Hobbies And Interests
Tag Games
Tag games give kids a chance to run around, and they are fairly easy to modify to fit a Noah's ark theme. In rainbow tag (corresponding with the rainbow Noah saw after the flood), assign rainbow colors to different sets of children. Have kids line up against a wall and let one child in the middle call out a color, then try to tag the kids assigned to that color as they run past. In animal tag, kids play tag as usual except that they have to stay linked at the elbows as pairs of animals.
Noah's Ark Scavenger Hunts
Buy pairs of small toy animals, with no more than one pair of any one kind of animal and at least as many pairs as children. Hide the animals around the house and let children go look for them. When a child finds one animal, she must search for the matching animal in the pair. Other types of Noah's ark scavenger hunts include having each child try to find five different animals, or four components of an ark (roof, deck, bow and animals).
Animal Games
Animal-themed games are a natural fit for Noah's ark. For Elephant's Tail, have children line up and hold hands in one long row. The child at the front of the line is the "elephant's trunk" and the child at the end is the "elephant's tail." The goal is for the trunk to tag the tail, at which point the tail moves up to become the new trunk. Another idea is to secretly assign each child one animal, then let kids try to find their partners by making animal noises.
Noah's Ark Racing Games
Running around outside will help kids burn off excess energy. Line kids up into two teams and have them take turns "bailing" water out of the ark by carrying water in a small cup from one bucket to their team's container 20 feet away. The first team to fill their container wins. Alternatively decorate balloons to look like animals, then divide the kids into two teams and give each team a broom and each child a balloon animal. Let children use the brooms to "herd" balloon animals out to a cone one by one.