Have children sit in a circle and place their hands behind their backs with palms up. Choose one person to be “Jonah,” and have him carry the fish while walking around the circle. While Jonah walks, the rest of the children say, “Jonah, Jonah disobeyed. Until inside the fish he prayed.” When the children finish, Jonah drops the fish into the hands of the child in front of him. The child with the fish stands up and chases Jonah around the circle. Jonah runs around the circle and tries to sit in that person’s empty spot. If the chaser tags Jonah before he sits down, Jonah must sit in the “belly of the whale” (middle of the circle) for one round. The chaser becomes the new Jonah. Continue play until all children have had a turn.

Have children line up on one side of the room. Choose one “great fish” and have him or her stand in the middle of the room. Tell the class they are all like Jonah, who disobeyed God and ran away from Nineveh. When the great fish yells “Overboard!” the children run to the other side of the room. The great fish tries to tag as many Jonahs as possible. Everyone tagged becomes a great fish. Continue play until one Jonah remains.

Divide the children evenly into teams. Assign each team a color, and tape streamers to children’s backs to match their team color (the streamers represent worms). On “Go” have children try to pull streamers off opposing teams’ backs. If a child’s streamer gets pulled, he or she is out. The team with the last child in play wins. Remind the children that Jonah cared more about a shade plant than the people of Nineveh. God showed Jonah his sin by sending a worm to kill the plant.

Have children line up on one side of the room. Choose three children to be the “big fish” and to stand in the middle of the room holding hands. The remaining children are “Jonahs.” Explain that the big fish will move together to swallow up children. To swallow someone, the two children on the ends of the trio clasp hands to complete a circle around a Jonah. Once a child is swallowed, he or she joins the big fish. Continue play until one Jonah remains. For larger groups, start with more than one big fish.