CoRe (Content Representation Tool)

Kelly Lamp, Taylor Morales, Ronie Daniels

1. What concepts/big ideas do you intend students to learn about the night and day cycle?
There is day and night because the Earth rotates on its axis around the Sun
The Earth and the moon stick together (they are buddies)
The Earth rotates on its axis in a full circle once each day, which explain why there is
day/night
The Earth and moon revolve around the Sun. This happens once per year.
For this reason, day and time are different around the world
A cycle is a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order, hence a
cycle of day and night occurs in the same way everyday
Examples of cycles are recycling, seasons, days of the week, day and night, etc.
There is a difference between daytime and nighttime activities based on the amount
of light that we have at these different times
2. What does your group know about the patterns of night and day?
We know that there are specific routines/culturally accepted behavior that occurs
during the day as well as at night.
We know that there is day and night because the Earth rotates on its axis around
the Sun.
We know that day and time are different depending on where you are in the world
We know a cycle is a series of events that are repeated regularly in the same order,
so a day/night cycle occurs every day and in the same way
We know that the Earth is the planet that rotates; the Sun and Moon are stationary
We know that the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun, not vise versa
We know that there are different times and seasons because of Earths tilt in its axis
3. Why is it important for students to learn about the patterns of night and day?
Patterns in general help with future math skills
Patterns make meaning by helping to establish relationships and connections.
This will be helpful in both life/school now and in life/school the future
Students actively create links among concepts and experiences (in this case,
specifically between day and night)
4. What misconceptions do students typically have about this concept and why?
The sun and the moon switch places
The sun goes behind hills/mountains at night
The moon magically appears in the sky at night
The moon covers the sun at night
The sun covers the moon during the day
The Earth orbits around the Sun in a day
The Sun orbits around the Earth in a day
The Sun rotates around itself
5. What do you expect students to know and be able to do as a result of instruction?
Students will know that the Earth rotates on its axis around the sun.
Students will understand that the Earth and Moon stay in the same spot and that all
the planets move around the sun together

Students will know that there are different times and seasons due to the Earths tilt
on its axis
Students will be able to identify what types of activities are daytime activities and
those that are nighttime activities and why
Students will know the meaning of the word cycle and know different kinds of
cycles that are present in our world
Students will be able to use their cycle model to identify the seasons
Students will know how the movements of the earth deal with time
Students will understand how it can be different times in difference places in the
world.
Students will be able to estimate what time of day it is at a location based on how the
sun is shining
Students should be able to use a flashlight to show where the sun would be shining
in different situations

6. What specific experiences and activities might be useful for helping students develop
their understanding of the night and day cycle?

We can ask students what they know about the word cycle and list examples of
cycles that they already know about
We can ask students questions that are focused on learning what they already know
about the day and night cycle
Is it day or night when you get on the bus for school?
Is it day or night when you go to bed?
What brightens the day, the sun or the moon?
Then we can demonstrate how to earth gets its light by doing activity number 4 with
the globe.
We can ask the students, What does the flashlight represent? (The students should
say that the flashlight represents the sun.)
Then we can put the flashlight on a specific region and say, If it is daytime here why
do you think it is night time in Australia?

7. In what ways could you assess students understanding or confusion about the night
and day cycle before/during/after instruction?

We could continuously question the students throughout the lesson and take
directional cues on what to do next based on their understanding as we move
through the material
We can have the students work hands on with the concepts
We can probe the students previous understanding then continue to listen closely to
their new observations
We could have a review session or have follow up questions ready
We could say, Could someone please tell me why its day time here and not in
Australia?
After asking follow up questions about the lesson, we can ask the students to use
the globe to illustrate the day and night cycle