The World in His Hands- Lesson 2

9/19/2022

Plants and Photosynthesis

Genesis 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 Review

Our 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 aloian

This book breaks down the parts of a plant well and explains the function of each part. The pictures are vivid, large, and colorful with simple text.
As I was reading this book to the students, I had them follow along with their reading guide in their student book. When we came to one of the key words, they could trace it in their book. Then, I would put up each part of the plant on display.

I can eat a plant

Using 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 relay

Adapting 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.