Printable "Bible Book" Flashcards and Learning Games Ideas

One of my goals in children’s ministry is to make sure that by the time kids leave our ministry they have an understanding of the storyline of the Bible. I want them to know that the whole Bible is one story that point us to Jesus’ death on the cross in our place. I want them to be able to tell the story of the Bible to themselves and their friends. And, I want them to be able to use a Bible to do so. This means a couple of things. (1) We use Bibles a lot in our classrooms and constantly have kids looking up verses, and (2) we fill extra class time with Bible skill games and activities.

• Click on the preview above to download the whole set of Bible Book Cards

My favorite Bible skill activities are games to learn the books of the Bible. It’s amazing how many gospel centered conversations you can have while reviewing the order of Bible books or trying to decide which books are in the Old Testament. While playing games I’ll often ask simple questions about the books of the Bible or the Bible as a whole. I’ll ask kids who wrote that book, what’s one story they know from the book, where/ how it fits into the storyline of the Bible, etc.
My favorite Bible Book games involve a simple set of free Bible flashcards. Here are 8 easy games to play with these cards and a group of kids.

Games Using Bible Book Cards

1. Get in Order – – Give each player a card and have them stand in the order that those books would be found in the Bible. As an added challenge, try to name the books between the cards.
2. Memory Match – -Place all the Old Testament book cards (or all the New Testament book cards) on the table face down in rows. Take turns turning over 2 cards at a time looking for books that are next to each other. If they make a match they can take another turn. Examples of matches would be ‘Genesis & Exodus,’ ‘Hosea & Joel,’ or ‘John & Acts.’
3. Old or New Match – -Place all the book cards out on the table face down in rows. Take turns revealing two cards at a time looking for 2 Old Testament books or 2 New Testament books. If a child makes a match they can take another turn.
4. 66 Card Pick Up – – Shuffle all the cards and race against the clock to see how quickly you can put the books in order. Either play twice to see if the group can beat their time, or have a challenge to see how many books they can get in order in 2 minutes.
5. Go Fish – – Shuffle all the cards and deal each player 5 cards. Take turns asking the other players if they have a card that you need to make a pair (a pair is 2 book next to each other – like “Amos & Obadiah”). If someone has the card they should give it to the player who asked for it and then blindly choose one of the asking players’ remaining cards. Pairs that are matched should be placed on the table down face up. After making a match, the player should draw 2 cards to make sure they keep at least 5 cards in their hand. If no one has it, they should draw one from the deck. Keep playing until all the cards have been played in pairs. The winner is the one with the most pairs.
6. Clothesline – -Use clothes pins to hang Bible book cards in order along a string of clothesline.
7. Top Book – – Deal out all of the cards evenly among the kids in the group. Everyone in the group turns over the top card in their pile. Whoever’s card is closest to the end of the Bible takes all of the cards for that round. Play continues until one player has all the cards (this can take half an hour or more), or when time is called you can count to see who has the most cards.
8. What’s Next? – – The leader should shuffle the deck of cards and hold them face down. One at a time, flip over the card and kids should yell out the next book. The first player to say the correct book gets the card. Continue play until all the cards have been gone through and the player with the most cards is the winner.

You can download and print your own cards here. These cards contain the name of the book, a picture representing the book, a short description and a key verse. Cards are designed to be a business card size, so you can easily laminate them to last all year.
Printing tip: Print on colored paper so that kids can’t read through the card.
Don’t miss all our resources for kids learning the books of the Bible. Children love this books of the Bible song.