Regions of the World - Lesson 5

Manna Moment

Psalm 95:1-4- "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."

Before we begin studying the wonderful Biomes in our magnificent world, we must first learn the regions of the world where they are located.  There is such peace that I have knowing that I don't have to know everything about each biome to know that God is taking care of all things in our world.  Praying that as we discover God's awesome creation, we might draw closer to Him knowing that He has you and me in His loving hands.

What Role do I play Review

As the students came into class, I had them sort through the vocabulary about food chains and food webs last week and coupled it with which animals are herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, scavengers, decomposers.

Read Aloud

Beastly Biomes by Carly Allen-Fletcher gives a wonderful overview of the Biomes of the Earth that we will be covering for the rest of the school year.  The illustrations are vibrant and appealing while giving short texts about the different biomes and the animals that live there.

While I was reading, I had the students pick out the animals that they liked the best to read about.

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As I was reading about the biomes, this student was using the map that he had colored at home to tell us where the biome is.  Yes!!!  Teacher win!!

He's Got the WHole World In His Hands

Using my oversized map of the continents, we learned the continents and oceans by singing the song, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.
You would sing the first stanza like normal and then the second stanza you substitute words for continents and/or oceans.

"He's got North and South America in His hands
He's got Europe, Asia, Africa in His hands
He's got Australia and Antarctica in His hands
He's got the whole world in His hands"

"He's got the Arctic and Atlantic in His Hands
He's got the Pacific and Indian Oceans in His Hands
He's got the Southern Ocean too, in His hands
He's got the whole world in His hands"

Jumping into the oceans!

The students went to the Pacific Ocean.

Freezing in the Arctic Ocean

Freezing in the Southern Ocean

Sticking our toes in the Indian Ocean

Passing through the Atlantic Ocean

For this class, I had the students use the pieces of the map and put it together like a puzzle.

Included in the World in His Hands curriculum is a world map that can be copied on different colored cardstock for different continents.  They can laminate these and use them for geography, history and science. 



​Here is an example:

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These are not to scale but they are what could fit on 8x11 paper.

Who doesn't want to take their favorite action figure and travel to the different continents, oceans, and biomes?

Coloring in the Grasslands

Now that the students are familiar with the Regions of the world, we practiced coloring in all the different grasslands in the world on the different continents.

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growing a grass Head

Our final activity was decorating a small cup with a silly face.  After we decorated the cup with silly faces, we placed some soil and grass seeds in the cup.  Hopefully we will have some amazing grass heads whose hair we will need to clip.

Who doesn't love to be silly for science?

Science Nesting Circles

An activity for the students to do at home is to make these Science Nesting Circles to review vocabulary and also make personal connections to what we are learning.

The first and smallest circle says "I am a Biotic part of my..."
And then the next circle says 'habitat' which would be a picture of your home.
Next is the 'ecosystem' which would be a picture of your city.
Next is 'biome' which would be a picture of your state.
Next is 'biosphere' which would be your continent.
And finally, world- a picture already drawn of the world.

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