The Bible story of Jesus calming the storm illustrates the power of faith, God's control over the forces of nature and the dependability of Jesus in moments of crisis. The simplicity of the story makes it a perfect choice for children to learn about in Sunday school.
Create the scene of a boat in a storm inside a shoebox turned on its side. Glue construction paper cutouts, crepe paper or wavy packing peanuts coloured blue into the base to create the water. For storm clouds, colour cotton balls or popcorn with grey spray paint ahead of time and let the children attach them inside the top of the diorama. Cut out brown construction paper boats with white paper triangles for sails and let children draw the disciples on slips of paper or directly on the back wall of the diorama.
This craft idea will inevitably get kids wet, so it's best as an outdoor activity. Lead children through the process of making a simple origami boat out of paper. If desired, create Jesus and the disciples out of craft sticks with faces drawn on them and arrange them in the boats. Let children take turns placing their boats in a bin of water and shaking it to create a "storm" until another child commands the storm to stop.
Ahead of time, cut shapes out of construction paper. Create wavy blue pieces, grey and black clouds, yellow lightning bolts, brown boats, brown masts and white sails. Have children create collage pictures of the storm by choosing various cutouts and pasting them onto a sheet of paper. Children can draw the disciples and Jesus in their boats once they are done creating the rest of the picture, or you can create circles (as heads) or simple human figures for the children to draw faces.
Collect magazine pages with photographs depicting boats, storms, lightning and sailors in distress. Let children cut images out of the pages and work together to create a large collage. Using modern imagery can provide a great opportunity for humour as the class puts pirates and yacht captains together in a boat made up of submarine parts, sails and modern cruise ships. At the same time, exploring and using photographic images of powerful storms, lightning, capsizing boats and sailors in lifeboats may help bring the story out of the craft pages and connect it with reality.