Gods Covenant with Noah Lesson Overview: !

This class is designed to be part of a once a week, 40 minute, semester long drama course, based in biblical texts and taught to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Students will have already been introduced to the source text (Genesis 6:11-9:17) and will have had at least one class focused on other issues from the ood narrative. Students also have already studied script creation, story boarding, set design, and the basics of acting (over the course of the rst two lessons in the curriculum). Each class is either prefaced or concluded with drama and elocutionary exercises. Enduring Understanding: ! The ood narrative in the bible can teach us about adversity, hope, and diversity ! in the world. Essential Questions: ! What was life like for Noah and his family on the ark? ! What do you think the dove represented for Noah? ! What is the symbolism of the rainbow? Performance Tasks: ! Students will review the ood narrative (attached below) ! Students will answer the questions on the daf (attached below) ! Students will create their own story about the ikar of the ood narrative ! Students will perform their story for the class Evidence of Understanding: ! Students will be able to: put the ood narrative into their own words. thoughtfully answer the questions on the dafrooted in their own experience. craft a performance that addresses the central theme of their learning. perform the above. Activities: ! 1. Welcome students and review ! ! A. round table discussion of previous class (3 minutes) ! ! B. review of the ood narrative (3 minutes) ! 2. Dapim ! ! A. Hand out dapim ! ! B. Students divide into pairs (2 minutes for both A & B) ! ! C. Students work though guiding questions on dapim (15 minutes) ! 3. Student Stories ! A. In their pairs, students will craft a brief (2 minutes long) story based on the last question on their dapim. (10 minutes) ! B. Each student pair will perform their own stories (2 minutes each, 6 minutes total)

What Do You Think

1. What was the world like just before the flood came?

2. What do you think life was like on the ark for Noah and his family?

3. In the story, Noah sends out two birds. What does each bird do? How do you think the birds made Noah and his family feel?

4. In the story, what does the rainbow represent?

5. What is the ikar of the story?

The Story of Noah

Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. So God said to Noah, I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth! Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boatyou and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animala male and a femaleinto the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals. So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him. When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created. He went on board the boat to escape the floodhe and his wife and his sons and their wives. With them were all the various kinds of animalsthose approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were notalong with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground. They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth. All the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth. God wiped out every living thing on the earth people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. The

underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat and released a raven. The raven flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up. He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground. But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside. After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again. This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. Then God said to Noah, Leave the boat, all of youyou and your wife, and your sons and their wives. Release all the animalsthe birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the groundso they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth. So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth. Then God said, I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth. Then God said to Noah, Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.