The Human Body
Week 7
I am different than lizards
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
Man is different than lizards. (Discover differences in physical appearance, anatomy, locomotion, and functions of physical features)
References
Genesis 1:24-25 (creeping things); Leviticus 11:29c-30 (Note that this verse mentions different kinds of lizards)
Sample content and conversation with children
Have children look at a lizard (live one or pictures). Converse with the children asking questions like: Have you ever seen a lizard before? Where have you seen them? Do you like lizards? Do you like how they look? Are you the same as a lizard? How are you different?
Example facts to explore together (Do not try to cover all four. Using only one of these should be enough to cover in a single session):
- Look at the lizard’s face. Do they have eyes? Yes! Do they have a mouth? Yes! Do they have a nose? I don’t see a nose. At least it doesn’t look like ours. They do have these tiny holes, they have nostrils. They mostly use their nostrils to breathe. What can we do with our noses? We can use our nose to breathe and also to smell things. We can smell all sorts of delicious things with our nose. Spend the rest of the time exploring how wonderful it is that we can smell so many different things!
- Most likely, if you’ve seen a lizard, you’ve seen it in the sun. Do you know why? This is because lizards depend on the sun to warm them up. If it’s warm outside, they can be warm. But if it’s cold outside, they get cold too. What can the lizard do to warm itself? Well, it can’t warm itself, the ONLY thing it can do it’s just to be under the sun! What can YOU do when it’s cold outside? (Let them answer. Possible answers may be: Put on a sweater, stay indoors, play board games, color, cuddle up and read books, etc.) When we are cold, we can put on a coat or a sweater, rub our hands together, blow on our hands, and we can hug our mom and dad to warm us up. Sometimes, when it gets really cold, we even start shivering, that’s our body warming itself! Now, what happens when it is hot outside? Again, lizards can’t cool themselves! They just have to move to the shade. What about you? What happens when you get hot or when you exercise? (Have the children run or jump for a few seconds.) Are you sweating? Are you panting? Yes! God made our body be able to sweat so that we can cool down when we get hot!
- (Topic better suited for older preschoolers, transitional kindergarteners) Lizard skin vs our skin. Look at the skin of the lizard. How does it feel? It’s scaly! Do you have scaly skin? No! We have soft skin. Our skin is soft and stretchy. When we grow up, our skin stretches and grows with us. Lizards have scaly skin, their skin doesn’t stretch. So when they get bigger, their skin doesn’t fit them any longer. They need to shed their small skin (molting) in order to continue growing. When you were a baby you were probably about 18 in. Now you may be about 3 feet tall! Have you had to change/shed all of your skin to continue growing? No!! Aren’t you glad that you have soft stretchy skin? And you don’t have to molt like a lizard? For some lizards, they have to molt every 2 weeks!! That’s more often than we get a haircut!
- Locomotion. How many legs do lizards have? Four! How do lizards move? Right! They crawl or creep, on all four of their legs. Now, how many legs do you have? Two! We only have two legs. And how do we move? Do we crawl? Well, yes, we may crawl if we need to reach for something under our bed, babies crawl. But now that you all are older, you all also walk! You can walk, run, jump! We don’t have to be on the ground all the time. Can you imagine how much dust would get into our mouths if we needed to crawl like lizards all the time?
Suggested activities/games
- Bring things they can smell (citrus, spices, flowers, onions, peppermint leaves, bacon, etc.). You may blindfold them and see if they can figure out what the smell is.
- Craft- scratch and sniff art. This craft holds better if this is done on cardstock, but any white paper or construction paper would work also. Use a simple drawing or print out of a flower or a fruit (or something we can smell). You may also use cookie cutters for the children to draw flowers or fruits. Use glue to trace or fill in the shape. Then have children sprinkle flavored gelatin. After the glue dries up, it will be colored and will also smell.
- Rub hands to warm up; blow on your hands warm air; jump up and down. Melt ice in our hands. Play “Simon Says” using actions that help us warm ourselves.
- Have children open and close their hands, and notice how the skin forms creases, wrinkles on our palm as we close our hands and our skin stretches as we open them.
- Run relay races, jumping jacks, climb
Suggested songs
Wonderf’lly, Wonderf’lly
Before God made the lizards that creep… (Sing only stanza 5, substituting insects with lizards)
Pictures
