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Characteristics and Interactions of Earth's Systems (2025)

  • Lesson Plan Creator: Daniel Do
  • Grades: Grade 5
  • Subjects: Science
  • Part of Class: Creative Movement
  • National/State Fine Arts Standards: Create, Respond
  • Tags: Creative Movement

In this creative movement lesson designed for 5th grade, students will learn about Earth's systems through movement.

Learning Objectives/Goals

Students will learn and embody through movement about the major Earth’s systems and how they interact with each other. Students will learn about spatial pathways and levels. Students will use creative problem solving skills to demonstrate through movement the different ways interactions occur between the Earth's systems.

Materials Needed

Drum, Sound system, 4 big PE cones of different colors, 4 posters that say biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere (optional)

Introduction

Set class expectations, goals and movement space barriers.

Warm-Up

Isolation head to feet warmup. Introduce the word “interaction.” Examples: Can you move your body with your head interacting with your knees? Can you move all 4 of these body parts and how do they interact? Repeat using verbs that reference different interactions between Earth’s systems (30 minute version- start with this). Can start to integrate speed and levels (ex. Can your head ooze from a high level to a low level like how lava oozes out of a volcano? Can your arms melt slowly from a medium level to a very low level like ice melting off a rock?)

Investigate

From Utah State Science Core: Earth’s major systems are the geosphere (solid and molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere (air), and the biosphere (living things, including humans). Within these systems, the location of Earth’s land and water can be described. Also, these systems interact in multiple ways. Weathering and erosion are examples of interactions between Earth’s systems. Some interactions cause landslides, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions that impact humans and other organisms. Humans cannot eliminate natural hazards, but solutions can be designed to reduce their impact.

PART ONE - Introduce the different systems (show posters with names on them, introduce different colored cones to represent each system). How do they interact with each other? Explore those examples in the body (30 minute version- explore less examples) EXAMPLES:

  • Water Cycle: Water evaporates from oceans (hydrosphere), rises into the atmosphere, condenses into clouds, and falls back as precipitation, impacting landforms (geosphere) and replenishing water bodies.
  • Weather Patterns: Wind currents in the atmosphere (atmosphere) influence ocean currents (hydrosphere), which can affect regional climates.
  • Volcanic Eruptions: Volcanic eruptions release ash and gases into the atmosphere (geosphere-atmosphere), potentially impacting global climate.
  • Erosion: Moving water (hydrosphere) erodes rock formations (geosphere), shaping landscapes over time.
  • Photosynthesis: Plants (biosphere) absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (atmosphere) and release oxygen, influencing the atmospheric composition.
  • Glacier Movement: Glaciers (cryosphere) carve valleys and reshape landforms as they move across the landscape (geosphere).

PART TWO (Potentially this is where you can split the lesson plan into 2 days): Create the Earth in the movement space, designate each corner to a system with the cones. Students will learn a sequence and travel through each system by how they interact with each other. Geosphere ← Hydrosphere ↓ ↑ Biosphere → Atmosphere.

AN EXAMPLE: - Students will start in the biosphere and grow into a plant. The plant will photosynthesize and get absorbed into the atmosphere corner (choose a verb to get them there ex. wind blows you there). Students will turn into a cloud in the atmosphere and create wind currents that affect the oceans in the hydrosphere. In the hydrosphere corner, students will form an ice shape that melts down a mountain in the geosphere. In the geosphere corner, students will form into a rock shape. An earthquake will happen that causes the rocks to quake and travel back to the biosphere where they turn into soil to get ready to bloom into a new plant. This can restart their journey. Students will explore this journey with the drum and then music.

Create

Students will split up into groups and come up with their own “journey/sequence" in how they travel through each system. Students will show each other and try to guess what interactions they see.

Reflect 

What are the 4 major Earth’s systems? What was a difficult interaction that you experienced between two systems? What was a very visible interaction you saw between two systems? Did we explore different levels in our shapes and how we interacted with each of Earth’s systems? (high, medium, low)

Extension to the Lesson

Introduce different pathways, isolations, levels, speed that students can incorporate as they travel from one system to the next, students’ journeys can shift and not travel in a box - they can go from geosphere to atmosphere in a diagonal pathway (can include here for 45 minute version).

Follow-up Resources

 

    

 

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What People are Saying

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