Rhyming

All afloat on Noah's Boat!

Mitton, T., & Parker-Rees, G.(2006). All afloat on Noah's Boat!New York: Orchard Books    

ISBN-13: 978-0-439-87397-0

It’s flood time, but not to worry: Noah has built a great big boat called an Ark in which all the animals can find a safe and dry refuge. So, all creatures, no matter of their size and appearance, ALL came in pairs and occupied Noah’s “Ark Hotel”. However, there was a problem. The animals were stuck on the boat for such a long time and that made them very emotional. There was dissatisfaction aboard. Fortunately, Noah had a plan that could entertain the animals till the rain would dry off. He put on a  Talent Show for the animals to come on the stage in pair and perform something special. All animals had extraordinary things to offer to the audience, except two worms that felt that their cocoons weren’t so special. However, Noah and the animals waited till the cocoons opened up and two beautiful butterflies came out to the surprise of everyone. The show ends with the butterflies flying away over the now dried land and the rest of the animals coming out to live in a beautiful world.

I would use this book for three to five year-olds because the story line is not too complicated, but it is full of interesting concepts that children may be curious about at this age, for example: "How big was the Ark so that all animals could fit in? How could the boat not sink since it was so heavy? What is a flood? What makes a pair? How many animals can I recognize? What did the animals eat on the boat  and where did they go to the washroom? How do worms turn into butterflies?"

 The illustrations consist of painted drawings. An interesting observation about the illustrations is that the colors used are bright and cheerful, representing the rainbow at the end. The drawings of the animals are very expressive, capturing the different emotions. The animals are drawn to express emotions in a human way. This can help children observe body language and also identify and make them wonder how they themselves express different emotions. This is also the reason why I was drawn to the illustrations. I found that by just looking at the animals, I could tell right away what they were feeling. I found that because the colours were so bright and cheerful, I had a positive mood throughout the book, even though the animals were going through a flood.

Provocations:

I would bring diverse pairs of animals in the classroom, and place them in a colourful basket on a table. Then, I would talk to the children about what makes a pair of animals. I would provoke the children to match up the animals according to their kind. I would also bring in books that talk about animals from all over the world so that children can get familiar to as many animals as possible. In this way, when the story is presented, the children will have already met the characters on the Ark. In addition, in the morning when the children come in, I would have a CD with rain playing on the background.

Presentation:

1) Read the story to the children. Use my voice and facial expressions to represent the different emotions of the animals. Since this is the first time the story is presented, I would stop and wonder at the first page: "Why do you think Noah is building a ship for the animals?". I would also stop and wonder at the pages where animals are unhappy and wonder " Why do they feel that way?", and also at the page where Noah and the animals are waiting to see what will come out of the cocoons. I would chunk the book before Noah proposes a Talent Show. In this way, I can leave the children thinking of this question: "What would you do to make the animals feel happier?" Then, the second day, we can go on with the story, only after the children have shared their suggestions. Lastly, I would stop and explain words such as: flood, ark, rose, float, aboard, hyped-up, rodents, trilling, tiffs, quarrels, hyper-hops, rhytmic, croon, rumpus, and mega-wails.

2) I would use a felt board to present the story. I would make a felt ark and felt animals. I would then, place the animals two by two behind the ark, and place the ark over them so that they look like they are inside. I would also create different levels of felt water so that the children can understand that flood means water level rising. I would also create a felt rainbow that I would place over the ark at the end. For the talent show, I would move the felt animals giving them life and character, because it is a bit hard to create the Talent Show unless I would have a separate felt board that is used mainly for the Talent Show part of the story. However, I would make the cocoons and then the butterflies so that the children can observe this miracle of worms turning into butterflies. I would buy the felt pieces from discount stores since I need a lot of felt, and I would make my own felt board.

3) Story basket: in a beautiful basket, place all the animals and props for this story: ark, a blue bowl representing the flood, the different furniture that could have been inside of the ark and that the animals used during the Talent Show (tables), and different food items necessary for the animals. I would take out only the materials used for each part of the story and place them on a beautiful rug( I would prefer to have a multi-colored rug to represent the rainbow). I would then allow the children to play and manipulate the materials, and create their own story and talent show during play time. I would plan in advance for the story basket presentation since I need all these props. For example, I would visit discount stores, thrift stores, yard sales, and garage sales in order to build this story up.

Extensions:

1) I would take the children on a field trip to the zoo! What a fantastic way to talk and ask about different animals, observe them alive, wonder how they are feeling, and get an idea of how big the ark must have been since the children can now see the real proportions of different animals. We would take pictures of the animals. The pictures can be used to create passports for the animals to board on the Ark. The children would then pretend that they are the animals and they need to show their passport to Noah before getting on the Ark. Each passport would include the photo of the animal, their favorite food or allergies, their personality type, like and dislikes, family size, etc.

2) Build an ark collage: on a large piece of white board, I would draw the outline of an ark. Then, I would bring in different magazines, such as National Geographic, from where the children can cut out the pictures of different animals. Then, the pictures can be glued inside of the ark, and the board hanged on the wall for children to continue their discussion about the animals.

3) Dramatic Play: bring in different costumes that could represent different animals. The children can then create their own Talent Show. I would also ask the parents' help for this activity since children could have at home different costume. Also, I would ask if the parents have any clothing items of different patterns (spots, zebra lines, furs, leather) that they no longer need and that they could donate for this activity. 

4) Together create animal masks that children can wear either during dramatic play or as the story is being told by them. Since the children will be familiar with the story by now, I would ask them if they would present the story in the way that was originally presented, or they could change the story line or end the story differently.