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Maggie’s
Activity Pack
Name __________________________
Date ___________________________
A Good Relationship: Breathing Plants = Breathing Humans
Take a deep breath. Your chest expands. Inside, your lungs fill with air. Your lungs let
you breathe. They are important. They are so important that a special “cage” protects them. It
is your rib cage! These are bones that are connected to your spine and then curve around
your two pink, squishy lungs. And yes, there are two of them but they are not the same size.
Which lung do you think might be smaller? Here’s a clue:
If you guessed that your left lung is smaller, you are right. This is because the left side
of your body needs room for your heart.
You have one big tube leading to each lung. These are called bronchi. Smaller tubes
branch off from these. These tiny branches are called bronchioles. There are about 30,000 of
these tiny tubes running through your lungs. But it doesn’t end there. You have even smaller
structures at the end of each bronchiole. These are alveoli. These air sacs fill up with the air
that you breathe in. They let oxygen into your bloodstream. The blood then delivers the oxygen
to all parts of your body.
When you breathe out, your body is getting rid of what it doesn’t need, carbon dioxide.
This waste goes back through the alveoli to the bronchioles, up to the bronchi and finally out of
your mouth. Just imagine, most of us do this all the time without even thinking about it. But…
there is another part to this “in and out” of air. This has to do with plants.
Have you ever heard that plants grow better when you talk to them? Some people think
this is because humans exhale carbon dioxide. And this is what plants need to grow and thrive.
Tiny pores in plant leaves called stomata take in carbon dioxide from the air. A plant uses this
carbon dioxide to help with photosynthesis. This is the process that plants use to make their
food. They “make” carbon dioxide and water into a sugar called glucose. As they do this, they
give off oxygen.
So, plants need carbon dioxide to make their food. They get rid of the oxygen. Humans
need oxygen. They get rid of carbon dioxide. The circle of life continues. What a great
relationship this is: people need plants and plants need people!
© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2009. Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.
What Did You Read?
You saw some key vocabulary in the article. Match these words with a definition.
A. bronchioles
_____ the bones that protect the lungs
B. rib cage
_____ the two big tubes leading to the lungs
C. alveoli
_____ tiny pores in a plant leaf that take in carbon dioxide
D. stomata
E. bronchi
_____ tiny air sacs that fill up with air and help oxygen get
to your blood
_____ small “branches” that bring air from the bronchi into
all parts of your lungs.
Think about these
key ideas. Write
your thoughts on
the lines.
1. You read how human lungs work. What are some ways you can protect your lungs?
___________________________________________________________________________
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2. Look around your community or school. What are some ways you see people protecting the
relationship between people and plants?
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© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2009. Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.
Dear Colleague,
Thinking “green” has become so important today. You turn on the t.v. and hear
characters on shows discussing ways to “be green.” You hear advertisements for companies:
“We are green.” It occurred to me that it is necessary to help our children understand some of
the key relationships between humans and the environment so that they understand that
“being green” is not just a buzz phrase but is necessary for maintaining the healthy
relationships we have on Earth. Hopefully, by understanding how human anatomy is so directly
connected with plants, students will begin to think deeply and critically about the necessity for
“going green.” This is just a beginning in what I would like to call “Going Behind the Green
Buzz.” We at Maggie’s Earth Adventures would like to help you use your curriculum so that
children realize why going green is necessary. In this WAP we use the curricular aspect of
human anatomy and plant structure to do this.
I encourage you to hold a class discussion about ways you and your class can develop
a healthy classroom environment this year. Ask small groups to consider what you can do
within your four walls to make sure lungs stay healthy. Make a list and then have a “pulse
check” at the end of each week to make sure your class is following through on staying
healthy. One of my dear Cambodian friends is studying public health and “being green.” I know
she would love to hear about some of your ideas. Let me know what your class comes up with
to maintain this plant/lung relationship!
One of my favorite movie clips is the scene in Apollo 13 where the troubled space
capsule is running out of oxygen. There is a build-up of carbon dioxide. This is a wonderful
scene that highlights the need for something to help us get rid of our waste, carbon dioxide. In
this case it is an air filter. But you can talk about natural air filters: plants. Additionally, the clip
can be used for more: I love it as it shows the power of problem solving. Those of you who
have seen this movie will recall that NASA needs to fit a square peg into a round hole. With
great belief that they can do this, the men get to work and devise a way to clean the air using
such material as the cover of a manual and a sock. In our world where problem solving is
essential but often neglected due to factual recall testing, this clip shows the importance of “out
of the box” thinking. We can and need to go beyond literal answers. I love to show this scene
to illustrate the power of problem solving.
Happy teaching,
Kathy
Answer Key:
Matching –
B
E
D
C
A
Why not encourage children to picture
lungs? Ask them to draw a diagram of
lungs using the information in the article.
Some children may also depict the
relationship between lungs and plants.
This aids in comprehension in the
content areas!
Other answers will vary.
Goals:
Students will read an article that shows the important relationship between lungs and plants.
The exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen is highlighted. Follow-up activities include factual
matching of anatomical words and critical thinking questions emphasizing application
processes are posed. The activity is available on two levels, intermediate and primary and
correlates with Content Standard C, Life Science of the National Science Standards.
© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2009. Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.