The Carbon Cycle
📋 What it is
Carbon moves in a loop between air, plants, animals, oceans, and rocks.
🗣️ Coach says
Carbon never sits still. Plants pull it from the air (as CO₂) to make food; animals eat plants and breathe some back; oceans absorb it; and over ages it becomes rock or fossil fuel. Burning those fuels shoves stored carbon back into the air fast — the loop’s balance matters.
🧠 Memory hook
Carbon loops: air → plants → animals → ocean/rock → back. Burning fuel speeds the loop.
😂 Giggle
What did the tree say to the lumberjack?
"Leaf me alone!"
😲 Whoa!
The carbon in your body has been cycling through Earth for billions of years — some of it was probably once inside a dinosaur.
✅ Quick check: How do plants take part in the carbon cycle?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
They pull carbon dioxide from the air and use it (in photosynthesis) to build food, storing the carbon in themselves.
Photosynthesis moves carbon from air into living things.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Breathe out onto your hand — you just released carbon (as CO₂) that a plant could take back in. The loop in action.