Story Of Noah's Ark

Sunday mornings, you wake up to the smell of coffee and the soft singing coming from the Christian radio station playing. You wipe your eyes to wake, throw on your Sunday best, and hop in the car. Walking into church, you say bye to your mom as you hear the faint sounds of your Sunday school class singing, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”, praising God for creating us. Then comes the question of who is this God, creator of all? The saver of animals through Noah’s Ark, the one we should live for because he created us, the lover of both good and evil. What does Sunday school teach us? To look up to the faithful Abraham, the pure hearted David, and the obedient Esther. A child is pure, unknowing of the trials ahead of them, the temptation, …show more content…
The story of Noah’s Ark is not one that is child friendly. Noah is an obedient man therefore God chooses him to live while the other disobedient humans passed. While the story of Noah being obedient to God and being rewarded is a good message, the death of humanity is not. The question is why teach the story of Noah’s Ark? Do we want to teach the obedient message and forget the fact God took the life of humanity? We then would not be teaching the whole story. The fact is that it is considered a child friendly story with the emphasis being on the animals. As a Sunday school teacher, imagine all of the crafts you can make with animals on a boat. It is much easier to focus on the family friendly aspects of the Bible. The Bible is a very mature, adult book full of lessons that may not be able to be taught to children without sanitizing the material and …show more content…
Dr. Jerome Berryman who spent a lifetime of research finding the correct curriculum and teaching of religious education. Godly Play is exactly as it sounds, a way for children to play with God. The children sit around in a circle as the teacher uses featureless characters and resources to tell the basic details of the biblical stories. Instead of nailing down the material, changing characteristics of the people, and presenting only verbally, Godly play gives a way for children to visually see what is happening within each story as well as being able to recreate it themselves with the materials. An example would be Moses parting the red sea. In Godly Play, two pieces of blue flexible material is placed in a sand box. Moses and the other characters stand on one side of the blue. As he parts the see, the pieces of flexible material roll away from him. The people then travel through the sand with Moses to the other side. The children are then able to play with these materials and recreate the story themselves. The great thing about Godly Play is that it tells the details of the biblical stories but does not nail down facts. “Godly Play lets children learn scripture and stories through creative play, inviting them to make a “journey of discovery for their personal theological meaning rather than memorizing concepts that others have discovered”.” Godly Play uses visuals as well as verbal cues, movement, and different