The water and Air we shareManna 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.
Here are the hand signs we did for verse 1. making leaf observationsAt 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. Vocabulary KaboomUsing 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? Continue to play games and learn these vocabulary words. This pdf comes with a page of game suggestions to play with your students. water cycle reviewDuring 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) Oxygen and carbon dioxide exchangeDuring 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 cycleThere 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:
The World in His Hands CurriculumCome join us as we travel through the world God has made for us.
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Plants and PhotosynthesisGenesis 1:11- "And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. And it was so." On the third day of Creation, God created plants in a special way that they would use a process called photosynthesis to use the resources God would provide to make their own food. Our God is a very purposeful and intentional God. This is cause to accept His invitation to 'Come' and to 'sing' and make joyful noises to Him! We are beginning a new 'warm up' in class today. We will recite a verse from Psalm 95: 1-6 with hand motions. Psalm 95:1 says, "Oh come, let us sing to the LORD, let us make a joyful noice to the rock of our salvation." vocabulary ReviewOur vocabulary game today is called 'Around the World'. I placed different vocabulary cards up around the room/Airstream. When I gave the definition of the word, they were to get to that card as fast as they could walking without hurting someone or something. These are the same cards that we played 'Swat the Word' with last week. Read aloud: Plants Are Alive by Molly aloianI can eat a plantUsing the 'I Can Eat a Plant' mat, I passed out carrots for roots, celery for a stem, spinach for leaves, cut strawberries for the flower/fruit and sunflower seeds for the middle. I placed a transparency sheet over each of their mats so that their books would not get wet and gooey. This was a great way to review the parts of the plant that we learned about during our Read Aloud. Photosynthesis relayAdapting this relay from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop, I split the class into two teams. 1. I placed the 'sugar' and 'O2' cards next to the envelope labeled 'OUT' on the back of a large green leaf. 2. I spread out the 'water', CO2 and 'sun' cards next to each team. 3. Each student in each team will bring one resource to add to the 'IN' envelope on the leaf at a time. 4. By the time the fourth person in line runs to the leaf, they get to collect the first product of photosynthesis from the "OUT' envelope. 5. The game continues until the first team is able to collect both products of photosynthesis from the 'OUT' envelope. *If this is a new game for the students, you can start them off crawling to slow them down and really think about the components of photosynthesis and gradually work into hopping skipping and running. **Also, the team players need to pay attention to who is bringing what and what is coming back. This is a challenge. Exit questionWhat is one thing that a plant needs to make food? (Carbon dioxide, Water, Sunlight)
Manna MomentGenesis 2:8-"And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed." The first ecosystem ever to exist was that of the Garden of Eden. An ecosystem is all the living(biotic) and non-living (abiotic) organisms that live in an area. Unlike the ecosystems we will be studying through these lessons, this ecosystem was perfect. There was no death; animals did not eat each other. There were no poisonous insects, plants or animals. There were no thorns on plants that could harm them. Everything lived in perfect harmony with each other. Circle Puzzle warm Up- Getting the big pictureTo introduce students to the big idea of the biosphere, biomes, and ecosystems, we have created this circle puzzle. You can find the template for this circle puzzle in our The World in His Hands curriculum.
Another way to show the differences between these terms is to use different sized balls. I brought an exercise ball to class (leave it slightly deflated so it doesn't roll), (2) 9 inch beach balls, 4 wuffle balls and 8 foozballs/ping pong balls.
Vocabulary ActivitiesThe vocabulary words for this lesson are:
There are some wonderful flashcards inside The World in His Hands curriculum along with several ideas of how to play games with them. Since I introduced most of the vocabulary words during the circle puzzle activity, I simply introduced flora, fauna, habitat and ecology to them. The activity that I played today was 'Swat the Word'. I grouped students in groups of three. After giving them instructions on the expectations with the fly swatter, I would place a group of vocabulary words in front of them. When I read the definition, they would swat the correct word that goes with the definition that I called out. Read aloudNow that the students are familiar with the vocabulary terms, they are able to apply and practice them. Today's read aloud comes directly from Genesis 1 in the Bible using the listening guide On page 4 of The World in His Hands curriculum. We read 'The Beginning: a Perfect Home' from the Jesus Storybook Bible today during class. As I was reading, we would stop and match up the different parts of the ecosystem with the Garden of Eden. Did you know the Garden of Eden was the first Ecosystem? In creating the world, He provided for all six essential parts of a healthy ecosystem: water, energy, habitats, living organisms, niches (roles to play), and balance. God saw everything He made and indeed it was very good (even the spiders) This meant that is was without flaws or defect. Both man and animals could eat any fruit from the trees so they were all vegetarians, there was no death. Even the insects God made did not sting, bite, or bother Adam and Eve. After sin entered the world, there was death, competition, food chains, overpopulation and extinction. ((The bolded words are highlighted in the listening guide for the students.)) The students had such great questions! One student asked, "What happened? Why isn't it like that anymore?" We then went further in the history in Genesis and realized that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin and death entered the world and thus we have insects that bite, thorns that prick, and animals that eat other animals. Another student was really trying to understand that if animals didn't eat meat, what did they eat? So then, we talked about all the 'flora' that was available to them in the Garden of Eden. exit questionAs students finish the lesson, I typically pose one question to review a key concept. For this lesson, I asked, "How many parts of an ecosystem can you name? (water, energy, habitats, living organisms, niches, and balance) The world in His hands curriculum |
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
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