Science

Light and Shadows

Day 1: Introduce light using slide 1-2 (Start chart)
What is light? Energy that can travel through air and space.
Where does light come from? Major source? Sun.
Have students partner for quick cooperative learning. Give each group a postit. Tell students to write as many sources of light they can think of on their postit. Give students a few minutes then bring them back together whole
group. Make a list of what they came up with on the board. Use slide 3 for other
ideas. Then, create a t-chart for natural and man-made light sources. Have the
students help place the light sources in the correct columns.
Day 2: Introduce reflect using slide 5 (add to chart)
Define-light bounces off an object and goes another direction
Students should get with their cooperative learning partners. Using the science
textbooks have them Read to Someone pages 372-373. Students will complete
the exit slip to wrap up todays lesson.
Day 3: Flashlight Experiment
Begin with slide 6 and discuss reflecting and absorbing
Students will partner up (however you choose) and will be given a mirror, a
flashlight, and a science textbook. Talk with them about proper use of flashlights
and materials. Explain that they will first shine the flashlight onto the
textbook. Record (on sheet) what happens to the beam of light? Draw what they
see. Next, students will shine the flashlight on the mirror. Again, students will
record what happens to the beam of light and illustrate.
Day 4: Introduce shadows using page 371 of science textbook and slide 12.
Chart.
Discuss that if the sun was in the East, your shadow would be in the
direction of the West.
Discuss the Earths rotation and how the Earths position affects shadows
throughout the day.
Have students read page 426-427 in science textbooks (your choice how you
want to do this). Given a post it, students will write down the 3 things that are
needed to have a shadow. Discuss these things whole group and add to
chart. Students MUST know them for assessment!
Day 5: Shadow Experiment
This will have to be done at 3 different part of the day. I plan to have students
use a piece of notebook paper and a clipboard. We will go outside after specials
and draw an illustration of what are shadow looks like. Where is your
shadow? Have students predict where they think their shadow will be at noon
when we go back outside. Repeat at noon and again after 2nd recess.

Note: The direction of the sun affects the direction of the shadow.

Discuss the results of the experiment.

Also, slides 7-9 discuss how we see light. Students need to know that our
eyes are receivers of light.

Day 6: Assessment

There is also a Brain Pop Jr. on Light and Magic School Bus.

Day 1: Sc.6.1.A.a. Describe out Sun as a star because it provides light energy to the
solar system. (Review)
Sc.6.2.C.a Observe and identify there is a day/night cycle every 24 hours.
*Have an anchor chart already made for the science lesson. Put revolution and
rotation of the anchor chart with a picture to help describe it.

Hook: Who notices that the moon doesnt always look the same? Why do we
think the moon looks different what is making this happen? It is okay if we dont
know because we are going to find out today.
Lesson: You might know that the moon doesnt produce its own light, but did you
know that it is actually reflecting the light from the sun?
Lets set the stage and be our universe.

Have a student come be the sun. Have another student come be the earth. And
a student is the moon. (Give students a visual representation of what is
happening.) Have the student who is the sun stand there and they will not move.
The student who is the earth will stand there for a moment. Have the student who
is the moon rotate around the earth.
Once this visual has happened tell the students about the rotation of the earth.
The earth and the moon rotate all the time. We are always moving this is why our
shadows change shapes, like we already know. The earth makes a full rotation
every 24 hours; this is why we have day and night.
We are rotating every day, 24 hours, and we are also revolving around the sun.
We make revolutions. A revolution is when we make a giant circle around the
sun. It takes 365 days to make 1 revolution around the sun; this is why we have
different seasons. Does that sound familiar?
Practice: Go through this scenario a couple times and allow different students to
be in different positions.
As an exit ticket have students say on a post-it what rotation is and what does
the rotation of the earth cause? What is revolution and what does the revolution
of the earth cause?
Day 2: Sc.6.1.A.a. Describe out Sun as a star because it provides light energy to the
solar system. (Review)
Sc.6.2.C.a Observe and identify there is a day/night cycle every 24 hours.

Hook: Tell me what we learned about yesterday (revolution and rotation causing
day and night and seasons) Do you guys notice that when its summer time in
Missouri we have a lot more light in the day? What happens when its winter in
Missouri, what happens to the amount of light we have?
Lesson: Review what rotation and revolution is. If needed have them act out this
for the whole class. Once you are finished we are going to figure out why we
have seasons in the U.S.
Watch Bill Nye Video on seasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUU7IyfR34o
Questions: (Have students get white boards and answer on the carpet, if there is
enough time they can do mix, pair, share). Why do we have seasons? (The way
the earth is titled determines the seasons) What is the invisible line that goes
through the North and South Pole called? (Axis) Why do we have different

amounts of daylight? The earth is titled at a 23-degree angle, if the earth was not
tilted would we have different seasons?
Practice: Students will practice after watching the video. They will each complete
a worksheet, working with a partner. They will color the hemisphere that is in the
summer time red and the hemisphere that is in winter blue. (Make sure you
review what hemispheres are and remind them by showing them.)

Day 3: 1: Sc.6.1.A.a. Describe out Sun as a star because it provides light energy to
the solar system.
Sc.6.1.A.b Observe and identify the Moon as a reflection of light.
Hook: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/moon-101-sci
Lesson: Wow! Our moon is so cool; it has such an effect on earth. What do we
know about the moon?
Does the moon produce its own light? How does the moon Glow? (It reflects
light from the sun.
Are there times when you look outside and you havent seen the moon? Are
there times during the day that you look out side and you see the moon? Look at
recess the next time we go out or when you leave school today and see if you
can locate the moon.
Practice: Students will make a replica of the moon, earth, and sun rotation. They
should shade half of the moon white and half of the moon dark. This will
represent the half that is always reflecting the suns light and half that is not.
Exit Slip: Have students use their models they made.
If the moon was in-between the earth and the sun, what would we see of the
moon from earth? (Dark side) We wouldnt see anything.
If your order was Sun, Earth, Moon what would we see if we looked at the moon?
(We would see a full moon, or we would see the reflection of the sun.)
Day 4: Sc.6.2.B.a Illustrate and describe how the Moon appears to move slowly
across the sky from east to west during the day and/or night.

Sc.6.2.B.b Describe the pattern of change that can be observed in the Moons
appearance relative to time of day and month as it occurs over several months.

Hook: Have students replicate the rotation of the earth around the sun. Review
the terms revolution and rotation. Have the students tell you what is happening if
the sun revolves and is tilted a certain way.
Lesson: Have students use the models they made yesterday with the sun,
moon, and earth. Get this out and have them follow along while you get students
in the front of the room to act this out.
Focus on the moon: have the moon stay still. Explain that the moon revolves
around the earth and it takes about 29 days to revolve. The earth is rotating while
the moon is revolving. The earth rotates every 24 hours. How does the moon
look when the earth is rotating? (We see the moon as moving across the sky
from east to west during the day and the night because we are the ones moving)
Have different students be earth this way they see what we are focusing on.
The moon looking as if it is appearing to move east to west in the sky.
Have different students come and practice. Choose a couple students to explain
on their models in front of the whole class.
Practice:
If the moon rotates every month how does the rotation look over a period of
several months?
Quiz Quiz Trade- Have questions from the whole unit so far. Give each student
a quiz card. They need to know the answer for their card. (you can give it to them
if needed) Then have the students look over their question and have them
memorize/learn about their card.
Then have students move around the room.
Meet up with each other. (Put your hand up find a partner and make a tee-pee.
When everyone has a tee-pee start.)
If they get the answer to the question right then and only then can they trade the
card with the partner. Once they trade they walk around the room with their hand
in the air looking for another person to make a tee-pee with and this continues.
They should be able to make it around the room and trade a lot of the cards with
classmates so they get a lot of good review.