FREE Books of the Bible Printable: 7 Ways to Make Memorizing Fun!

This free printable pack turns memorizing all 66 books into games your kids will actually want to play!

Remember back in the day when Sunday school and vacation Bible school teachers taught kids songs and rhymes to help them remember the order of the books of the Bible? Knowing the order came in pretty handy during the “sword” or Bible drill challenges when we raced to find the passage first.

Once I was working with a 6th grader at our church to find a passage for the lesson, and I started singing the books as she flipped through. She giggled and thought I was strange.

Her face said exactly what your kids have probably asked out loud. Why memorize the order when there’s a table of contents right inside the front cover?

It’s a fair question. And the answer is better than winning the sword drill trophy at VBS.

A table of contents tells your kids where a book sits. Knowing the order tells them why it sits there. Once they can picture the whole thing in order, they start seeing how the history and the prophets and the Gospels connect, and how God has been at work through every one of them. That’s what turns a collection of separate stories into one story.

So can memorizing actually be fun? Yes! Grab the free printable pack below, then use these seven activities to work your way through it.

7 Fun Ways to Memorize the Books of the Bible

1. Find Your Way: Old Testament Maze

As your kids work through the maze, they connect each Old Testament book with a symbol and a story they already know. Suddenly Noah and Moses and David aren’t floating around loose. They have an address. All those stories your kids have heard since they were little fit into the Bible they are holding in their hands.

2. Search It Out: New Testament Word Search

New Testament books are named either for the person who wrote them or for the people they were written to. That’s a lot of names, and it is genuinely easy for kids to mix up which ones are books and which ones are just people in the story. Is Timothy a book? What about Barnabas? Hunting for each name makes your kids look at it long enough to sort that out, and they pick up the spelling on the way.

3. Organize the Shelf: Books of the Bible Sorting Game

Sixty-six books in order sounds impossible right up until you stop treating it as one long list. Break it into groups and it gets manageable fast. Law. History. Poetry. Prophets. Gospels. Letters. Your kids cut out each book, sort it onto the right shelf, and memorize six at a time instead of sixty-six.

Once they’ve done it with paper and scissors, My Bible Bookshelf gives them the reusable magnetic version. Each book is its own magnet, so they can sort, re-sort, and check their own work without another worksheet. Reach for it when the paper version clicks and your kids want to keep going.

4. Put Them in Order: Books of the Bible Stack-Up Game

Have a kid who only switches on when there’s a clock involved? We’ve got you covered! Use the list in the printable to label a stack of styrofoam cups, then turn them loose. They can race a sibling, race a friend, or race their own best time, and most kids will ask to go again.

If that’s the kid you’re raising, our Books of the Bible Game belongs on your game night shelf. It’s a card deck with 13 different games, from familiar ones like war to new ones like Bible Place Race.

5. Which Testament: Color Code the Entire Bible

Even when your kids can’t place a book exactly, narrowing it to one testament gets them close enough to find it fast. This coloring page asks them to decide which side of the Bible each book falls on and color it in. Work through the whole page and a hidden picture turns up, which is reason enough for most kids to finish.

6. Use the Clues: Books of the Bible Crossword Puzzle

I’ll be honest, I memorize things only when I have to. What I actually love is learning something new. And it turns out that’s the trick. A bare list of names is hard to hold onto, but give me one interesting fact about each one and it sticks. That’s what the crossword clues do for your kids. They pick up what’s actually inside these books while they’re filling in the squares.

7. Find It First: Books of the Bible Scavenger Hunt

The last page puts all of it to work. Your kids pull out their own Bibles and go hunting for what the list asks them to find, which is the entire reason for learning the order in the first place.

Fair warning… brush up on your Bible trivia! Your kids will love sharing their finds with you, but it may be in the form of a quiz! Haha!

Ready to Get Started?

Download the free printable pack below and start with whichever page looks the most fun for your kids. The maze for the one who needs to see it. The cup stack for the one who needs to race someone or the crossword for kids who want to know why.

And when the paper version has done its job and your kids want to keep going, My Bible Bookshelf is a kid favorite. Same skill, more staying power, and it doesn’t get lost in the paper pile.