Primary Teacher – K/1

Celery is a crisp, crunchy vegetable cultivated since antiquity. You can eat it raw or cooked; as a crudité for dipping into hommus, cream cheese, other dips of varying kinds or you can fill it with peanut butter. Yum! It also has a number of health benefits. It contains helpful antioxidants; can reduce inflammation; supports digestion and is rich in vitamins and minerals. Who wouldn’t be interested in this wonderful plant?

So, as we began Term 3 with What Happens First Matters (WHFM), K/1 and I had a closer look at celery.

We already knew that plants require water to live. We learned that celery has a particular structure with a hollow xylem in the stalk that carries water to the leaves, where it evaporates, drawing more water into the leaves. How do we know this? Well, as you can see in the photos, stalks of celery were placed in various containers of water coloured with food dye. The leaves gradually changed colour as the water evaporated and left the food dye particles behind. As the days passed, the intensity of colour in the leaves grew, as did the colour in the xylem walls (celery stem).

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This simple experiment with celery can also prompt us to remember that the more we immerse ourselves in God’s word, knowing Him better, allowing the Holy Spirit to fill our lives and equip us for Godly living, the more we become like Jesus, as the apostle Paul encourages us to do.

… be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined… hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so (you) can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Titus 1:8-9

The attributes listed in this verse are some of the fruit of the Spirit; the outward evidence of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Like the celery, if we immerse ourselves in God’s Word and draw it in through the Holy Spirit, it will colour and change us so that we become more like Jesus; able to see things and respond, as He does.