Planet Earth

Planet Earth is full of countless living and nonliving things. It is of the utmost importance to understand that the Earth can only provide food and shelter to a certain amount of living things. As the world population becomes larger, it becomes increasingly more difficult for species to survive without having to out-compete each other. In other words, the Earth has a limited carrying capacity. For this reason, it is essential that humans live in a sustainable way so that they can conserve energy, food, and resources.


living: alive

nonliving: not alive
provide: make available for use
increasingly: more and more
outcompete: force others to move because of limited resources
carrying capacity: the number of people, other living things, or plants that a place can support without hurting the environment
sustainable: using things over and over again
conserve: to save

Vocabulary Exercise:


There are many organisms on Earth, and they are both _______ and _______. Living things, such as plants, _______ food for humans. They make life _______ more easy and enjoyable. Often times, animals have to _______ each other so that they can get their resources. The Earth's _______ is less than we can handle at the moment. We have to live in a _______ way so we can help save the Earth. We can start by turning the lights off when we leave a room to _______ energy.



Grammar Point: The Oxford Comma


When we are talking about more than 2 things in one sentence, we use an Oxford Comma for the third so that we can separate our thoughts. For example, when I am listing my favorite ice cream flavors, I say, "I love chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry." Without the Oxford Comma, it reads, "I love chocolate, vanilla and strawberry." The Oxford Comma comes after the second item (vanilla), and is followed by "and" or "or."




Above, I wrote it as, "it is essential that humans live in a sustainable way so that they can conserve energy, food, and resources." My Oxford Comma comes after "food." It helps us separate our thoughts and take a pause between words.


Write 3 sentences where you can use an Oxford Comma.

Comments

  1. The graphics and pictures that you used on this post made me smile and laugh! So cute. Including these fun images is a great way for the students to get engaged. It also serves as a nice visual for ENL students or visual learners. The vocabulary activity is a fun way for the students to practice with the terms that you included in this mini-lesson. What a fun post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved the pictures you used to express your article and to show your grammar point. I think having visuals that show what you are writing about helps ELLs process what is being written. I also really loved how you wrote about planet Earth in a simple way for students to understand. Many times, ELLs will be given very detailed information that they cannot understand and process. I think keeping it simple at first and giving them the basic information then building on that helps them learn what they need to learn. This was a great post. I really enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice entry! It has all the important parts, and the illustrations really enhance students' ability to understand and enjoy the entry. I was glad to see your grammar point on the Oxford comma and the science text.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Days of the Week

Coffee or Tea?