2017 – 2018 Science
Kindergarten Instructional Planning Checklist
Elmore County Vision Statement
Elmore County Public School System strives to prepare students
to be responsible and productive citizens in an ever-changing world.
Elmore County Mission Statement
Elmore County Public Schools’ mission is to provide
relevant, engaging, positive learning environments where
students are empowered to realize their self-worth through
continuous academic, social and emotional growth.
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Kindergarten
K-2 Overview
Science education in Grades K-2 provides students with a foundation for the lifelong pursuit of scientific information and exploration. Young children are natural
scientists and possess a curiosity and eagerness to learn about the world around them. They are able to construct knowledge and gather information through the use
of the five senses. Learning about science in the early years is a multifaceted task and requires a range of student experiences to support diverse learning styles.
The early childhood classroom environment must stimulate the natural curiosity and capitalize on the energy level of the young learner while providing a safe and
supportive environment that appeals to all students. Key components of this educational environment include a meaningful curriculum, high-quality instruction,
and effective assessment that drive instruction. The young student is a concrete learner in need of many opportunities to interact in hands-on, inquiry-based
investigations and cooperative learning situations.
The K-2 science content creates a sound base for scientific exploration and acquisition of knowledge and skills in a developmentally appropriate manner. Effective
science instruction in Grades K-2 includes instructional strategies guided by the content standards that address the three dimensions of scientific and engineering
practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students enter school with an eagerness to explore the world around them. Although their experiences and background knowledge may be limited,
science instruction provides ample opportunities to develop investigative thinking, argumentation, and reasoning in the context of familiar surroundings. Students
develop the foundational skills necessary for future learning in science.
Students in kindergarten learn disciplinary core ideas from the three scientific domains of Physical, Life, and Earth and Space Sciences while demonstrating their
learning in the context of the content standards for this grade level. In Physical Science, students investigate forces and interactions. In Life Science, students
explore interactions, energy, and dynamics of ecosystems. In Earth and Space Science, students become familiar with Earth’s systems while observing the effects
of sunlight and studying weather patterns. The disciplinary core ideas of the Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science (ETS) domain are
integrated within the content standards of the three scientific domains and are denoted with an asterisk (*).
Grade K content standards provide students with opportunities for appropriate investigation and observation of the world around them. Through guided
participation in specific engineering design projects, they find answers regarding how to use force to change the speed or direction of an object, how to reduce the
human impact on the local environment, how to reduce the effects of sunlight, and how to use weather forecasts to prepare for severe weather.
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STRUCTURE OF THE STANDARDS
Each content standard in this document addresses the three scientific dimensions listed below and as described in the 2012 National Research Council (NRC)
publication, A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Standards outline the knowledge and skills of science
and engineering that all students should know and be able to do by the end of high school.
DIMENSION 1: SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING PRACTICES
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DIMENSION 2: CROSSCUTTING CONCEPTS
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Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Developing and using models
Planning and carrying out investigations
Analyzing and interpreting data
Using mathematics and computational thinking
Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for
engineering)
Engaging in argument from evidence
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Patterns
Cause and effect
Scale, proportion, and quantity
Systems and system models
Energy and matter
Structure and function
Stability and change
DIMENSION 3: DISCIPLINARY CORE IDEAS
Physical Sciences
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Matter and Its Interactions
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Energy
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
Life Sciences
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From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
Unity and Diversity
Earth and Space Sciences
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Earth’s Place in the Universe
Earth’s Systems
Earth and Human Activity
Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science
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Engineering Design
Links Among Engineering, Technology, Science, and Society
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Before quality instruction can occur, there must be a plan for what teachers want students to learn. One process for planning includes the following three
steps.
1. Identify desired outcomes found in the standards.
2. Determine acceptable evidence of student learning by designing evaluation activities.
3. Develop activities and learning experiences that will engage all students in exploring, explaining, and expanding their understanding of the scientific and
engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas in the standards.
Five E + IA Instructional Model
Engage
Explore
Explain
Elaborate
Evaluate
Intervene or Accelerate
Student interest is stimulated and connections are made to prior knowledge and between past and present
experiences. Student thinking is focused on learning outcomes as they become mentally engaged in the
practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas of the unit or lesson.
Students investigate initial ideas and solutions in a context within which they can identify. Using
investigation, research, discourse, text, and media, students actively explore situations and build common
experiences that serve as a basis for developing an understanding of the concept within context.
Students are provided the opportunity to collaborate, communicate, and construct meaning from their
experiences based on an analysis of the exploration. This phase emphasizes the importance of students
developing evidence-based explanations founded upon their observations and experiences obtained through
investigations. Teachers clarify understanding through definitions, labels, and explanations for abilities,
concepts, practices, and skills.
Students reflect upon, expand, and apply conceptual understanding of scientific concepts to new and
unfamiliar situations in order to cultivate a broader and deeper understanding of concepts through new
experiences within new contexts and situations.
Students are assessed on understanding of scientific concepts. Assessment provides opportunities for
teachers to evaluate understanding of concepts and practices identified in the standards. This phase helps
teachers know if students are learning in order for appropriate next steps to occur.
When some students do not learn the first time, intervention strategies may be implemented to further
explain and elaborate upon concepts to a greater extent in order to clarify understanding. Students who
have demonstrated proficiency may be able to enrich or accelerate learning through more challenging,
engaging, and exploratory experiences.
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Column Definitions
 Evidence of Student Attainment: “What could students do to show attainment of this standard?”
 Teacher Vocabulary: “What are key terms in the standard that are essential for the teacher to interpret and understand in order to lead students to grade level
attainment?”
 Skills: “What procedural skill(s) does the student need to demonstrate for attainment of this standard?”
 Knowledge: “What does the student need to know to aid in attainment of this standard?”
 Understanding: “What will students understand to attain the standard?”
Standard 1
CCRS Standard: K.MS.1. Investigate the resulting motion of objects when forces of different strengths and directions act
upon them (e.g., object being pushed, object being pulled, two objects colliding).
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Investigate the resulting motion of objects when forces of different strengths act
upon them.
 Investigate the resulting motion of objects when forces of different directions act
upon them.
 Predict the effect of the push or pull on the motion of an object, based on prior
experiences.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 push, pull, collide, investigate, result, motion, objects, forces, strengths, directions,
refute
Knowledge:
Students know:
 Pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions.
 Pushing or pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and
can start or stop it.
 When objects touch or collide, they push on one another and can change motion.
 A bigger push or pull makes things speed up or slow down more quickly.
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Investigate forces and interactions.
 Describe objects and their motions.
 Describe relative strengths and directions of the push or pull applied to an object.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute ideas about
effects on the motion of the object caused by changes in the strength or direction of
the pushes and pulls.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Planning and Carrying out Investigations
Cause and Effect
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Standard 2
CCRS Standard: K.MS.2. Use observations and data from investigations to determine if a design solution (e.g., designing a ramp to increase the speed of an object in order to
move a stationary object) solves the problem of using force to change the speed or direction of an object. *
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Use observations from investigations to determine if a design solution causes the
intended change in the speed or direction of the motion of the object.
 Use data from investigations to determine if a design solution solves a problem of
using a push or pull to change an object's motion.
 Describe the goal of the design solution.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 speed, direction, data, observe, describe, engineering, investigation, ask, imagine,
plan, create, improve, solution
Knowledge:
Students know:
 The relative speed or direction of the object before a push or pull is applied (e.g.,
faster, slower).
 The relative speed or direction of the object after a push or pull is applied.
 How the relative strength of a push or pull affects the speed or direction of an object
(e.g., harder, softer).
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Conduct an investigation.
 Collect and record observations from tests of an object or tool to determine if it
works as intended.
 Organize information in a usable format.
 Analyze data from tests to determine change in speed or direction.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute ideas about
effects on the motion of the object caused by changes in the strength or direction of
the pushes and pulls.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Cause and Effect
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Standard 3
CCRS Standard: K.ECO.3. Distinguish between living and nonliving things and verify what living things need to survive (e.g., animals needing food, water, and air; plants
needing nutrients, water, sunlight, and air).
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Distinguish between living and nonliving things.
 Verify what living things need to survive
 Use observations to distinguish between living and nonliving things and describe
patterns of what plants and animals need to survive.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 distinguish, living, nonliving, verify, need, survive, animals, plants, nutrients, water,
sunlight, air, food
Knowledge:
Students know:
 All animals need food, water, and air in order to survive.
 Animals obtain their food from plants and other animals.
 Plants need water, light and air to survive.
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Distinguish between living (including humans) and nonliving things.
 Verify what living things, including plants and animals, need to survive.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Patterns in the natural world can be observed and used as evidence when
distinguishing between living and nonliving things and determining the needs of
living things.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Developing and Using Models
Systems and System Models
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Standard 4
CCRS Standard: K.ECO.4. Gather evidence to support how plants and animals provide for their needs by altering their environment (e.g., tree roots breaking a sidewalk to
provide space, red fox burrowing to create a den to raise young, humans growing gardens for food and building roads for transportation).
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Make a claim using evidence to show how plants and animals sometimes alter their
environment to ensure their needs are met.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 gather, evidence, support, plant, animal, provide, needs, alter, environment, claim
Knowledge:
Students know:
 Plants and animals meet their needs.
 Plants change their environment to meet their needs.
 Animals change their environment to meet their needs.
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Gather data (evidence) to support a claim that plants and animals alter the
environment when meeting their needs.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Systems in the natural and designed world have parts that work together like the
plants and animals within their environments.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
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Crosscutting Concepts:
Cause and Effect
Standard 5
CCRS Standard: K.ECO.5. Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Construct a model of a natural habitat conducive to meeting the needs of plants and
animals native to Alabama.
 Use the model to describe the relationships between the different plants and animals
and the materials they need to survive.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 construct, model, natural, habitat, conducive, needs, plants, animals, native,
Alabama
Knowledge:
Students know:
 Needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.
 How to construct a model of a natural habitat and can identify and describe the
components of the model
 Places where the different plants and animals live.
 The relationship between where plants and animals live and the resources those
places provide
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Construct a model of interactions that occur in a natural habitat.
 Use a model to represent and describe the relationships between the components.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Systems in the natural environments of Alabama have parts that work together and
can be represented.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Developing and Using Models
Systems and System Models
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Standard 6
CCRS Standard: K.ECO.6. Identify and plan possible solutions (e.g., reducing, reusing, recycling) to lessen the human impact on the local environment. *
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Identify possible solutions to lesson the human impact on the local environment.
 Plan possible solutions to lesson the human impact on the local environment.
 Identify potential human impacts on the local environment.
Teacher Vocabulary:

identify, plan solution, human impact, local, environment, reduce, reuse, recycle,
causes, create, ask, imagine, improve
Knowledge:
Students know:
 Human impact can have both positive and negative impact on the environment.
 We can create possible solutions to reduce the negative impacts on the environment.
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Identify possible solutions to lessen human impact on the environment.
 Plan possible solutions to lessen human impact on the environment.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Human impact has a positive and negative effect on the local environment.
 There are solutions that can lessen the negative impacts on a local environment.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
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Crosscutting Concepts:
Cause and Effect
Standard 7
CCRS Standard: K.ES.7. Observe and describe the effects of sunlight on Earth's surface (e.g., heat from the sun causing evaporation of water or increased temperature of soil,
rocks, sand, and water).
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Observe the effects of sunlight on the Earth's surface.
 Describe the effects of sunlight on the Earth's surface.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 observe, describe, sunlight, earth, surface, evaporation, temperature
Knowledge:
Students know:
 Sunlight warms the Earth's surface.
 Know different patterns of relative warmth of materials in sunlight and in shade
(e.g., hotter, warmer, cooler, and colder)
 Materials on the Earth's surface can be investigated (e.g., dirt, sand, water) and
described.
 The relationship between where plants and animals live and the resources those
places provide
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Investigate the effects of sunlight on Earth's surface.
 Observe the effects of sunlight on Earth's surface.
 Describe the effects of sunlight on Earth's surface.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Sunlight causes an observable effect on the Earth's surfaces including: water, soil,
rocks, sand, grass.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Earth’s Systems
Cause and Effect
Planning and Carrying out Investigations
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Standard 8
CCRS Standard: K.ES.8. Design and construct a device (e.g., hat, canopy, umbrella, tent) to reduce the effects of sunlight. *
Resources
Students:
 Design a device to reduce the effects of sunlight.
 Construct a device to reduce the effects of sunlight.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 design, construct, device, sunlight, reduce, effects, create, ask, imagine, improve,
plan
Knowledge:
Students know:
 The problem.
 The design solution.
 What way the design solution uses the given scientific information about the
warming effect of the Sun on Earth's surface.
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Use tools and materials provided to design and build a device that reduces the
effects of sunlight.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Structures can reduce the effects of sunlight on Earth's surface.
 Whether or not a device meets expectations in terms of cause (device reduces effects
of sunlight) and effect (less warming).
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Earth’s Systems
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Attainment:
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Crosscutting Concepts:
Cause and Effect
Standard 9
CCRS Standard: K.ES.9. Observe, record, and share findings of local weather patterns over a period of time (e.g., increase in daily temperature from morning to afternoon,
typical rain and storm patterns from season to season).
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Observe local weather patterns over a period of time.
 Record local weather patterns over a period of time.
 Share findings of local weather patterns over a period of time.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 observe, record, share, findings, weather, patterns, period of time
Knowledge:
Students know:
 The number of sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy, cool, or warm days.
 The relative temperature at various times of the day (e.g., cooler in the morning,
warmer during the day, cooler at night).
 The relative number of days of different types of weather conditions in a month.
 The change in the relative temperature over the course of the day.
 Certain months have more days of some kinds of weather than do other months
(e.g., some months have more hot days, some have more rainy days).
 The differences in relative temperature over the course of a day (e.g., between early
morning and the afternoon, between one day and another) are directly related to the
time of day.
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Observe weather patterns over a period of time.
 Record findings of weather patterns over a period of time.
 Share findings of weather patterns over a period of time.
 Describe patterns in the weather data.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Patterns of weather can be observed, used to describe phenomena, and used as
evidence.
 Whether events have causes that generate observable patterns.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Science and Engineering Practices:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Earth’s System
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Patterns
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Standard 10
CCRS Standard: K.EHA.10. Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasts in planning for, preparing for, and responding to severe weather. *
Resources
Dates Taught/Tested
Evidence of Student
Students:
Attainment:
 Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecast in
planning for severe weather.
 Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecast in
preparing for severe weather.
 Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecast for
responding to severe weather.
Teacher Vocabulary:
 weather, forecasting, severe, purpose, obtain information
Knowledge:
Students know:
 There are patterns related to local severe weather that can be observed (e.g., certain
types of severe weather happen more in certain places).
 Weather patterns (e.g., some events are more likely to occur in certain regions) help
scientist predict severe weather before it happens.
 Severe weather warnings are used to communicate predictions about severe weather.
 Weather forecasting can help people plan for, and respond to, specific local weather
(e.g., responses: stay indoors during severe weather, go to cooling centers during
heat waves; preparations: evacuate coastal areas before a hurricane, cover windows
before storms).
Skills:
Students are able to:
 Ask questions based on observations to find more information about the world.
 Obtain, evaluate and communicate information from observations and grade
appropriate text or media.
 Obtain information to describe patterns in the natural world.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
 Severe weather has causes that generate observable patterns.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Science and Engineering Practices:
Asking Questions and Defining Problems
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Crosscutting Concepts:
Cause and Effect