Quiet Book Page 7 . . .Noah and his Ark

Do you know the story of Noah in the Bible? He and his family were very good people, while the rest of the people in the world had become so wicked they could no longer live on the earth. The Lord commanded Noah to build a large boat which was called an ark.  

The skies were blue and cloudless, the sun was shining brightly, and they didn't live near a sea or lake, or even a river but Noah did what the Lord told him to do, even though he didn't understand the reason.  The wicked people laughed at him and mocked him.

When the ark was complete, and the sun was still shining brightly,  the Lord told Noah to fill the ark with his family and  two of every kind of animal.

Then the rains came and it rained until it flooded the entire earth.  Noah, his family and all the animals on the ark were the only ones to survive. 

When the rain finally stopped and the earth dried, Noah's family and the animals could live on the land again.

The Lord promised he would never flood the entire earth again. The beautiful rainbow we sometimes see in the sky following rain is His sign of that promise.

Building my ark

I included different times of the story on this page by using gray  felt for the background to show a rainy sky. The ark is floating on the water. I made the rainbow from a short piece of striped ribbon.  The "rest of the story" indicates that periodically Noah would release a dove and when, one day, the dove returned with a small piece of green in his beak, Noah knew the water was finally receding and they would soon be able to return to a dry and cleaned earth.

The lines on my ark are made with permanent marking pen. The middle line is also machine stitched across.

When you open the ark . . .

The animals will actually stand upright---I just couldn't scan it that way.

you see the animals lined up on the ramp, waiting to go on board. 

• I used  dark felt pieces to represent the inside of the ark. 
• I made the ramp from a double thickness of felt, drawing the lines and sewing them for stability. 
• The animals are beads which I threaded on elastic a little wider than the bead holes so when you move the animals they stay where you put them. They even stand up.
• The two brown strips of felt are there to try to hold the extra elastic in place. They don't do the job as well as I had hoped, so I am still trying to find a better way.

I drew Noah and his wife on heavy, stiff  Pellon using marking pens. I sewed each to another

piece of the Pellon to make them even sturdier.  They can be removed.The reason I machine-stitched the middle "board" in the ark is so they couldn't be pushed clear down to  the bottom of the boat. 

• The fish are plastic stick-ons.  Again, since I don't trust the sticky on them, I also sewed across their stripes. The ducks on small buttons I had leftover from a previous project. 

I did spend quite a bit of time trying to figure a way to have the animals on the elastic move completely into the ark but then decided that was going overboard (pardon the pun).

I love the message of the story of Noah.  It is important to be obedient and follow the words of our Savior because only He knows the whole picture. 

Plus, it makes sense to use our common sense be prepared for any potential needs. If that makes           sense to you, or if you are just curious, check out my preparedness posts in   What If . . .?

"It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark"