Clouds and Lightning

Ah, clouds and lightning… I will never look at them the same way again after today, thanks to the cutest little wide-eyed girl in my class.

I’ll start by providing you with some background… the first science unit I am teaching this year is on plants. The first lesson of that unit requires students to identify and think about the characteristics of living things. Once we’ve established the characteristics, students can determine whether something is living or not. Ultimately, we get around to the point that plants are living things.

So, as we began the lesson, I asked the kiddos, “How do you know if something is living?” One little boy quickly waved his hand and replied excitedly, “It moves!” I was so thrilled he had thought of that response so quickly. This will be a piece of cake, I thought happily to myself. Wrong! Because promptly after that first response, not one child said another word. Their little brains seemed to come to a collective screeching halt. After some coaxing and exaggerated hinting on my part, a light bulb flickered atop one child’s head and he added that living things eat. Yes! Now we were on to something.

I smiled as I began to reply, because I knew that words I was about to speak would elicit a GREAT reaction out of my students. “Yes!” I responded excitedly. “Living things have to eat. Eating gives us energy.” At this point I inserted a dramatic pause and allowed a sneaky smile to curl my lips upward in a Grinch-like grin. I panned the room slowly, and allowed one eyebrow to arch sharply, indicating that I was about to say something really special. My students stared back at me expectantly. “Does anyone know what happens to food after we eat?”

Oh yes, I went there.

Potty talk.

Little kids LOVE potty talk!

Slowly, ever so slowly, awkward and amused expressions began flickering across students’ faces as they came to an understanding of what I was alluding to.  Stifled giggles began rippling softly through the room.

“Well?” I asked “What happens to the food our bodies don’t use?”

More giggles. Suddenly, all the kids became shy. I waited a few more moments.

“We poop.” I said matter-of-factly.  Laughter erupted around the room, and the kids, rosy with embarrassment, exchanged wide-eyed glances.

“Well, it’s true.” I continued.  “Our bodies use what they need from the food and then the stuff we don’t need gets pooped out. It’s waste. So, not all living things need to poop, but all living things somehow remove waste.” The kids regained composure and indicated they understood what I was explaining.

Once we had established and listed the characteristics of living things, I had all the students gather in front of the smart board for a little game. Using my best “cheese-ball game show host” voice, I bellowed, “It’s time to play Is It Living or Non-Living?” The kids were abuzz with excitement.  Here is how the screen looked:

 

I would point to one of the objects and ask a student if it was living or non-living.  The student would then answer and support their response by explaining how they knew.  For example, “Yes, a kitten is a living thing because it moves, it eats, it removes waste (it poops- haha!), it breathes air, and it can feel things.”  Once they finished their response they’d get to walk up to the board and “pull” the tab and the correct answer would be revealed.  All their classmates would cheer and clap.  It was great fun!

 

Little did I know that by selecting clouds as one of my objects I would get such an awesome- no, epic, response.

“Okay guys, is a cloud living or non-living?”

The response was mixed, and some kids were genuinely confused.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go through our list.” I referred to our characteristics chart.  “Does a cloud move?”

“Yes!” They all insisted. (Please note that I used this moment to explain that clouds, themselves, do not move, but rather the wind blows them around.)

“So, do clouds move?”

“No!” They responded exuberantly.

“Do clouds eat?”

“No!” they shouted excitedly.

“Do clouds remove waste?”

“No!” They cheered (and yes, some giggled).

“Yes!” Piped in one little girl suddenly.  Everyone turned and looked at her curiously.  “Yes, they make waste.” She continued, looking back insistently in the faces of her questioning peers.   “Well, clouds…” She hesitated.  Then, regaining her confidence she proclaimed, “Clouds, they make waste… because they poop out the lightning.”

Yes, my friends, clouds poop lightning.  Highlight of my day- perhaps my week, even, right there. =)