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From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to move among the stars. They called these objects "planets," meaning wanderers, and named them after Roman deities-Jupiter, king of the gods; Mars, the god of war; Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus, the goddes of love and beauty, and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of agriculture. This activity assists students with facts and knowledge on how the solar system works. By providing a diagram that assists the student in the order and distance of each planet, this activity provides the student with a realistic vision of what outer space looks like. I believe that this resource can be used to help students memorize as well as find interested in how the solar system works and how each planet is arranged, what their made of, their distance from the sun, ect.

Edit your tag to be "solar system" so it is in one place. Remove "science" tag, as these are all science. Use teh grade level tags k-2, 3-5, 6-8, and/or 6-8 rather than broader ones like k-5.

The Children's University of Manchester produces this page. It is absolutely fabulous! The website is interactive, teaching students about a variety of different subjects in a way that is appealing to children. The brief lesson could be used as a quick introduction to a topic, or a quick recap over a topic. The site I have linked to is about the phases of the moon. The children can see a short animated clip showing the sun with the earth and moon orbiting around it. The clip has facts throughout, and a brief quiz at the end. I would highly recommend incorporating this site into your classroom!

This website includes information on each planet, the sun, the moon, asteroids, comets, meteorites, explorations of space, telescopes, types of equipment etc... I would use this website for an activity where students learn about each planet, the universe and what is in the universe. I also like this website because it contains videos of the Mars space shuttle, telescopes, etc... I think that would be a useful tool for students who are visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

The Solar System is a very abstract concept for elementary age children. This activity was designed to show children the idea of both revolution and rotation. This activity will also allow children to understand the vast size of the solar system, the students can be taken outside where a "solar system" has been drawn with chalk and scaled down. Students can line up in order and orbit around the sun.

This site had a great diagram that showed how the earth is tilted and where it is located according to the sun during each season. I would use this site as a resource during my lessons. This could also be used as a center for the students because it had a season quiz and season themed sheets.

This link allows students to either move the moon around the earth and see the phases, or they can click what phase they want to see and the moon jumps to the position it would be in when in the sky. Bellow the big picture you can also advance the moons position around the earth day by day. Using this simulator may dispel so misunderstandings about what causes the phases of the moon. There are several different views of the same information so students can choose which ever one makes more sense to them to look at. As I also said above there are several different ways to manipulate whats in front of you. I would most definitely use this in a chapter about the moon. I might have a worksheet that asks students to show me where the moon would be at each phase, I might follow that with questions about why they think the moon looks the way it does. I love this tool, it was introduced to me in astronomy. I love how easy it is to use. Again you can manipulate it day by day, you get to see what the moon would really look like up in the sky if you had the chance to see it, and you get to see and understand what rotates around what.( We rotate around the sun, the moon rotates around us.)

This is a video that briefly explains why we experience different seasons on Earth. Using visuals, students will understand the concepts of the seasons and how they occur in reference to Earth and the Sun.

Karen Pavlik discusses an inquiry-based lesson for an elementary weather unit. The students will predict which thermometer will have a higher temperature, one in a white sleeve or one in a black sleeve, and record their findings. I like this experiment because something is being tested, yet it has such a simple design. If I were to give this lesson, I would do a single experiment as a class, with one thermometer in a white sleeve and one in a black sleeve. I would allow students to write down their individual predictions beforehand regarding which, if either, would show a higher temperature after being left in the sun. I still remember a similar scenario from my early childhood years. One of my "alternate conceptions" was that darker would be cooler because shade is cooler. This lesson opens the door for further student inquiry and extensions to the lesson, such as testing different colors beyond just black and white.

This lesson shows the process of the water cycle. Water is placed in a small cup in the corner of a plastic zip lock bag. With a marker, show the stages of a water cycle in a circular direction. Place the bag on the window so that the sun causes the water to heat, thus starting the water cycle. I thought this would be a good activity to lead into a lesson on water accumulation, condensation, precipitation and evaporation. If a teacher was fortunate enough to live close to a local newscast, they could have a meteorologist come to talk to the class one day during the lesson on the water cycle.

This resource is a field trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Students can tour the gardens, learn about plants, and take classes. I chose this because it would give the students an opportunity to see the plants that they are learning about in real life. I would use this field trip as a supplement to a unit about plants.

Taking a field trip to The Botanical Gardens will let the students see plants and their pollinators in real life. I would use this field trip to wrap up my lessons on plants needing sunlight and water and also the role of insects and birds while pollinating flowers. Before the field trip begins, I will have my students bring a notebook and pencil with them. They will write down anything they observe. They could write if they saw a butterfly on a flower, or if a flower looked dry because it was in the sun too much. I want my students to put what they learned into a real life context. I really liked the idea of a field trip because students get to leave school and observe what they have been learning. It is always fun to get out a desk and do some hands-on observing/learning.

This is a full lesson and activity provided by TeachersPayTeachers and it costs $3.00. The lesson and activity is aligned with NGSS-2-LS2-1. First the lesson will be taught to explain the importance of sunlight and water to plants. After the lesson is taught, the class will conduct an experiment to test what we just learned. I will have 3 plants. One will receive water and sun everyday. One will be in the closet and only receive water. The last one will just be in the window receiving sunlight. Since purchasing the lesson from TeachesPayTeachers you will also receive a lab journal for students to be able to write their predictions and record their observations. I chose lesson/activity because I thought it went well together. I like that is starts with the lesson then has a follow up activity for students to do. The science journal is something they can do throughout the week, also. I would use this lesson to introduce the topic of "Do plants need water and sunlight to grow" and have the activity has a follow up and something that could expand their knowledge throughout the week.