Elementary Bible Craft: Rainbows (Genesis 9:12-17)

This Bible craft will have elementary children create a rainbow as they learn about God’s covenant to us.

You’ll need:

• a roll of clear contact paper
• scissors
• a pencil or crayon
• masking tape
• several sheets of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue tissue paper
• cotton balls
• hole punch
• string

On a long table, unwind an 5-foot section of contact paper, with the backing still on it. Lay another 5-foot section of contact paper next to the first section. Lay the contact paper lengthwise with the clear side up. Draw the five divisions of a rainbow across both sheets. Turn the paper over and remove the backing so the sticky side is up. Overlap the sections of contact paper by 2 inches so they’re attached to each other. Use masking tape at each end of the contact paper to hold it down.

Elementary Bible Craft: Rainbows

Tell kids to:

1. Cut the tissue paper into 2-inch squares and place it in same-color piles.
2. Pinch the center of each tissue paper square so the sides of the tissue paper “fan out.”
3. Stick the pinched part of each tissue paper square to the contact paper. Fill each section of the rainbow with many pieces of tissue paper. For example, put all the green tissue paper in one section of the rainbow and all the blue in another section. The colors in a rainbow are in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
4. Fill in the remaining areas of the contact paper with cotton balls to make clouds.
5. Using the hole punch, make holes 4 inches from the top of the contact paper. String up the rainbow in an open area so light can show through it.

Talk teasers

Ask:

• How do you feel about the way we worked together?
• How do you feel about the results of our working together?
• What would happen if everyone in the world cooperated instead of fighting?

Read Genesis 9:12-17 and explain that a covenant is an agreement between two people.

Say: God made a promise to us. When he looks at a rainbow in the sky, he remembers that promise. Let’s promise to work harder at cooperating with one another. When we look at our rainbow, we can remember our covenant—or agreement—with one another.

Have children say to one another, “I promise to cooperate with you.” Then close in prayer.

Betty Lentz
Nashville, Tennessee