Free Printable Bible Story Activity Pages

How a case file is laid out

Every page follows nine numbered steps. It opens with a Story Question that the story will answer, such as Would Naaman stay proud, or would he humble himself and obey God’s message? Who Was Involved? shows the people in small portraits, and What Happened? tells the story in six short illustrated steps beside one large picture.

Then the page turns to meaning. What Choice Was Made?, What Did God Do? and What Is the Lesson? each get a short box. Scripture Memory gives one verse from the King James Version, How Can I Apply This? asks a personal question with lines to write on, and Student Response closes the page with three questions about the story.

The eighteen stories

From the Old Testament: Gideon, Samuel hearing God, David sparing Saul, Solomon asking for wisdom, Naaman’s healing, Josiah finding the Book of the Law, Nehemiah rebuilding the wall, Ezra reading the Law, and Job. From the New Testament: the temptation of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, Peter walking on water, the unforgiving servant, the rich young ruler, the lost sheep, the Pharisee and the publican, the woman at the well, and Philip and the Ethiopian.

Several of them turn on what someone did when they heard God’s Word, which makes a natural short series: Samuel, Josiah, Ezra, the temptation of Jesus, and Philip and the Ethiopian. Others are about humility and mercy: Naaman, David and Saul, the Pharisee and the publican, and the unforgiving servant.

The memory verses

Each page carries one memory verse in the King James Version, taken from the story itself: 1 Samuel 3:9 for Samuel, Matthew 14:27 for Peter on the water, Acts 8:35 for Philip and the Ethiopian. The table above lists every reference, so you can look the verses up before you print.

If your family memorizes in another translation, the verse box is small enough to cover with a label and write your own. The rest of the page does not depend on the wording.

Using the pages

Read the passage from the Bible first, then work through the case file together. With young children, read the page aloud and answer the questions in conversation; the six What Happened? pictures are enough for them to retell the story. Confident readers can complete a page on their own and bring their answers back to talk through.

Keep the memory verse going all week: say it at meals, write it as copywork, and check it at the end of the week. Eighteen pages make a steady term of Bible study at one a week, or two short series of nine, one from each Testament. Keep finished pages in a binder in Bible order, and by the end of the term a child has a record of eighteen stories in their own handwriting to look back on.

What the lesson boxes teach

The three short boxes in the middle of the page carry the meaning, and they are worth reading slowly. On the Philip and the Ethiopian page, What Choice Was Made? says that Philip chose to obey God and witness, and the Ethiopian chose to believe and be baptized. What Did God Do? says that God sent Philip, opened the man’s understanding and brought him joy through faith in Jesus. What Is the Lesson? draws it together: God uses His word and willing servants to lead people to faith in Jesus.

That pattern, a person’s choice, God’s action and the lesson that follows, is the same on every page. After a few case files, children start asking those three questions of every Bible story they read, which is a habit worth more than any single worksheet.

Talking it through

The How Can I Apply This? box is the one to linger on. On the Philip page it asks how you can obey God and share Jesus with others, a question with a different answer for every child and every family. Let children answer out loud before they write, and share your own answer too. A child who hears a parent answer honestly learns that these questions are for grown-ups as well.

For Sunday school and co-ops

A case file can carry a whole lesson for a small class. One child reads the story question, the class reads the passage, and the page becomes the discussion guide, with the Student Response questions as a quick check at the end. For a hands-on version of the same stories, the Scroll Stories let children cut out and retell twenty more.

Every page is a single letter-size sheet in full color. The download at the top of this page holds all eighteen.