Scripture: Genesis 27-28
Learning Objectives:
- Students will review the story of Jacob’s blessing and dream, focusing on the ladder (staircase in some versions).
- Students will learn the length of a ladder is related to the height of the ladder.
- Students will learn/review how to measure length.
- Students will learn/review how to compare lengths and estimate which ladders will go higher than others.
- Students will participate in an activity to help them practice measuring lengths and using the information to predict which ladders will reach higher than others.
Guiding Question: What can knowing the length of a ladder help you with in predicting which ladders will reach higher than others?
Materials: Pretend, drawn or real ladders of different lengths. measuring tapes, at least one real ladder or step ladder (if possible)
Procedure: Review the story of Jacob focusing on Jacob’s dream and the ladder (or staircase). Ask students if they know how high a ladder that is six feet long (or the length of the ladder you have in the room) can reach? Record the students’ guesses. Have two students come up and measure the length of the ladder while it is closed on the ground.
Open the ladder and help a student measure the height of the open ladder. Ask students if they know why the numbers are different. (The open ladder leans, shortening the height it would reach if it could go straight up and down.) Explain to the student that the height a ladder reaches will be shorter than the length of the ladder. Have students measure the various pretend, paper or real ladders you have for them to measure and then predict which ones would reach higher than others.
Additional Questions:
- What other objects have a length that can be measured which is exactly the same as the height of the object when it is used?
Supplemental Activity: Have more advanced students think of other objects that have a length that can be measured. This time, they need to find objects that the length and the height of the object are the same when the object is in use. (Ex. boxes, some furniture, etc.) Have students share their findings with others.