Genesis: Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel is a short lesson, so I created a cut & glue worksheet that can be used to discuss the things that we should build our life on that God wants. To go with the building theme, I have the cutest toolbox and tools for you! It can be used for any lesson and the kids are going to LOVE it!

The people in the lesson wanted to build the tower as a monument to themselves, but God wants expects us to live for Him. Also, at the beginning of the lesson, I had cards printed with Hello in different languages, and we all talked at the same time. That's not a new idea, but one I have done every time I teach this lesson!



Review: Last week we studied Noah. The people on earth were so sinful, that God decided to destroy the earth. He wanted to save Noah because of his faithfulness, so God told Noah to build an ark, so Noah did. No complaining, or whining, he just did it! It took him and his three sons 120 years to build it.

When it was finished, the animals went into the ark, Noah and his wife, their three sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth and their wives went in. God closed the door and it rained. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights and there was water on the earth for 150 days.

When it was dry, they came out, and Noah made an altar and offered sacrifices to God. God put a rainbow in the sky and said it was a reminder of His promise that He would never destroy the earth by water again.
FYI: 1.) Babel is like the Hebrew word for confusion & 2.)  there are 2800 known different languages in the world now.

Lesson is found in Genesis 11:1-9: Today we are going to learn about what happened after the flood. God didn’t like the sinfulness of the people in the world, do you think they changed? Well, over time, each of Noah’s sons had children, and so on. That is in chapter 10 of Genesis.  Noah is still alive, and chapter 11 tells us that the whole earth had one language and over time, they moved from the east and lived in a valley in the land of Shinar. (Shine’ ar)

God had told the people to multiply and spread out over all the land. But they just went one direction and lived in one area.

The people talked to each other and decided to make bricks and bake them carefully. They said “Let’s build a city with a tower that will reach the heavens. We will make a name for ourselves!” They wanted everyone to know how great they were!  

But when God came to see the city and their tower, He didn’t like what they were doing. They had one language, and they were not using it to praise God, they wanted men to praise them for their city!



God decided to ‘confuse their language’, that means that now there are all different languages, and nobody could understand what the next person was saying! Think about how confusing that would be. “Hey, hand me that brick.” Blah, blah, what are you saying? It made it impossible for them to finish the project, just like God intended. They stopped building the city and they spread out all over the earth.

So, the place was called Babel, because God confused the language and the people moved to other parts of the earth. 

Something to think about, we discussed in class that these people didn't do what God wanted, they were not building the tower to please God, they wanted the glory and praise of men. God didn't like it. We talked more about Noah from last week, and Noah built the boat just as God told him to. Maybe, Noah wanted to use different wood, or thought there should be more than one window, but he did it exactly as God told him to, and it saved his family. God told us exactly what He wants for worship. We are here to worship Him, not be entertained. God has given the instructions to follow for worship... How do you think God feels when we don't worship Him like we are instructed?

I used language cards and handed them out to everyone. I said 'Hello!' and asked them to read their cards. Then, I had everyone just mumble at the same time to see how confusing it all was. This was so fun! These have been updated. Each word or phrase has the English word at the top. The translation language is on the left side with the translated word(s) in the box at the bottom. They are all black and white. These are easy to use and print. There is a blank page to add your own words or to let the student write their own (if you have wi-fi). You can also type in your own words at Google Translate (if you have wi-fi) and listen to the languages.

If you have anyone that speaks a different language, ask them to come in and talk to the students. It doesn't even matter what they say because they cannot understand it anyway! Our assistant speaks Spanish, so we just talked. She kept saying things, and I said I don't understand and there was a lot of hand waving. That was a lot of fun and put it in perspective for them.

Click here to download the language cards.

This is the project I made for this lesson. I wanted something about building but building to please God. I just added a general title on this so it could be used for other lessons also. You can print the teacher's copy which looks like the photo, all finished. For the students, all the blocks are on the second page for them to cut out and glue to the title page. This is intended to be used as a conversation starter on what God wants from us, with a couple of blank spots for them to fill in. Prayer & worship would be good to fill in the blanks but see what is discussed and add your choices.

Student:   Color     B/W

This is how the first cuts for the toolbox should look. You cut off the extra around the two end handles, BUT you DO NOT cut off the sides! When it is folded, they will be stapled and/or taped together to make the box for the 'tools' that will fit inside. I printed mine on heavy cardstock.

After you cut the two top edges off, cut out the rectangles for the two handles. Fold the sides and snip the lines, tow on each side. When you pull the sides up, it will form the toolbox. I stapled the sides together, then used Scotch tape to cover the staples so the kids don't get hurt. The toolbox is black & white, to be printed on your choice of cardstock.
 You can print it here:
Color    B/W
Spanish:
Color      B/W
Spanish translation @ http://translate.google.com/ Special thanks to Christy Lampley for the extra help with the Spanish translation correction! I appreciate it!

I also added these construction hats. I had them for a different lesson, but decided they really needed to be with the cute toolboxes! I printed what I needed, one for the front and one for the back onto cardstock. I cut them out and put them through my Xyron Sticker Maker and everything matches! You can print the labels here.

You can purchase the construction hats here.

Click here to print.

Click here to download the updated visuals.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

Bible Verse: Genesis 11:4

 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.

Here is the cut & glue worksheet that can be used by itself, or with the lapbook printables.

Here are the lapbook printables:
Lapbook #1
Lapbook #2

 

See all the Genesis cut and paste worksheets and lapbook printables here.

Yah! Tower of Babel was featured @