The 5-8 students are learning about the Earth and its spheres in Day 6.  They have learned that each sphere: biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere, are all connected and depend on one another. 
One example to show those connections was an activity that simulated a food web.  Mr. P had cards of living things and each student received one.  Students had to learn how each things was dependent on others.  A looooong piece of yarn was used to connect each of the students in a large web.  Then, Mr. P gave scenarios that would destroy one or more of the living things.  Students let go of their yarn and we watched the web collapse.  Students learned that taking a living thing out of the web, especially the bottom of the food chain, could be devastating.
The next Day 6, students did some activities with the lithosphere.  They made the layers of the Earth in a sweet way: a Red Hot candy for the core squished into a marshmallow to represent the mantle followed by a dip in some chocolate for the crust.  Later, they practiced how seismographs work by making their own "earthquakes".  They shook the tables while their partners tried to stay on the "seismograph" paper.

Recently, grades 3-5 enjoyed a trip to Old World Wisconsin. The students spent the day learning about the 1800's while participating in activities from that time period.