Make a Noah's Ark Paper Plate Craft
A Bible Story Project for Sunday School or Preschool Kids
The paper plates in this Noah’s ark craft make a pouch that you can use to hold paper people and animals, or even small stuffed animals such as Beanie Babies. The rainbow on the top of the paper plate reminds children of God’s promise.
Kids of kindergarten age or older should be able to do the coloring and basic cutting by themselves, but they may need some help cutting the animals and people. For very young kids, such as preschoolers or toddlers, you may want to precut the animals and just have them color the paper plates.
Supplies:
- two paper plates
- scissors
- crayons
- stapler
- plain paper or construction paper
- ribbon or yarn (optional)
- tape (optional)
Make the Paper Plate Ark
- Color the top edge of one paper plate to look like a rainbow. Kids can make each stripe of color narrow, or cover the entire top half of the paper plate.
- Cut the other paper plate in half. Flip the half paper plate over, so that the side you would eat from is face down.
- Color the back of the half paper plate brown. (Horizontal strokes look the most like wood.) Draw portholes on the paper plate using black crayon.
- Place the whole paper plate and the half paper plate together, so that the ark covers the bottom and the rainbow is on the top.
- Staple the two plates together along the lower edge and sides.
Add Noah and the Animals
- Draw a picture of Noah on a plain piece of paper or download free paper doll patterns. You can print a plain outline of the dolls for the kids to color, or print a pre-colored paper person for younger children. This site also includes Bible style clothes and accessories perfect for Noah and family.
- Draw and color animals to put in the ark, or download and print these free animal pictures. You may want to include two of each animal to help kids remember the story.
- Cut out Noah and the animals and place them inside the ark. (You may want to tape them to the ark to make sure their heads and upper bodies show and stay in place.)
To hang up the Noah’s ark craft, you can tape a loop of ribbon or yarn to the back of the paper plate. You may want to have the kids write a Bible memory verse on the back of the paper plate, or write it on a separate slip of paper and tuck it inside the ark. The kids can use their Noah’s ark craft to retell the story and the lesson they learned in Sunday school when they get home.
