Rivers and Streams (Week 8)

manna moment

John 7:38-39- "Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.  Now this He said about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive for as yet the Spirit has not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified."

​Jesus is our living water through belief in Him and He offers it freely to us.  As the Living Water flows into our hearts and minds, we need to be careful to let it flow out of us.  Let us not be a spiritual beaver and build walls to stop the flow of living water that we are to share with others.

read aloud

This book is a great read aloud for a group of active students.  The text is simple using short sentences.  Every other page has an illustrated picture of what is being said about Rivers and Streams. 

The topics that are covered by this book are:

• Where rivers and streams are found
• Springs
• Waterfalls
• Erosion
• Importance of rivers and streams
• Common features of rivers and streams

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While I am reading aloud to the students, they can follow along with the topics using this reading guide.  This also serves as a wonderful review tool for parents who might not have access to the book.

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• After we finished learning about the rivers and streams, we focused on beavers as our fauna of choice for this ecosystem.  I earmarked some great pictures of the beavers that let us know different characteristics.
  

Some of the characteristics of a beaver are:

• They are herbivores
• They are great builders
• Their teeth continue to grow so their lifestyle of chopping wood is necessary for their health
• They take care of their kits or pups for 2-3 years and usually have 2-4 per litter.  

• They are excellent swimmers and the entrance into their home is always underwater at the bottom of their den to keep predators away.

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Lego Dam Investigation

In honor of the beaver, we made Lego Dams to attempt to keep flowing water back.

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This last Lego Dam was successful!  It was able to keep all the water back from the other side of the tray.  Way to Go!!

Rivers and Streams Ecosystem 

This has all the parts of the rivers and streams that we learned from Cathryn Sills book as well as wonderful flora and fauna.  Plus the students continue to learn about the food chains in each ecosystem.

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