The Human Body
Week 5
I am different than ants and rolly pollies
The Human Body: We begin discovering the preciousness of our humanity by enjoying that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. In this block we explore how we were made in contrast to the grass, plants and trees. God has created us in ways that are unique to other living things.
Point to emphasize
God created the ants and rolly pollies but they are not like us. (Discover differences in physical appearance, anatomy, locomotion, and functions of physical features.) Serving ones can choose to emphasize either the ants or rolly pollies.
References
Genesis 1:24; Psalm 104:24, 25b
Sample content and conversation with children
As children gather around, if possible, get a live ant (or rolly pollie) or a picture of it and ask them: What is this? Have you seen any around your house? Depending on time of day, weather and setting, you can ask them to go outside and see if they could find and bring one to look at.
Ants:
Rolly Pollies:
Using the pictures or actual ant (or rolly pollie), explore with the children: Let’s take a closer look at this ant. Can you see it? The Bible says God created all animals, even these tiny ants. Now, is this ant like you? Do you look like this ant? Ask questions that would cause them to think how they are different from the ant:
- How many legs does this ant have? 6! How about you? 2!
(If using a rolly pollie, ask similar questions. Rolly pollies have 7 pairs of legs!) - How does it move? When you have six legs (or 14), walking can get pretty complicated! This ant crawls alternating its legs. Let me show you a clip so you can see how it moves! Show a clip of an ant walking in slow motion. How uncomfortable would it be for us to move like that! We can stand and walk on 2 legs! (Rolly pollies can only roll up in a ball). And even with only two legs we can do a lot more than an ant! We can walk, jump, skip, kick a ball. Can you show me what your legs can do?
- What other differences do you see between this ant and you? We have arms, ants carry food in their mouth and on their head!
- Ants use their antennae to smell, feel, and touch what is ahead of or behind them as they crawl. They can also use the antennae to communicate with other ants. What about you? You and I have A NOSE to smell, HANDS to touch and a MOUTH to speak and eat; so we can smell more, feel more, touch everything, sing, whistle, talk, eat! We can do so many more things! How wonderful is that?
- What else? How about size? You’re a giant compared to this teeny ant! (you can use the pic of the ant on the finger or hold it in your finger to show). We can easily be found but for many bugs including ants you may even need a magnifying glass to be able to see them better (use a magnifying glass if you have one). But I can see you!
Note: You can use a paperclip (or something small) to show how small they are:
- If anyone brings up that they’re crunchy, maybe you can say: That’s right! They don’t have skin like we have!
Conclude the time by emphasizing the things the children mentioned during this time. Our friends can easily see us because we’re not tiny, we can walk on two feet, use our hands to touch, our nose to smell and our mouth to talk, sing, eat… We are happy God created us this way!
Suggested songs
Remember, Remember, Remember God Made You
God’s Design
Suggested activities/games
- Torn Paper Ant Hills With Fingerprint Ants
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- Materials:
- washable red ink pad
- ultra fine black marker
- construction paper : brown or yellow, green and blue
- glue stick
- Directions:
- tear up the brown or yellow construction paper
- glue the torn paper on the blue construction paper to build or ant hill
- tear the green construction paper to make some grass at the bottom of the ant and paper.
- use the red ink and make three fingerprints together to build the body.
- draw on the eyes, legs, and antenna of the ants
- Materials:
- Rolly Pollie Paper Craft
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- Materials:
- Card Stock or Paper Plate
- Colored Pencils or Crayola Crayons
- Hole Punch
- Clear Tape or Tacky Glue
- Black Construction Paper
- Black pipe cleaner
- Materials:
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- Directions:
- Either make triangles of cardboard, or trim part of the rim off a paper plate, and then cut the paper plate into triangles. Punch a hole in the tips of the triangles. Then fasten with a brad, add antenna and eyes, and tape on pipe cleaner legs. This rolls up into a full circle like a roly poly bug.
- Directions:
Go outside and look for ants (or rolly pollies)…) and observe all their features and how different they are from us, go back inside and draw what you found.