Wayne RESA

Unit PlannerSOLID Start Grade 1

Wayne RESA / Grade 1 / Science / SOLID Start Grade 1 / Week 36 - Week 38
Bacolor, Rich

Overview

...
Unit Abstract

PLEASE NOTE: Free access to full lesson plans for this unit are available via Google Docs by registering with the developers at the SOLID Start Website (MSU College of Education, Wright and Gotwals, 2016).

 

The goals of the Sky Patterns Unit are for first graders to become familiar with ways to gather and interpret data about the movement of the sun, moon and stars.

First graders will also discover how the sun, moon, and stars move from east to west across the sky, when they are visible. They will also discover how the amount of

sunlight and the north-south apparent movement of the sun changes over a year.

 

...
Storyline

Note that this is a two-part unit. In Lessons 1-8, preferably taught toward the beginning of the school year, students will look for patterns in the sky that they can see, focusing on the moon, sun, and stars. The patterns they focus on are the apparent movement of the objects through the sky and the time of day or night when the sun, moon, and stars are visible in the sky. Students begin a data tracking routine that will continue throughout the year to track the amount of sunlight (in hours) and the sun’s apparent north-south movement in the sky.

In Lessons 10-11, at the end of the year, students will use their data on the hours of sunlight from the school year and summer data provided by the teacher to look for a pattern related to having fewer hours of sunlight in the winter, and more hours of sunlight in the summer, spring and fall. They will also look at patterns in how the sun appears to move from north to south to north again in the sky throughout a year. They will compare these patterns to notice that when the sun is lowest in the sky (at noon), we also receive the least amount of sunlight (e.g., winter). Similarly, they should notice that when the sun is higher in the sky (at noon), we also receive more sunlight (e.g., spring, summer, fall).

Narrative

Part 1: The sun, moon, and stars appear in the sky at different times. They appear to move across the sky in the same direction every day. The sun moves from one side of the sky where it rises (East) to the opposite side of the sky when it sets (West). The moon and stars follow the same pattern. This is due to the earth’s rotation on its axis – the day/night cycle. Part 2: The amount of sunlight we have each day changes a little bit. As the seasons change, so does the amount of sunlight. In the summer, we have the most hours of sunlight and in the fall, we have fewer hours of sunlight. In winter we have the fewest hours of sunlight, and then the amount of sunlight increases during the spring. Also, in the northern hemisphere, the sun appears more north in the sky and in the winter, the sun appears more south in the sky. This is due to the seasons, which are caused by the earth’s tilt and revolution around the sun. The changing seasons cause changes in the amount of direct sunlight and apparent height of the sun in the sky. These are consistent annual patterns.

...
Expectations/Standards
Learning Targets

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

• Describe the pattern of the sun appearing to move east to west across the sky during the daytime.

• Describe the pattern of the moon appearing to move east to west across the sky during the nighttime.

• Describe the pattern of the stars appearing to move east to west across the sky during the nighttime.

• Use their observations to determine that there is less sunlight in the winter than in the spring, fall, or summer.

• Use their observations to determine that the sun appears to move north and south and in the sky across a year.

• Use evidence from scientific explorations, along with information and vocabulary from informational texts, to develop both oral and written descriptions of

patterns of apparent movement of the sun, moon, and stars across the sky.

• Make predictions about the location of the sun at different days and times using their class sunlight data.

...
Enduring Understandings

Please refer to the First Grade NGSS Storyline Document (Achieve, 2017):

https://www.nextgenscience.org...

 

Essential Questions

Each lesson begins with an essential question. Please see Lesson Planner tab.


Teachers provide students multiple opportunities to engage in the practice of Asking Questions and Defining Problems:


Asking questions and defining problems in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to simple descriptive questions.

  • Ask questions based on observations to find more information about the natural and/or designed world(s).
  • Ask and/or identify questions that can be answered by an investigation.
  • Define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
...
Content (Key Concepts)
Skills (Intellectual Processes)
...