Cave Ecosystem and Hibernation-Lesson 11

manna moment

Psalm 95:1-6
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In His hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are His also.  The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.  
Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker."

Caves are found in nearly all the biomes of the world and are an example of an ecosystem.  We have know caves to be places where animals can hibernate or people have been known to live in or hide during certain times during their life.  I remember a particular instance where David and his men were hiding in a large cave when King Saul, who was trying to kill him, came into the cave not knowing David was there.  David could have killed Saul in that moment but chose to only cut a piece of his cloak instead.  David was adamant on not killing God's anointed even though King Saul was trying to kill him.  David trusted and completely depended on God for help.  God protected David and David stubbornly did what was right in God's eyes.  May we have this same resolve, to do what is right in God's eyes no matter the temptation to do what is wrong.  (1 Samuel 24:3-22)

around the world Vocabulary review

I combined all the games and vocabulary that we have played this semester into a vocabulary game extravaganza to review and reinforce knowledge.
I set up the room with a world map on the board for the regions of the world that we have learned.  Then, I attempted to hang an agility ladder to represent the layers of the forest but it didn't work and I placed it on the ground using a yard stick to signify the floor of the forest.  For the class in the Route 104 Airstream, I drew a picture of the forest with the layers.  Then placed both the ecosystem and energy transfer vocabulary cards all over the room.  As soon as I would call out a region or definition the students would go to swat that.

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Read Aloud- Hibernation

This book has simple text with photographs of animals for visuals.
One of the animals that hibernate are bats.  Hibernation is a way that animals in very cold climates can survive.
When an animal hibernating, their heart rate and breathing slow and their body temperature lowers thus using a lower amount of energy.

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Here is a listening guide to go along with this book in order to review the main points.

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Making a Bat cave

I had the students bring in a half gallon container empty and rinsed with a hole cut out on the side.  I changed the orientation of the bat cave slightly to fit the bat that is drawn on the printable but you could do it either way.  The students would cut out the stalagmites and the stalagtites, the bat, the cricket, and the scorpion and place with tape inside the cave. They can color and decorate as they like.
We talked about the food chain of the cave ecosystem and how this is a very low energy ecosystem.
A true cave only has one entry and exit point therefore there is limited light that streams in.  Consequently there aren't any green plants that live in a cave.  How would anything live in a cave?
Well, bats love to roost in caves.  They get their food outside of the cave but when they roost, they poop and leave guano.  Guano then feeds bacteria and fungi within the cave which in turn feeds the crickets that might live there.  The crickets then become an energy source for the scorpions and crayfish.  So this would be the food chain.

Here is a short video on bats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FVoTMOorXA​

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This student was very excited to cut around the scorpions claws.  He did an excellent job.

I loved how this student placed the scorpion in just the right place to be able to see it through the spout on the 1/2 gallon container.

I brought in a cute bat to aide in learning and this student kept him safe.

The students did an excellent job with this activity and I loved seeing all their creativity.  My favorite part is being able to have conversation about the bats and caves while they are doing the activity.