Mini-tabernacle construction

This past week in our homeschool, we worked on "constructing" a mini-tabernacle. We had done this a few years ago, you can find out more about that here. I said that I would post pictures this week of our new tabernacle, so here they are! :-D

This tabernacle construction was much more simple. We used two milk cartons, card stock for the curtains and tables (as provided in our student sheets), and some fabric that we had leftover from the last tabernacle. We used some fabric that we already had, which was red and blue for the curtain between the "Holy place" and "Most Holy Place". 

 My son and I did most of the cutting and construction. He colored the tables with gold or bronze crayon and helped me glue them together. My daughter helped most with the curtain "construction" and the end result. We used the directions on how to cut and color and display everything. We enjoyed learning about the tabernacle again-- it is great "hands-on" learning for the kids, and such an interesting part of Biblical history!

 Here are my two goofy students posing by our completed product!

A close-up of the entrance to the tabernacle with the scarlet, blue and purple curtains on each side!

Exodus 26

The Tabernacle

“Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubimwoven into them by a skilled worker. ² All the curtains are to be the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.^[a] 3 Join five of the curtains together, and do the same with the other five. ⁴ Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set. ⁵ Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. ⁶ Then make fifty gold clasps and use them to fasten the curtains together so that the tabernacle is a unit.

⁷ “Make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether. ⁸ All eleven curtains are to be the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide.^[b] 9 Join five of the curtains together into one set and the other six into another set. Fold the sixth curtain double at the front of the tent. ¹⁰ Make fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set. ¹¹ Then make fifty bronze clasps and put them in the loops to fasten the tent together as a unit. ¹² As for the additional length of the tent curtains, the half curtain that is left over is to hang down at the rear of the tabernacle. ¹³ The tent curtains will be a cubit^[c] longer on both sides; what is left will hang over the sides of the tabernacle so as to cover it. ¹⁴ Make for the tent a coveringof ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of the other durable leather.^[d]
15 “Make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. ¹⁶ Each frame is to be ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide,^[e] 17 with two projections set parallel to each other. Make all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.¹⁸ Make twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle ¹⁹ and make forty silver bases to go under them—two bases for each frame, one under each projection. ²⁰ For the other side, the north side of the tabernacle, make twenty frames ²¹ and forty silver bases—two under each frame. ²² Make six frames for the far end, that is, the west end of the tabernacle, ²³ and make two frames for the corners at the far end. ²⁴ At these two corners they must be double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring; both shall be like that. ²⁵ So there will be eight frames and sixteen silver bases—two under each frame.
²⁶ “Also make crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle, ²⁷ five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle. ²⁸ The center crossbar is to extend from end to end at the middle of the frames. ²⁹ Overlay the frames with gold and make gold rings to hold the crossbars. Also overlay the crossbars with gold.
³⁰ “Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain.
³¹ “Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. ³² Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases.³³ Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. ³⁴ Put the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law in the Most Holy Place. ³⁵ Place the table outside the curtain on the north side of the tabernacle and put the lampstandopposite it on the south side.
³⁶ “For the entrance to the tent make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer. ³⁷ Make gold hooks for this curtain and five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold. And cast five bronze bases for them.

Tabernacle construction {repost}

This week, we have been making a mini-tabernacle in our homeschool. We made a more elaborate one a few years ago, and I posted about it then. For those who may be interested in seeing it again, I am reposting the links to it...

Beginning the construction is found here.

Continuation of the construction found here.

Completion of the tabernacle found here.


It has been really fun to look back at the pictures, see how little the kids are, and remember the work that we did! Hope you enjoy the posts too... I may try to post pictures of our new mini-tabernacle next week!

Exodus 40:17-35

So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. When Moses set up the tabernacle, he put the bases in place, erected the frames, inserted the crossbars and set up the posts.  Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent, as the Lord commanded him.

He took the tablets of the covenant law and placed them in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it. Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the covenant law, as the Lord commanded him.

 Moses placed the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the curtain and set out the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord commanded him.

He placed the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle  and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord commanded him.

Moses placed the gold altar in the tent of meeting in front of the curtain and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord commanded him.

 Then he put up the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle. He set the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings, as the Lordcommanded him.

He placed the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing, and Moses and Aaron and his sons used it to wash their hands and feet. They washed whenever they entered the tent of meeting or approached the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses.

 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.  Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Tabernacle construction completed!

Since my last post, we glued the walls to the tabernacle down, (finished cutting them first)

and then...

This was our last week to work on our tabernacle. It was GREAT! Last week, we took Spring Break, (which was very relaxing...) and we moved it under a dresser for the week! It was safe & sound! This week, we didn't have too much left to do. We finished the cherubim curtain/ veil into the Most Holy Place, cut all of the coverings for the 4 layers. We did not tack them down, however. In real life they were tacked down along the edges. We did not do this so that we could see underneath, and they are loose on our tabernacle.

Also, today we made the curtain into the holy place. Then we ground some spices with our own mortar and pestle. The kids didn't even now we had one! Now Rebekah is all excited to use it for her microscope! The last thing we did was add the "manna" in a gold dish (which Rebekah created!) The ten commandments, and "Aaron's" blooming staff. We don't have any flowers attached to it though, since it is so small! Enjoy the pictures! Now on to other homeschool adventures! It was a fun project, and I hope the kids remember the hands-on art project for a long time. We will try to bring it to Caleb's Sunday School class this Sunday, if he teacher agrees to that. They've been studying the tabernacle in Sunday School too! I love God's timing!

Tabernacle construction continued...

So our tabernacle construction has continued...

We worked on our Holy Place walls on Friday and finished them on Monday, as well as painted them gold. We also worked on the bases for the walls, which are painted silver. We hot-glued the walls that Daddy/ Joshua helped us trim on Tuesday. We also built the incense altar on Tuesday. We had painted it with the other gold things on Monday. Then we glued the incense altar all together with rick-rack for edging on the top and dowels for poles on the sides. We painted poles for the Ark of the Covenant too, but haven't worked on the rest of it yet. We decided our Holy Place walls needed to be longer, so Rebekah made those on Tuesday.

We didn't do too much on Wednesday (today) because Rebekah was sick and Caleb is recovering from the same sickness. I trimmed table legs (Caleb helped) for the shewbread table and finished that. I also made little "loaves of bread" to go on it-- little circles that I cut out of tan felt! One funny thing that happened yesterday was that Mallory took all of our Playmobil Nativity characters that we had out, and placed them on the tabernacle. I took a photo of that too! :-D Silly girl!

Mini-Tabernacle construction

So, in our KONOS homeschool curriculum, the authors are having us build a small model of the Tabernacle of Moses, as directed in Exodus 25-31. I usually do not take on major projects like this in homeschool, because Mom ends up doing most of the work. I have really tried to get my kids involved as much as possible. But I just do not trust my 7-year-old boy, Caleb with gold spray paint, a sharp knife to cut with, or tacks which will poke him. But the kids have helped a lot with the construction so far.

On Monday, we read through the portion of Exodus about the tabernacle, and plotted it on graph paper (somewhat).

On Tuesday, we shopped to buy the supplies we'd need (we bought WAY too much, because we hadn't decided our scale and measurements before we began!) Then we measured our base of styrofoam, and cut our wood dowels into pieces.

Also on Tuesday, we made our pillars of clay bases, wood dowels and silver thumb tacks in the top. Then we glued them to the styrofoam, all around the edges (60 of them!).

On Wednesday, we placed the white "curtains" around the inside edge of the pillars. We had to measure and cut them the right lengths and glue them onto the inside of each pillar. In the Bible, it says that they were hung between each pillar, but our scale is so small, that it would have been impossible to make tiny rungs to hang the curtains between each pillar. On this day, Caleb also decorated the curtain for the gate with markers (rather than embroidery).

On Thursday, we made the brazen altar and the brazen laver. We used a small jewelry box which we glued a piece of plastic netting on the bottom, and small round dowels for the carrying poles. We painted it bronze. For the laver, we made it from a disposable cupcake tin, and we also painted this bronze.

Then today, Friday, we placed the laver and altar in the tabernacle proper, and made a base for the laver, which is a piece of cardboard painted bronze. Then we made the lampstand, which is cardboard cut and painted gold. We began making the walls of the holy place, which are popsicle sticks glued vertically with support "poles" glued horizontally. I painted the wall bases silver, and we will allow the glue to dry before we paint them on Monday.

This construction will take us about three weeks, which seems like a lot to me, but this major art project/ Bible lesson is about 45 minutes each day. We will have a very cool product when we are finished, and I hope my kids will remember this forever! I have been taking some photos, and will post those as I can. There is so much symbolism in the whole Tabernacle, with the precious metals used, the white purity of the curtains, the red "fire" (red flat marbles) in the altar which reflects in the bronze, and reminds us of Jesus' blood. God made a huge sacrifice for us, and we need to remember it daily, being careful not to take it for granted! I will continue to blog about this each week! I want to remember this neat process...