Noah's Ark

Last week we discussed the story of Noah’s Ark. We read many books about the story of Noah’s Ark, looked at various pictures of real boats, and did many experiments involving water. We also learned that the Hebrew word for ark is “teivah”.

We worked together, because we have such a small class, to create an ark out of craft sticks, glue, and brown paint to create an ark. We also used blue, aqua, and green finger paint to create the water. We included pictures of stuffed animals two by two that the children brought to school. Finally, we created a rainbow using scented paint for each color. 

Each child also made a small Ark to take home in the same way – ½ of a paper plate, brown paint, and smaller craft sticks. When this was dry they got to put as many animal stickers on the ark as they wanted. To finish this project each child used the other ½ of the paper plate and created a rainbow with crayons, paint, tissue paper, colored glue and beads, oil pastels, and watercolors.

To end our discussion, we created yummy edible Arks! Each child got ½ of a whole wheat pita, a kid-friendly plastic knife with some chocolate frosting and animal crackers. We put the items on the plate and asked the children to create an Ark!

Suggested Products from Discount School Supply®:
Large Wood Craft Sticks - 500 pieces (500T)
Colorations® Washable School Glue - 1.25 oz (SCWG)
Colorations® Simply Washable Tempera - brown (WSTBR)
Colorations® Washable Finger Paint - set of 10 (CWFPS)
Colorations® Crayons
Colorations® Tissue Paper
Colorations® Glitter Glue Classroom Pack - set of 30 (GGCLASS)
Multi-Mix Beads - 1 lb (BEAD)
Colorations® Outstanding Oil Pastels Classpack (COPACK)
Colorations® Liquid Watercolor - set of 18 (LW18)
9" White Paper Plates - 100 pieces (DIXIE)

Rainbow Promises

“I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and all the earth. Genesis 9:13”

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Spring is just around the corner and we can experience the wonderful weather where we can head outside. We are going to explore the wind and the rain, planting seeds and making wind chimes.

Our first week in March was all about the wind and spring rains that we get in Arizona. We have cool temperatures through March, April and May, before the desert heat sets in.

In circle time we talk about how God planned for seasons. This is the life cycle for all living things and spring is that renewal of life that has been hibernating during the winter. In our classroom we have wonderful window that we look out each day to see what the weather is like. We looked at clouds and tried to guess what they looked like. We read the story, “It Looks Like Spilt Milk” and made our own blotter art with White paint and dark color construction paper and laughed at what we thought they were.    

With spring weather, it changes very fast. It can be raining, than the wind blows all the clouds away and behold a beautiful rainbow. The children wanted to make rainbows like they saw out our windows. We read the book “The Rain Came Down” by David Shannon . We talked about how the rainbow is a promise from God that he would never flood the earth and that a rainbow is always seen after each rain when the sun comes out. We sang the rainbow song so the children would learn the color order of the rainbow and the shape we learned was an arc. We set out to create our see-through rainbows.

We each had an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of wax paper. I set out BioColor® paints in the rainbow colors. I use BioColor® because it is the only paint that will adhere to wax paper, not flake off and the colors are translucent. I gave them the freedom to use their fingers and paint to make their rainbows. After they were dry we put construction paper frames of their color choice around the wax paper and hung them in the windows. They looked awesome and were a lot of fun to do.

This is just the beginning of so many spring activities that we all enjoy so much.

God bless and have a wonderful March.
Lynn