Nature's checks and balances

This unit introduces students to several essential understandings. They will learn that plants and animals depend on one another for survival and organisms interact within nature to create a balance. They will also learn that humans can influence and manipulate nature.

A lesson plan for grade 5 English Language Arts and Science

By Nicolette Heise

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Related topics

• Learn more about Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, animals, cause and effect, consumers, food web, graphic organizers, habitats, language arts, predictions, producers, rainforests, read-alouds, science, severe weather, and weather.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• define key concepts and terms.
• understand that all plants and animals depend on one another.
• understand that organisms work within nature to create a balance.
• understand that humans can and do manipulate nature.
• recognize that plants can be both helpful and harmful.
• recognize that within nature there exists many cause and effect relationships.
• understand the power in nature that brings such violent occurrences as storms, floods, fires, and drought.
• demonstrate an understanding of the importance of balance in nature.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

6 hours

Materials/resources

• Journal recording sheet
• pre-activities
• Center 1: low balance beam or wide masking tape for floor
• Center 2: pan balance scale, mass weights, small classroom objects (pencils, scissors, markers, erasers, etc.
• Center 3: 5 pieces of string or yarn 2-3 feet long
• Center 4: several pattern block sets
• Center 5: the JENGA game
• Activity #1:
  • picture examples of plants/animals
  • magazines
  • construction paper or sentence strips
  • scissors
  • glue
  • markers
• Activity #2:
  • KWL chart
  • The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest by Lynne Cherry
  • Nature’s Green Umbrella: Tropical Rainforest by Gail Gibbons
  • global effects chart
  • markers
  • crayons
• Activity #3:
  • Children Save the Rainforest by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
  • Rainforest Secrets
  • internet
  • media center resources
• Activity #4:
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett
  • newspapers
  • weather reports
  • cause & effect chart
  • chart paper
  • markers
  • tape
• Activity #5:
  • Examples of severe weather (Can be from picture books, videos, charts, posters, National Geographic or other magazines, etc.)
  • Reference sources for student research (e.g. internet, encyclopedia, atlas)

Technology resources

• Use the computer to generate new endings, write reports, search the internet, create presentations.
• Search relevant internet web sites for information.
• VCR (Video Footage)

Pre-activities

Exploring the concept of Balance and Imbalance

Students will explore the concept of balance and imbalance through a variety of hands-on center activities in small groups. They will keep a journal (see attached file) describing their observations at each center. Students will be required to record if that center activity represents balance or imbalance.

• Center 1: Walk across a balance beam forward and backward. (What happened when you lost your balance?)
• Center 2: Using a pan balance scale, weights, and classroom objects, have students try to balance the scale.
• Center 3: Using string, each student will hold one end of the string creating a web. Have one student pull on the string. This will cause the other students to be thrown off balance. Have one student remove themselves from the chain to show how the dynamics change. Students will record observations. (What caused the imbalance?
• Center 4: Students will set up pattern blocks to create the domino effect. They will discover that by hitting one block they all fall (chain reaction).
• Center 5: Students will play the game JENGA recording how high they were able to go. (Which pieces were removed the easiest?)

After center time, students will discuss their findings. Students will conclude that balance and imbalance exist all around them and can be easily manipulated.

Note: Each center must be set up with specific directions to guide the students. Modeling each activity beforehand would be ideal.

Activities

Activity #1

Examine Balance in the Food Web (balance)

1. Discuss with students how animals eat. Students will begin a glossary of terms defining carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, predators, preys and will illustrate each definition.
2. With the whole group, discuss the concept of food webs and chains. Students will add producers and consumers to their glossary and illustrate each definition.
3. Have students construct a food chain using themselves as the primary consumer (see attached file) (Ex. Student-cow-grass). Students will then pair up and construct a food web, where there may be more than one producer and more than one consumer, again they can include themselves in the web.
4. Students will conclude that if all the plants and animals are present in the web there is a balance.

Activity #2

Experience the Great Rainforest, Other Places on Earth, and Global Effects (balance vs. imbalance)

1. Have students create a KWL chart (What you know, what you want to know, what you learned) (see attached file) on various habitats/biomes (ex: tundra, taiga, forest, grassland, desert, rainforest, fresh water habitat, marine habitat) that students have learned about in the past.
2. Go on a “world tour” to increase students understanding of these different places around the world. Use either books on each place you are discussing or one of the following. Then have students complete their KWL chart.
3. Begin to specifically focus on rainforests. Students will make predictions about the book - The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest. During a read-aloud, students will listen to the story and write a different ending. Students will discuss what would happen if a tree were cut down altering the balance of nature.
4. Students will read and discuss the Nature’s Green Umbrella: Tropical Rainforests. They will create a chart identifying and illustrating plants and animals of the Rainforest that are either helpful or harmful to either humans or nature itself.
5. Introduce students to other plants and animals that have been introduced into new environments to be helpful but ended up being harmful (kudzu in the US, cats in Australia). Students will complete a global cause and effect chart (see attached file). They will then illustrate one global cause and effect relationship from the chart.
6. Students will conclude that the Rainforest and other places on earth play a key role in the balance of nature locally/globally and must be preserved.

Activity #3

Describe Ways that People Manipulate Nature (balance/imbalance)

1. Review (Can use the book Children Save the Rainforest Chapters 4 & 5) with students the impact people have had on rainforests by changing the way rainforests look (chopping down trees, removing animals, etc.).
2. Discuss with students how humankind has been manipulating nature for thousands of years: Egyptians creating tributaries off the Nile for their crops, the Romans building aqueducts to provide water for their cities and crops, the Dutch building dikes to hold back water in flood plains, people building dams for electricity, countries introducing plants and/or animals to try to control problems in nature, pollution, etc.
3. Discuss with students how this manipulation of nature has affected the environment positively or negatively (provided food and water to new areas or stripped the land of resources that ended up causing flooding, animal endangerment, etc.).
4. Have groups of students use the internet and other resources to research examples of human manipulation of the environment and its effects. Have the groups create a representation of the manipulation and present their findings to the class.

Activity #4

Read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (imbalance)

1. Have students discuss and collect information about the weather (temperature, rainfall, cloud cover) and create a class graph. Discuss any current events that may relate to severe weather occurring around the world (floods, fire, earthquakes, El Nino, etc.) and whether these occurrences are affecting the lives of the people in that area.
2. Predict how these occurrences might affect the economy and environment. Have students look at the cover and pictures of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and make predictions. Either as a read-aloud or shared reading, students will read the story and discuss the events.
3. Complete a cause and effect chart (see attached file). Students will conclude that the weather changes daily and that plants, animals, and humans are affected by the weather. Sometimes a weather imbalance occurs that is so severe that the environment is significantly altered. Have students write a new ending to the story.

Activity #5

Nature may Bring About Violent Occurrences Such as Fires, Storms, Floods, Droughts, Earthquakes, or Volcanoes (imbalance)

1. Show students examples of severe weather (fires, storms, floods, droughts, etc.) either through books, pictures, magazines, etc. Predict the potential economic and environmental impact they may have had on the people, plants, and animals located where the severe weather occurred.
2. Have students work in teams to choose and research a severe weather occurrence. Students will complete a report that should include dates, locations, economic impact, environmental impact, recovery time if any, and present day status of area.
3. Students will present their findings to the class. They can use any visuals, projects, computers, etc. to present the information. Students will conclude that some severe weather disaster consequences can be minimized while others can not.
4. Severe weather can economically and environmentally destroy an area (imbalance) on one hand, while bringing about renewed growth and life on the other hand (balance).

Assessment

• Pre-Activity: journal recordings
• Activities:
• food web
• Global Effects chart
• group presentation
• Cause & Effect chart
• individual reports

Supplemental information

Bibliography:

• Anderson, Margaret J. Food Chains: The Unending Cycle. Enslow Publishers, 1991
• Banks, Martin. Conserving Rainforests Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1990.
• Bellamy, David. The Rock Pool. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1988.
• Cherry, Lynne. The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.
• Cole, Joanna. Dinasaur Story. William Morrow and Company, 1974.
• DeStefano, Susan. Chico Mendes: Fight for the Rainforest. Twenty-First Century Books, 1992.
• Dorros, Arthur. Rainforest Secrets. Scholastic Inc., 1990.
• Gibbons, Gail. Nataure’s Green Umbrella: Tropical Rainforests. William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1994.
• Jonas, Ann. The Trek. Greenwillow, 1985.
• Lerner, Carol. A Forest Year. Morrow, 1987.
• Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Children Save the Rainforest. Cobblehill Books/Dutton, 1996.
• Pringle, Laurence. Fire in the Forest: A Cycle of Growth and Renewal. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 1995.
• Selsam, Millicent E. See Throughout the Forest. Harper Junior Books, 1956.
• Schmidt, Eleonore. The Living Earth. North-South Books, Inc., 1994.
• Tresselt, Alvin. The Gift of the Tree. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1992.
• Waters, John F. Neighborhood Puddle. Federick Warne and Company, Inc., 1971.
• Wood, Douglas. Old Turtle. Pfeifer-Hamilton Publishers, 1992.

Comments

The books listed in the bibliography were located at the public library.

The book Old Turtle refers to God throughout the book and may require discretion as to whether it is appropriate to use in the public school classroom.

Other books can be substituted for those used in the lessons.