Earth System Cards

Grade Level K - 4

Essential Question How are things divided among Earth's four spheres?

Objective Students will use their knowledge of Earth's four major spheres — land, water, living things, and air — to classify information. They will also make connections among the spheres.

Materials A deck of cards, labeled with words and/or pictures of things representing each of Earth's spheres

Approach Everything on Earth belongs to one of four spheres. Earth's spheres are land, water, living things, and air. Make a deck of cards. Label each card with a word that represents something from one of Earth's spheres. For example, you may label one card worm, another icebergs, a third sand, etc. Make several cards for each sphere. Give your students these cards, and tell them the item on each of these cards belongs in one of Earth's spheres. Instruct your students to sort the cards into four piles. One pile is land. One pile is water. One pile is living things. And one pile is air. After they sort the cards, ask them why they placed the cards where they did. Ask them if the things in different spheres are connected. If so, how? For example, how does water affect sand?

This activity can be modified and used with younger children who cannot yet read. Simply paste or draw pictures on the cards in addition to the words. The K-1 students may even help design the cards by cutting pictures from magazines. They can do so in learning groups named for the spheres.

Reflection To display their knowledge of the connections among Earth's four spheres, each student should create a Story Box using the following procedure. Fold a large sheet of paper into four boxes. Open the paper and draw a small circle in the center. Write the word "Earth" inside the circle and label the boxes as "Living Things," "Land," "Air," and "Water." In the box labeled "living things," draw a living thing. In the box labeled "land," draw the type of land that would benefit that living thing. In the box labeled "air," draw the type of air that would benefit that living thing. In the box labeled "water," draw the type of water that would benefit that living thing.

Students can either tell the story of their living thing or write a short summary of their ideas on the back of the paper.

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