manna momentThe average person speaks 7000 words in a single day. We can use special tools to share those words over far distances. Eventually, the vibrations created by our words will fade away. God sent His Son from heaven to earth so that we could hear the good news of His salvation! Seek the LORD while He may be found, call on Him while He is near (Isaiah 55:6) opening Activity: Matching Gifts to science concepts Using the Five Gifts Review Cards, we reviewed the different gifts that we have been learning about; Sight, Touch, and Sound. I had the students first place the Gift (Sense) card (ie: Sight, Touch, Hearing) in front of them. The students had to find the different science concepts and manna moments in pictures to match with each gift. For instance, using the gift of sight, we can see color, light and form. Our manna moment was about Jesus being the Light and how because of Him we have all the colors of the rainbow so there is a picture of the rainbow in a raindrop. Depending on time and familiarity, the students could flip all the cards over and each student would have a turn to flip over two to place in order according to how they discovered the cards.
 Storytime Prior to beginning our story time today, I had made some BIG ears for each of the students following this template. I cut the ears out, punched holes in the tops and affixed a chenille stem to adjoin them. We were going to see if our LARGE ears would help us listen to the story better. The book itself is talking about the many functions that ears play in different animals. Animals not only use their ears for hearing in order to find food but for keeping cool in the heat and staying safe from enemies. We looked at the different kinds of ears realizing that they look different because they have different functions.  
 paper or plastic Telephone investigationOur questions for this investigation is whether plastic or paper cups make a better telephone. Giving some background research, I shared that sound travels when objects or air vibrate. Sometimes these vibrations can follow specific paths to move even quiet sounds over far distances. We took two cups of approximate sizes of both plastic and paper. Poking a hole through the bottom of the cup, we threaded a string through and tied a knot. The students worked in partners to hear their partners whisper through the cup. Which cup could you hear the whisper the best?
Drawing Conclusions After the students tried out both paper and plastic cups, we asked some questions and circled the answers. This is a great way for the students to begin drawing conclusions and making connections to what they are learning. This class did an excellent job.
 Five Gifts Science Curriculum
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Manna MomentDavid reminds us in Psalm 100 that there are many ways we can make sounds. While some sounds can be common or even annoying, we can use our voices and make instruments to offer a joyful sound to the Lord that He will receive as praise! OverviewThis week we are exploring how different objects make sounds we can hear. Opening Activity- Matching Sounds Either use leftover Easter eggs or tape 3 oz. bathroom cups together to make small shakers where students can try and guess how many objects are in the shaker, what kind of material the shaker has in it and how big the items are that are in the shaker. After the student shakes a shaker, they can pick a card that identifies one of the items aforementioned.
 While this picture is not the best of this student, he did an excellent job listening to his sound cup and then pulling out the cards that he felt matched the sounds he was hearing when he shook his cup. He was really close!! These weren't easy sound cups either.  This student did a wonderful job shaking the sound cup intentionally and then looked at the options that could be in the cup to decide on what she was hearing. The students could pick if there were one, two, or three items in the cups. If the items were plastic, metal or wood and then if they were small, medium or large.  This student laid out her cards like a mat and placed her sound cup on the place that she felt fit the best, almost like a chart. So this item, she thought was plastic, 2 items and medium sized. storytime Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer and Holly Keller has a bunch of fun words to describe different kinds of sounds. It also introduces ideas about vibrations and echolocation. This book also teaches how we measure the sounds in decibals just like we measure height in inches or weight in pounds. My favorite part is having the students feel their vocal cords when they were singing or talking to emphasize the vibrations that happen in order for sound to be achieved. bouncing Ruler investigation In this investigation, we are going to explore how vibrations and the length of a wave changes sound. Sound is a form of energy. Sound can change pitch and volume. The only materials that you need for this investigation are a plastic ruler and a heavy book. Question: How does the length of the bouncing ruler affect the sound it produces? Background Research: Sound travels when objects or air vibrate. Depending on the strength and speed of the vibrating object, our ears will collect sound that can be loud, quiet, high, and low. Procedure: 1. Place a ruler where part of the ruler hangs off the edge of a table or counter. 2. Place a heavy book on top of the part of the ruler still resting on the table. 3. Adjust the ruler to have 15cm hanging off the edge of the table. 4. Tap the end of the ruler that is hangin off the table. 5. Repeat the trials for 10cm, and 5 cm hanging off the edge of the table. 6. Use the data table on the Bouncing Ruler Investigation sheet to compare the sounds you heard. Conclusions: The longer the bouncing ruler, the pitch decreases. The longer the bouncing ruler, the volume increases.
 Making MusicDo you know which one of Adam and Eve's descendants was famous for making musical instruments? Read about Jubal in Genesis 4:21 Let us make some glorious noise to the Lord by making and using some homemade instruments. Grab some recyclables like cardboard, bottle caps, a soup can, plastic cups, rubberbands. Using these instruments we can observe how vibrations can be amplified or changed to make different sounds. What I endeavored to have the students make in class were little plastic cup guitars. I passed out the plastic cups and gave each student three rubberbands. The students were to place the rubberband around the plastic cup. This turned out to be a challenge for kindergartener and first grade students. All of them needed help placing the rubberbands around the cup. Other options for instruments that are fun is a soup can drum. Grab a balloon and a soup can, cut off the neck of the balloon and stretch it over the can. Voila, here is the drum. They can tap and hear the vibrations with just their fingers or they can use pencils. The last option I thought was fun was to make some castanets. All you need is some cardboard and some bottle caps for the castanets. I hot glued the bottlecaps to the cardboard to make these castanets. Have fun and be inventive.
manna MomentWhether its Hannah's whispered prayers for a child (1 Samuel 1:9-14) or Joshua's blasting trumpets at Jericho (Joshua 6: 2-16), God can hear and respond with power. overviewThe third gift we are going to use to explore God's creation is our sense of hearing. This week we'll explore loud and quiet sounds using our sense of hearing. opening activity: Soft sounds, Loud soundsUsing the pencils in class, I had the students 'drum' softly and then crescendo into fortissimo. We learned some musical dynamics as we drummed on the table.
storytime The Listening Walk by Paul Showers and Aliki is a story about a young girl and her father taking their dog for a walk. As she walks, she notices different kinds of loud and soft sounds. Here is a listening guide for this book. As we read through the book the students can follow along, check the boxes that they hear from the story and trace a key word to remember.  As I read to the students, I brought in a hard soled shoe to make noises on a piece of wood while I was reading. I brought in some sandpaper to scratch to mimic the sound of Major's toenails on the sidewalk. If I had a bicycle bell, I would have brought that sound in as well. This was a great interactive book.  At the close of the book, it asked us to close our eyes and just 'listen'. So these kids were closing their mouths and just having their ears open to listen to the different sounds of the room. If all of them were quiet at the same time, you could only hear the air conditioning blowing.
Learning the anatomy of the ear Sounds travel from its source to our ears through vibrations. God made our ears to be able to sense these vibrations as sound. Having students turn to page 33 in their guidebook, there is a mat with the different parts of the ear. They are to place the colored pieces of the ear on the mat and identify the different parts of the ear. Using this, we can trace the path of sound as it goes through our ears. Romans 10:17-"So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ."
Blind fold mazeIn 1 Samuel 3, Eli, the priest, teaches Samuel how to recognize and respond to hearing God's voice. Putting our ears to work, I set up an obstacle course with chairs in the classroom. After a crash course in their Left and Rights, I had students line up. One student was blindfolded while I guided the students through the maze. The other students had to be quiet so that the blindfolded student could hear me clearly. THEN, some of the kids would call out directions but they weren't my directions and I had to remind the student blindfolded to only follow my voice. This reminds me of our God. He tells us the path we should take but the world is often yelling at us to take different paths. We need to make sure we are focused on our God's voice and no one else's. Another fun game to play is Simon Says to help them practice their listening skills.
 manna momentWould you rather have rough road to drive or walk on or a smooth road? God says in Isaiah 45:2 that He will go before you and make the rough places smooth. Thank You Jesus! hidden objectsUsing a bin of water beads and hidden toys, the students were able to explore using their gift of touch. They used their hands and skin to determine the form of an object. I placed sets of different kinds of animals and different sizes of people. Both the people and animals were different colors.
After we finished finding all the hidden toys in the water beads, I had the students use their gift of sight to sort the different toys into colors and then into animals versus humans.
Storytime We read Soft and Smooth, Rough and Bumpy from Dana Meachen Rau to expand our vocabulary on different kinds of textures that we can feel. We also learned more about the largest organ of our bodies, the skin. I always enjoy having the students participate during the storytime. They are thinking about the information and either learning something new or adding it to their prior knowledge.
 Which Texture is Which Investigation Using old tissue boxes, I placed several different textured items inside. At the beginning, I introduced these items to them just in case they had never seen, or touched them before. The items that I used were:
The question was: Can I use my sense of touch to identify an object by its texture? The students then would reach their hand inside the box and pull out an item while being blindfolded. I placed the students in groups of 3 or 4 and would ask them about the texture of their object and what they thought it was. If they could identify it, I would circle the checkmark in their book. If they couldn't, then they circled the 'X'.
rough or smooth Peek-a-boo Finally, I used some different items to place on their Peek-a-Boo sheet to cover with a post it note and then rub with a paperless crayon. They were to determine by the rubbing if the article was smooth or rough. The items that I used were:
Manna momentNever underestimate the power of a simple touch, hug, holding of a hand, or a snuggle. Like the woman who reached out for the fringes of Jesus' clothes, even the smallest touch from Jesus can melt hearts and heal brokenness. Luke 8:40-56 OverviewIn this lesson, we are going to explore shapes and textures using our second gift from God, the sense of touch. God gave us skin to help us observe His world through our sense of touch. Opening Activity- Sandpaper Shape sort Placing the students into groups, I gave them a bag of cardstock and sandpaper shapes. I first had the students sort them with their gift of sight. They had to sort them into shape and texture. Next, I had one partner be blindfolded as they attempted to sort by shape and texture with a blindfold on. God give us many different ways to explore His creation. I know that when scientists investigate things that are too small for them to see, they must rely on other ways of gathering data.
 Really feeling for the edges. StoryTime: 'A little Girl and a Poor Frail Lady' The story that we read today is from the Jesus Storybook Bible. The scripture reference is from Luke 8. There was a little girl who was dying and her dad, Jairus, runs to get Jesus so that He can heal her. On his way there, the hem of his clothes is touched and a frail old lady was healed from her infirmity. A touch with faith heals. Jesus arrives at the little girl's house. It seems to most that she has died, however, Jesus touches her hand and tells her to get up. She is revived and lives. A touch with faith heals. Group Investigation: One Touch or Two
 Documenting their hypothesis: I asked the students to circle on their investigation sheet if they thought they could or could not tell the difference between one tap of the paperclip and two taps of the paperclip.
First Aid kit of faith  Sometimes we need a little help. I had the students put together a First Aid Kit of Faith. Each item has an encouraging note along with a scripture that coincides with it. While they are putting one together to take home, I pray that they would be able to share Christ with others.
 Super excited to share with others!!!
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LEAD LEARNERWelcome! My name is Nicole Fleming and I have been leading science learning in the Bryan/College Station homeschool community for over 10 years. Archives
November 2022
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