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The following instructional plan is part of a GaDOE collection of Unit Frameworks, Performance Tasks, examples of Student Work, and Teacher Commentary. Many more
GaDOE approved instructional plans are available by using the Search Standards feature located on GeorgiaStandards.Org.
Georgia Performance Standards Framework
Unit Night Sky Organizer:
3 Weeks
Changing Moon/ Moving Sun
OVERVIEW:
sky.
In this unit students will investigate the position of the sun and moon as they make a pattern throughout the year across the
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards: S2E2 Students will investigate the position of sun and moon to show patterns throughout the year.
a. Investigate the position of the sun in relation to a fixed object on earth at various times of a day.
b. Determine how the shadows change through the day by making a shadow stick or using a sundial.
c. Relate the length of the day and night to the change in seasons (for example: Days are longer than the nights in summer.)
d. Use observations and charts to record the shape of the moon for a period of time.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Supporting Standards:
S2CS1.
Students will be aware of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these
traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works.
a. Raise questions about the world around them and be willing to seek answers to some of the questions by making careful observations
and measurements and trying to figure things out.
S2CS4
Students will use ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring scientific and technological matters.
b. Use a model—such as a toy or picture—to describe a feature of the primary thing.
c. Describe change in the size, weight, color, or movement of things, and note which of their other qualities remain the same during a
specific change.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 1 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
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S2CS5
Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities clearly.
a. Write instructions that others can follow in carrying out a scientific procedure.
b. Make sketches to aid in explaining scientific procedures or ideas.
c. Locate scientific information in reference books, back issues of newspapers and magazines, CD-ROMS, and computer bases.
Supporting Standards:
ELA2R The student demonstrates the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and expression. The student
d. Reads second-grade texts at a target rate of 90 words correct per minute.
ELA2R3 The student acquires and uses grade-level words to communicate effectively. The student
d. Determines the meaning of unknown words on the basis of context.
ELA2R4 The student uses a variety of strategies to gain meaning from grade-level text. The student
a. Reads a variety of texts for information and pleasure.
b. Makes predictions from text content.
c. Generates questions before, during and after reading.
d. Recalls explicit facts and infers implicit facts.
e. Summarizes text content.
f. Distinguishes fact from fiction in a text.
g. Interprets information from illustrations, diagrams, charts, graphs, and graphic organizers.
ELA2W1 The student demonstrates competency in the writing process. The student
d. Begins to create graphic features (charts, tables, graphs).
f. Begins to write a response to literature that demonstrates understanding of the text and expresses and supports an opinion.
ELA2LSV1 The student uses oral and visual strategies to communicate. The student
a. Interprets information presented and seeks clarification when needed.
b. Begins to use oral language for different purposes: to inform, to persuade, and to entertain.
c. Uses increasingly complex language patterns and sentence structure when communicating.
d. Listens to and views a variety of media to acquire information.
e. Increases vocabulary to reflect a growing range of interests and knowledge.
M2N4 Students will understand and compare fractions.
a. Model, identify, label, and compare fractions (thirds, sixths, eighths, tenths) as a representation of equal parts of a whole or of a set.
b. Know that when all fractional parts are included, such as three thirds, the result is equal to the whole.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 2 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
M2M1 Students will know the standard units of inch, foot, yard, and metric units of centimeter and meter and will measure length to
the nearest inch or centimeter.
a. Compare the relationship of one unit to another by measuring objects twice using different units each time.
b. Estimate lengths, and then measure to determine if estimations were reasonable.
c. Determine an appropriate tool and unit for measuring.
M2M2 Students will tell time to the nearest five minutes and know relationships of time such as the number of minutes in an hour and
hours in a day.
M2D1 Students will create simple tables and graphs and interpret their meaning.
a. Organize and display data using picture graphs, Venn diagrams, bar graphs, and simple charts/tables to record results.
b. Know how to interpret picture graphs, Venn diagrams, and bar graphs.
M2P4 Students will make connections among mathematical ideas and to other disciplines.
a. Recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas.
b. Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole.
c. Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
The sun stays in one place in space. The earth orbits around the sun. This makes it look like the sun is moving across the sky during
the day.
The sun appears to move from East to West. Its path can be followed using a fixed object, like a tree or pole, as a reference point.
The sun shines all of the time. The spinning, or rotation, of the earth is what makes day and night.
Due to the tilt of the Earth and the shape and path of the orbit, days are longer in summer than nights. In winter, days are shorter than
nights.
The position of the sun determines the length of a shadow. A sundial uses a shadow to mark time.
Moon phases result from the relative positions of the Moon, Earth, & Sun, and the amount of sunlight reflected by the Moon that is
visible from Earth.
The moon’s phases can be recorded monthly on a calendar.
The moon produces no light of its own but reflects sun light. The Earth produces no light of its own.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 3 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
Why does the sun shine during the day, but is not there at night?
Why does the sun appear to move across the sky from east to west?
How are shadows on Earth affected by the Sun?
How does the Sun’s changing position change shadows?
Why does the moon appear to move across the sky?
How does the moon get its light?
What causes the moon to appear to change shapes each month?
How is the moon a satellite?
How does the Earth’s shadow affect the moon?
How does a sundial work?
What happens to the length of the day and night as the seasons change?
MISCONCEPTIONS
The sun moves across the day sky.
The sun can go everywhere—like a floating yellow balloon.
The sun goes out at night and is relit in the morning.
Days and nights are always the same length of time.
The moon shines by its own light.
The moon always looks like a round ball.
The moon breaks apart and comes back together.
The moon is made of cheese.
Someone put a face of a man with a big nose on the moon.
PROPER CONCEPTIONS
The sun is stationary. The Earth orbits around the sun in an oval
path.
The sun appears to move from East to West because of the
rotation of the Earth.
The sun is a ball of burning gas that gives the Earth heat and
light.
Days are longer in summer. Nights are shorter in summer. Days
are shorter in winter. Nights are longer in winter.
The moon is a satellite. It gets its light from the sun. We see the
light from the moon because it is reflected from the sun.
Each month the moon goes through phases. Our calendar is set
by the phases of the moon. Each month has a full moon cycle.
The moon is made up of rocks and dust. The surface is covered
with mountains, valleys, boulders, and craters.
The face on the moon is made from the light and dark shadows.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 4 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
CONCEPTS
KNOW AND DO
LANGUAGE
EVIDENCE
Position of sun in
daytime sky
Students will investigate
the position of the sun in
relation to a fixed object on
earth throughout the day.
sun position, rotation,
orbit, compass, compass
rose, North, South, East,
West
In Science journal
students will draw a
compass rose and
illustrate where the sun is
located at a given time.
Students will demonstrate
how shadows change
throughout the day by
making a shadow stick or
using a sundial.
Shadow stick, sundial
Students will construct a
sundial.
Students will predict the
length of a day and a night
during a season.
Season, tilt, day, night,
Spring, Summer, Winter,
Fall
Students will construct a
chart forecasting sunrise
and sunset.
Moon, satellite, reflection,
full, new, half, quarter,
crescent
Students will demonstrate
the phases of a moon
using a flashlight, small
ball, and a globe. The
phases of the moon will
be illustrated and labeled
in Science Journals.
Shadows change
throughout the day
The length of day and
night changes in seasons
The moon goes through
phases each month
Students will predict the
shape of the moon for a
period of time.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 5 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
EVIDENCE OF LEARNING:
By the conclusion of this unit, students should be able to demonstrate the following competencies:
Culminating Activity: Conduct a tour at a planetarium
GRASPS
Goal: (a) Students will construct and use a sundial to show the hour of a day.
(b) Students will use the sun to position a compass
(c) Students will use a newspaper weather page or weather internet site www.weather.com to chart sunrise and sunset.
(d) Students will demonstrate and illustrate the phases of the moon.
Role: You will be visitor at your local planetarium. Your task is to take a self guided tour through the planetarium and complete the four
learning tasks set up by the chief astronomer.
Audience: Visitors to your local planetarium.
Scenario: The head astronomer at the local planetarium has been picked by NASA to go to the moon on a rock collecting adventure. Your
class has a planned field trip to the planetarium. The astronomer has contacted your teacher to inform him/her that there will be no guides at
the planetarium. Your teacher has assured him that you can take a self guided tour of the facilities and do it on time using a sundial.. Four
stations have been set up for you to complete. Remember to record your findings in your Science Journals at each station.
Product: You will need to divide your class into four teams. Using your journals and research notes, visit each of the four stations and
complete the tasks at each location. Record your findings in your journals.
Station One—You are to construct a sundial to show the time you left the sundial station. Draw your sundial in your journal.
Station Two—You are to use the sun to position a compass. Draw the compass rose showing true North and the position of the sun. Use this
compass rose to guide you to your next station. Write directions using your compass (North, South, East, and West) to direct your group to the
next station in your journal. Follow your directions when you move.
Station Three-- Using a local newspaper weather page or a weather website, www.weather.com , construct a chart telling sunrise and sunset this
week. You plan to get up to go to the planetarium when the sun rises the day of your trip and you plan to stay until the sun sets.
What time do you arrive and what time do you leave?
Station Four—Demonstrate the phases of the moon using a flashlight, small ball (tennis size) and a globe. Illustrate the phases of the moon and
label new, full, half, and crescent.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 6 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
TASKS ( Lessons will take more than one day to complete. Timeframes are suggested and are dependent on your own class.)
The following collection of tasks represents the level of depth, rigor, and complexity expected of all students to demonstrate evidence of
learning.
Lesson: Introduction <Essential Lesson>
Introduce Standards. Continue using “language” from the standards during the unit. Refer to posted standard as necessary throughout the unit.
On the board or on chart paper make an Experience/Wonder/Discover (EWD) chart through class discussion. “Experience” represents personal
experiences that students have had related to the standards. Include a few of your own experiences to engage students. “Wonder” represents
questions students might have in addition to the essential questions already included here. Add knowledge and understanding gained throughout the
unit under “Discover.” You might want to supply each child with index cards and a baggie for storage for vocabulary cards. As a word is discussed,
write it on one side of the card with a definition /illustration on the back. You could also give each child a set of sticky notes which can be adhered to
the inside cover of the science journal. Cards completed should include push, pull, motion, and force.
Hook and Attention Getter Where is the sun in the sky? After writing the time on the hour in their journals, take everyone outside and find a fixed
object ((light post, tree top, rooftop.) Have the children draw the sun and the fixed object. Try to do this every hour for a day.
The next day, review the drawings and conclude ---the sun follows a path across the sky. Do this a second day because scientists always repeat to
check their findings.
Make vocabulary cards for sun and position. Draw pictures of the sun. Practice making different kinds if stars—five pointed, six pointed, and
multipoint.
Lesson : How does the sun’s changing position affect shadows?
Do this activity on a sunny day! Collect all watches and clocks. Explain how clocks are a modern invention and from now on we are going to learn
how people have used the sky to tell time and find directions--just like they did in ancient times. It still works today! Go outside in the morning and
find the sun. The sun always comes up in the same direction. We call that east. The opposite of east is west. Put a marker (rock or stick) in the east
direction using the sun as your guide and label it EAST. Ask a student to put another marker directly across from the east marker and label it WEST.
Now that you have found east and west, you can find north and south by going exactly half way along a curve formed from east to west. Label the
top of the curve NORTH and the bottom middle of the curve SOUTH. This is a compass! Draw the compass rose in your journal. On the north
marker add a 12. On the east marker put a 3. Add a 6 to the south marker and a 9 on the west marker. Have volunteers add rocks to fill in the
missing numbers. Use a ruler/yardstick to evenly place the markers around the circle. Use the yardstick/ruler to find the middle of the circle by
making a + linking north to south and east to west. Add a stick to the middle of the +. The stick needs to be long enough to cast a shadow to touch
the marker, so it is a good idea to have your markers “placed” before the children are gathered. Note that the shadow made from the stick falls across
the marker for the hour. Assign a clock watcher to check the sundial each hour and report back to the class. Continue to check the sundial as you go
about your normal schedule—check lunch time, recess and specials to see if the “clock is working throughout the unit!
Make vocabulary cards for North, South, East, West, shadow stick, and sundial. Revisit the EWD chart.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 7 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
Check for Understanding: Draw a compass rose and label all of the directions. Follow a map of directions to recess, lunch or PE using your
compass rose. (Example, go north past 6 doors on your right. Turn west and continue down the hall to the clock. Turn north and walk past 2 doors.
Open the door to the lunch room and sit at the first table on the west side.)
Check for Understanding: Draw a sundial (clock face). Compare it to the clock in your room. How are they alike and different? (Clocks have
second hands and show minutes. Sun dials only show hours. Challenge: How can you show the half hour on a sun dial? Draw the answer.
Lesson: What happens to the length of the day and night as the seasons change?
Hook and Attention Getter: Divide the class into teams of 3 or 4. Give each team a newspaper and challenge them to find the length of the day and
night listed in the newspaper. Have the teams predict sunrise for the next day, the next week, and two weeks. Record their predictions in their
journals. (This could be extended into a graph.)
Read a book about day and night (What Makes Day and Night F. M. Branley, New York, N.Y. Harper Trophy) Using a globe, tennis ball, and a
flashlight, have the children demonstrate the rotation of the Earth as it rotates around the Sun. Ask one child to wear a paper sun in the middle of the
demonstration. The sun person holds the flashlight and shines it on the Earth. The moon person has to be careful to move with the Earth. Explain to
the class that the Earth is not straight up, but on a tilt. The tilt is the reason the length of the day changes with the season. Use a straw or toothpick
stuck on with clay or chewing gum to the top and bottom of the globe to show the tilt. Complete vocabulary cards for season, tilt, day, night, Spring,
Summer, Winter, Fall
Extension: Using the newspaper as a guide, or the website www.almanac.com construct a chart telling the time of sunrise and sun set. Challenge the
children—Who would need to know exactly when it is daylight or sunset? Why is it important to you?
Extension: Find on the calendar when daylight savings time changes all of our clocks. People make clocks, so people can set the hours forward and
back. The sun does not change with daylight savings time. What would we have to do to our sundial if we wanted it to keep up with daylight savings
time?
Check for Understanding: Play card games using the vocabulary cards. Match game: Two children combine their vocabulary cards. Mix the cards
and turn over all of the cards. The children take turns drawing cards until they get a match. When a match is made the owner must stand-up and tell
the partner what the word means. Continue until all matches are complete. If a word is not known or if the definition is incomplete, the cards must
be mixed into the “draw” pile.
Lesson: Why does the moon appear to change shape?
Hook: Read a moon book to the class (Rise and Shine by Eileen Spinelli.) Turn off the lights and read by the light of a flashlight. If you have a CD,
play night sounds as you read.
Experiment: Use the flashlight and a mirror to reflect the light from the flashlight to a different place in the room. Allow the children to experiment
with the flashlight and the mirror to cement in understanding of reflection. The moon has no light of its own. The light we see on the moon is
reflected from the sun. Make out vocabulary cards for moon, satellite, reflection, full, new, half, quarter, waxing crescent, and waning crescent.
Experiment/demonstration: Using a flashlight, globe, and orange show how the moon goes around the Earth as the world turns in a dark classroom.
Draw a line on the orange with a permanent marker where the light hits the orange. Change oranges and re-mark each orange as the light changes.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 8 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
Cut the oranges to show a quarter moon, half moon, waxing crescent, and a waning crescent. Make labels for the moon shapes. The children should
draw the shapes that the moon appears on their vocabulary cards. Put the label on one side and draw the shape on the other side. Revisit the EWD
chart.
Check for Understanding: Students can draw the phases the Moon appears in their Science Journals for a reference.
Put the Moon vocabulary cards in order. Mix up the shapes of the moon and re-assemble them in the correct order. Match the cards to the class
calendar to show what date each shape will appear. Begin a monthly moon watch. Have the leader of the day draw the shape the Moon appears for
that day.
Extension: www.unitedstreaming, www.earthsunmoon.co.uk
TEACHER INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
The following websites are organizations that have good information and some resources.
Fern bank Planetarium http://fsc.fernbank.edu/
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/sun.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay
http://ology.amnh.org/astronomy/stuffodo/moon.html
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ksbitesize/science/activitieslight-shadowsshtml
www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth?imgsize
www.fourmilab.ch/moontoolw/
www.almanac.com/rise/
www.earthsunmoon.co.uk/ interactive activities
www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy
www.anutime.com/globe/3/Den.html
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 9 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Educators
The following books support this teaching unit.
The Sun is My Favorite Star Frank Asch
What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees Nancy Tafuri
A pizza the Size of the Sun Jack Prelutsky (poetry)
What Makes Day and Night? F. M.Branley
The Greenwich guide to Day and Night G. Dolan
The Greenwich guide to Measuring Time G. Dolan
Twilight Comes Twice R. Fletcher
Rise the Moon Eileen Spinelli
The Moon Book Gail Gibbons
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me Eric Carle
Sun, Moon, and Stars Scholastic
Seasons and Solstices Scholastic
Wake Up Wake Up Brian and Rebecca Wildsmith
The Sun: Our Nearest Star Frankyn Branley
Shadows April Pulley Sayre
The Moon Seems to Change Harper/Trophy
What the Moon is Like Harper/Trophy
When the Moon is Full Little, Brown and Company
The Moon Simon and Schuster
Hello, Harvest Moon Ralph Fletcher
Long Night Moon Cynthia Rylant
When the Moon is Full: A Lunar Year Penny Pollock
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Science  Grade 2  Title: Changing Moon/Moving Sun
Rev. January 4, 2010  Page 10 of 10
Copyright 2008 © All Rights Reserved