Scripture: Genesis 5-9
Learning Objectives:
- Students will review the story of Noah
- Students will learn/review animal nouns and tool nouns
- Students will participate in a game to help them practice using proper animal and tool nouns
Guiding Question: What are the correct English words for the various animals and tools Noah might have encountered during his lifetime?
Materials: a large variety of toy or real tools (be sure no dangerous tools are handled by children) and plastic or toy animals (or photos of them)
Procedure: Review the story of Noah, Ask students what types of tools Noah might have used to build the Ark. Remind them that although we don’t know for sure, there are many types of tools he may have used. Teach/review the names for the tools you brought to class (or photos). Then ask students what animals may have been on the Ark. Once again although we do not know exactly which animals were on the Ark (one of every kind probably meant he would have taken a lion or a tiger, but probably not both), there are a lot of possibilities. Teach/review the names of the animals (toy or photos) you have brought to class. Have students sit in a large circle. Pile all of the tools and animals in front of the first person. As he/she picks up the first item, he passes it to the person on his left while saying “I’m building/filling the Ark and I need a (name of item).” The person to his/her left responds “A what?” To which the initial person replies “(Name of item).” At that point the item is totally in the hands of the person to the left, who repeats the dialogue with the person to his left. While he is doing that, the original person has picked up a new item and is also conversing with the same person on how left in the same ways as before, except naming the new item. Timing is key in this game because everyone is basically in two conversations at once. Have fun with it by mixing up tools and animals or including fun toy animals (A duck-billed platypus could throw the whole game into shambles!)
Additional Question: What other categories of words were involved in the story of Noah?
Supplemental Activity: Have students replay the game this time using weather words, constructions verbs, sailing words or whatever additional categories the students choose. You may wish to have students create game cards to represent the various words if actual objects are not available.