Skip to main content

Lesson Report - OT - Numbers 20

Today's lesson, based on the ideas in my planning post, went well. The final lesson plan was:

  • Introduce the theme of how doing things slightly differently to how we're told can have big consequences.
  • Write up on the board the following quotes:
    • From Exodus 17:5, "thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it".
    • From Numbers 20:8: "speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water", then from  Numbers 20:11, "And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly".
  • Discuss how Moses carried out the instructions in Exodus 17 perfectly, and was rewarded, but in Numbers 20, he deviated from HF's instructions (by hitting the rock instead of talking to it), and was punished as a result.
  • Do the science experiment.
    • Take two cups of cold water, and two cups of warm water, and a sheet of thin plastic that covers the top of one cup. All the cups should be the same size. Disposable plastic tumblers do the trick nicely.
    • Add food colouring (e.g. blue) to the two cold cups, and a different colour (e.g. yellow) to the two warm water cups.
    • As per this YouTube video, put the plastic on one cup, invert it, put it on top of a cup on the other colour, and remove the plastic.
      • If the warm cup is on top of the cold cup, the two colours won't mix.
      • If the cold cup is on top of the warm cup, the two colours will mix.



    • Use this to illustrate how doing things slightly differently have have very different outcomes.
  • Ask the children to write in a slip of paper an example scenario where doing things slightly differently can have an unwanted or different outcome.
When we did the lesson, the children came up with some interesting ideas for the last part, which included:
  • Not following a cake recipe properly can mess it up.
  • Not looking before you cross the road can have bad consequences.
  • Not following the right steps in maths or science can give you the wrong result.
For the experiment, I intended to use the church kitchen but it was busy at the time, so we ended up doing it on the patio just outside, which worked just as well. It worked as intended, and when the colours didn't mix in one of the variations, I think it kept a few people guessing, including some of the adults. : )



Stock photo by Nils Stahl on Unsplash

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brief update

For the time being, I'm going to switch formats for future lesson plans, and post my thoughts and plans on Twitter instead. Twitter's terseness makes it much quicker to write, which is ideal as I don't often have time to write the more expansive blog posts. (It's also perhaps a bit more readable too, for anyone with a cursory interest but who doesn't have time to digest the lengthier posts here.) At some point I'll come back and revisit this, with a view to having detailed lesson plans and explanations for as much of the scriptures as I can. In the meantime, you can find me over at  https://twitter.com/bobby_science . 
Post a Comment
Read more

Lesson Plan - OT - Judges

 This post follows on from the previous few posts where: I reviewed the scriptures for this week's Come Follow Me Primary lesson. ( link ) I then brainstormed various science themes that could link to the scriptures. ( link ) Yesterday I worked up one of those themes into a potential lesson plan. ( link ) In this post, I'll provide a concise lesson plan for teachers to use if they find this useful. The first part of this post (in green) is an overview of the lesson aims, and the second part (in yellow) is the actual lesson plan that you can use.  Writing down the lesson plan for this weekend's Primary lesson. Photo by  Nils Stahl  on  Unsplash Overview What's the lesson about? It's about Gideon, one of the many Judges of Israel following the Prophet Joshua, struggling to have faith in Heavenly Father, and frequently doubting his veracity and asking for proof of his existence. It's also about the unorthodox way in which Gideon selected warriors for his battle aga...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brainstorming - D&C 41-44

My next lesson will be from this chapter of the Come Follow Me manual, which talks about D&C 41-44. I've read through the references and the manual chapter, and have started working up some ideas on how to teach. (If you're not familiar with how I approach planning lessons, this post provides some details .) The core of D&C 41-44 is about revelations given to Joseph Smith during his early days in Kirkland, Ohio, in February 1831. Chapter 41 is fairly short, and covers a decree regarding where Joseph will be housed. Chapter 42 is the longest. It starts by calling upon the brethren to go and teach, and also touches upon a reminder of the Commandments (twice), and what will later become the Law of Consecration , where Joseph exhorts his followers to pool their property in the name of the church in order to share more equitably amongst everyone. It also touches upon the idea of receiving personal revelation.  Chapter 43 deals with the issue of false teachings, and makes cl...
Post a Comment
Read more