This checks their comprehension in a low-pressure way. It’s also a great quiet-time activity. You can laminate them to make them last longer.
10. The “What Would You Pack?” Game
This is more of a conversation starter than a craft, but it has become a tradition in our house. It gets the kids thinking empathetically about what it would have been like to be Noah’s family.
Empathy and Imagination
Sit down with your kids and ask them a simple question: “If you had to get on a boat and couldn’t come back for a really long time, what would you pack?”
- It always starts with toys. Obviously.
- Then they think about food. “We need snacks, Mom!”
- Then maybe a blanket, a book, a flashlight.
You can expand on it. Explain that Noah didn’t have a store to buy food, so he had to bring it all with him. He had to take care of the animals, so he needed food for them too. It makes the story real to them. It’s no longer just a story about a guy in the Bible; it’s a story about a guy who had to make some serious packing decisions, just like they do before a road trip. 🙂
So there you have it. Ten ways to make the story of Noah’s Ark stick in your kids’ hearts and minds without resorting to a boring Sunday school video. Some of these are messy, some are loud, but all of them are worth it.
The best part isn’t the finished craft or the clean-up (let’s be real, the clean-up is the worst). The best part is the conversations you have while you’re gluing, building, and splashing. That’s where the real learning happens.
Now go forth and build some arks! And maybe invest in a good stain remover while you’re at it. You’ll thank me later.
