Scripture: I Kings 18:1-19:18
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn God is the only god we should worship.
- Students will learn that just like Baal, false gods like money, beauty and even power have no strength or value compared to God.
- Students will learn sometimes God shows himself to us in quiet ways like the whisper to Elijah.
- Students will learn how to measure volume.
Guiding Question: How do we measure volume?
Materials: Buckets of water, empty buckets, measuring spoons, liquid measuring cups
Procedure: Review the story of Elijah and Mt. Carmel from the scriptures above. Emphasize the people’s dependence on idols and how the idols distracted them from the true God. Explain that idols are not just statues like the story. Idols can be anything that distracts us from God or becomes a priority in our life. Idols can be a multitude of things – a job, other people, TV, video games, sports, etc. Remind the students that there is nothing wrong with enjoying things like our jobs and TV but they should never come before God. Distractions can keep us from the important things in life. Listening to God requires attention and focus on Him, not on distractions and idols.
Introduce the activity by talking about the water Elijah poured on his altar. Tell students they are going to practice working with volume and review the formula for finding volume. Then put the students in pairs. Give each pair of students a bucket of water and an empty bucket (or any container). Then give them measuring spoons, liquid measuring cup, etc. You will call out different amounts of liquid and the students must transfer that amount of liquid you call out from one bucket to the next. Check students as they are working.
Additional Questions: How can students create objects with different volumes?
Supplemental Activity: Introduce volume to students by having them build different combinations of rectangular prisms with a certain amount of unit cubes: http://jenniferfindley.com/teaching-volume-common-core-resource/