The World in His hands- Lesson 3

The water and Air we share

Manna Moment:  Psalm 95:1-2 "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."

As we are making a joyful noise, there is a great exchange happening.  The LORD has designed us to breathe in oxygen and to breathe out another gas called carbon dioxide.  How does the LORD provide for our need of oxygen?  He filled the world with thousands of different types of plants that produce oxygen as they grow and thrive.  But God didn't stop there.  He also provided for plants, in that plants need carbon dioxide to make food and every time we exhale or make a joyful noise, we release more carbon dioxide into the air, giving them a necessary ingredient for photosynthesis.  What an awesome Creator, who made this symbiotic relationship, where each part mutually benefits from the other's presence and activity.

• Don't mind us, we are just giving off some carbon dioxide as we praise the Lord for being a God of relationship:)

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Here are the hand signs we did for verse 1.

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Here are the hand signs we did for verse 2.

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making leaf observations

At the beginning of class, we took some leaves (freshly picked this morning) and submerged them in a glass of water.  The students used their Leaf Observation Sheet to document and draw what they could see in the first jar.
We then set a timer for 20 minutes in order to make another observation and draw what we saw in the second jar.  Finally, we set our timer for another 20 minutes and took another observation and drew what we saw.
I am interested to see if there is a difference between having the jar in the building versus the Airstream.

Our thinking questions that we answered orally at the end of class:
A.  How did the appearance of the leaf change over time?  - The leaf had more and more bubbles on it the longer it was under the water.
B.  Where did the bubbles come from?  The bubbles come from the oxygen that leaves produce.
C.  Would the bubbles have still come out of the leaf even if it wasn't under water?  The oxygen still comes out of the leaves even if it isn't in water.

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Vocabulary Kaboom

Using the vocabulary words from Lesson 1 (Ecosystem cards), I wrote the words on different colored craft sticks.  I placed craft sticks that said KABOOM in the jar also.  The students would pull a stick and either tell us the definition of the word or use it in a sentence.  If they got the definition correct, they could keep the stick.  If they pulled the KABOOM stick, they had to give up all their sticks.  The person with the most sticks wins.

Is she going to get a KABOOM?

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When there are less sticks in the cup the chances of getting a KABOOM are higher...

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Continue to play games and learn these vocabulary words.  This pdf comes with a page of game suggestions to play with your students.

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water cycle review

During class, I had the students gather into groups of two.  I gave each group a set of Water Cycle cards.  They were to place the cards in the order of the cycle beginning with Evaporation.  The order of the cards was Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Run Off and Collection.

While they were putting these together, I can't help but sing the water cycle song to the tune of 'She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain'

​It goes like this:
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does (clap, clap, clap)
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does (clap, clap, clap)
It goes up as Evaporation
Forms clouds as Condensation
Then falls down as Precipitation, yes it does (clap, clap, clap)

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Oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange

During this exchange we are using models of oxygen and carbon dioxide to demonstrate how the oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange happens between plants and animals/humans.

First, I wrote O2 and CO2 on the boards and showed the students how each block represents an atom.  Each atom is represented by an abbreviation or letter.  The O atoms are represented by blue duplo blocks while the C atoms are represented by the green duplo blocks.
Animals need 2 Os in their molecule and plants need 2 Os and 1 C in their molecule.

Placing built duplo molecules in front of them, I could call out which living organism they were, a plant or animal and they would point to the correct molecule that they needed.

Pairing up the students, one student would be the 'plant' and the other student would be the 'animal'.  They would have the molecule that they each needed in preparation for a great exchange of gases.  Each person would take apart their molecule representing them 'using' the gas.  They would then mix up the duplos and rebuild the molecule that they needed to share with their partner.  So if they were the animal, they took apart the O2 and would rebuild a CO2 molecule for their plant partner. 

If the student's were getting good at this exchange, have them team up as a class.  All the plants would go to one side of a table or floor and all the animals would get to the opposite side.  Molecules would be built in the middle of the two groups and they would proceed to grab what they needed, take it apart and rebuild what the other team needed.

For an added challenge, you could have only one student be a plant while the rest are animals and demonstrate what might happen if there weren't enough plants on the planet.

Observe the water cycle

There are two options for students to observe the water cycle at home.  You could do this Water Cycle in a bag.  This handout is useful as you can trace the components of the water cycle on a sandwich bag with a permanent marker and then add water and tape to your window to observe throughout the week.

The second option is to grow salt crystals.  You would observe the water level going down and the salt accumulating on the toothpicks growing salt crystals.  Only water evaporates, not salt nor anything else.  This makes the water cycle a great cleaning cycle for our fresh water.

Here are the instructions that come from this website:

1. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into a small mixing bowl.
2. Add 1/4 cup of table salt to the water and stir until dissolved.
3. Continue adding small amounts of salt until no more will dissolve.
4. Add bits of clay or wax to the bottom of another bowl that is taller than a toothpick. Make sure the clay is thick enough to hold toothpicks in an upright position in the bowl.
5. Add your toothpicks in the clay/wax.
6. Pour the saltwater solution over the toothpicks in the bowl.
7. Continue to add water to the bowl until your solution covers the toothpicks by at least a 1/5.
8. Set the bowl in a sunny window and check it each day.

Observe the day to day changes!

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The World in His Hands Curriculum

Come join us as we travel through the world God has made for us.