For Kids and Educators

Retellings and adaptations | Activities | Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie | Songs | Resources

Activities

Jonah and the Whale cupcakes! Excellent, but the lion (Daniel and the…) cupcakes are better and, I suspect, more delicious.

Jonah-themed crafts and activities, including bean bag toss games, puppets and songs, from Danielle's Place.

Those Worries and Fears. Sunday-school lesson with a Jonah component.

Lesson Plan (mostly a summary), from the Arlington Metroplex's two-year Sunday school plan.

Kindergarten and Primary School Sunday school lesson plans, with a lot of fun activities (eg., making whales), from a Seventh Day Adventist Sabbath School Curriculum. The last paragraph of the latter handles the "why didn't Jonah just do it" question nicely, by presenting a list of things that children might not want to do, like singing a solo in church.[1]

Jonah and the Vine lesson, with Jonah trading card (Jonah on the boat, unfortunately, not with the vine.)

Jonah and the Great Fish. Multi-page packet includes a coloring page, word find, a quiz (hint: in the true/false sections, it has a scriptural reference next to it, check "true"), a maze and crossword puzzle, from Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry, Santa Ana, CA. Similar packets are available for Nineveh Repents and Jonah is Humbled by God.

Jonah's Adventure Word Search from Friendship Baptist Church, Saint Petersburg, FL.

Jonah and the Big Fish. Make foam whale that spits Jonah out. (Grades 2-5.)

Jonah and the Raging Sea. Put Jonah and a fish into a 2-litre bottles; shake.

Jonah lesson plans in five different "centers": Temple Center, Video Center, Art Center, Cooking Center, and Puppet Center, from the Smyrna Presbyterian Church, Waynesboro, VA.

Coloring page. Don't click on the ad. You did not win a million dollars.

Jonah and the Fish Sunday school webquest.

Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie

Amazon. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002). Amazon reviews are all raves, complimenting the animation quality and its wholesome (but not overly didactic) message.

Review of Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Reviewer criticizes the music and some "preachy" sections:

"Several scenes are overly pedantic, with dialogue bordering on preachy. This moralizing may work better in an episodic series, but seems contrived in a movie."

Short review from the Dove Foundation (scroll down).

DecentFilm.com passes the test.

Songs

Jonah and the Whale song lyrics, sung to the tune of "I'm a little teapot."

Preschoolers' song, sung to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down."

Three songs by Steve Case, with lyrics and sound files: Going Down , All at Sea and Shouldn't I Care About Them?Case Dovecot Evangelical Church, Liverpool, UK.

Who Did Swallow Jonah? "Jo, Jo, Jo, Jo." It might work in song, but the lyrics just look silly.

Jonah's Song (lyrics) by Mark Heard, a now-deceased Christian musician. See about Mark Heard.

Resources

Resource list from MSSS Crafts. This is a good list but, quite frankly, I already stole everything on it (except the dead links). Still, it is a good list, and may well accumulate links in the future that I miss.

Retellings and adaptations

Jonah and the Whale (A slightly warped retelling) by Ed and Zach Deforest. Jokey two-person version, good for a school play, but the actors would have to be very good.

Retold in simple (indeed idiotic) language for Just4KidsMagazine.

Jonah Comic Book by Philip Williams. Entertaining pictures, NASB text. I particularly enjoyed the illustration of the fish "vomiting Jonah onto dry land."

Another retelling from childrensministry.com.

Retelling, apaprently for Children from Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian, Cary, NC.

Jonah Play script by Tegan Lee and class, Scarsdale Congregational Church, Scarsdale, NY.

The Ninevite Evening News by Rick Lawrence. Amusing Sunday-school skit; I would have added a mea culpa by the news anchor.

Children's summary and compression , omitting the vine story, from the hard-line Virtual Church.[2]

Humongous Hollis. A parable of the fish that ate Jonah. Retelling the story of Jonah from the fish's perspective, from Matney Woodard's Animal Parable Bible Stories, "All your favorite Bible stories as told by the animals that were there." Some thoughts.[3]

Jonah and the Little Blue Fish! by Gramma Cherbear, has Jonah talking to the little blue fish inside the belly of the whale. The rhymes here get on my nerves.