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  • 2nd Grade

    Earth's Systems

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

  1. Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid. 2-ESS2-3

    Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

A Peformance Expectation (PE) is what a student should be able to do to show mastery of a concept. Some PEs include a Clarification Statement and/or an Assessment Boundary. These can be found by clicking the PE for "More Info." By hovering over a PE, its corresponding pieces from the Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts will be highlighted.

Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

By clicking on a specific Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Idea, or Crosscutting Concept, you can find out more information on it. By hovering over one you can find its corresponding elements in the PEs.

Planning Curriculum

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

  • W.2.6 - With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. (2-ESS2-3)
  • W.2.8 - Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. (2-ESS2-3)

Model Course Mapping

First Time Visitors

Resources & Lesson Plans

  • More resources added each week!
    A team of teacher curators is working to find, review, and vet online resources that support the standards. Check back often, as NSTA continues to add more targeted resources.
  • Where is Water Found on Earth : Better Lesson

    This 5E lesson is the first of ten lessons that culminate with creating  physical models of landforms. In this lesson, the students engage in technology as text and media and “jigsaw” their expertise about glaciers, rivers and oceans ...

  • What if All Water On Earth Disappeared?

    The short 6-and-a-half-minute video provides background information for the teacher about the role of water on the planet, the extent of it across the globe (and how to visualize this extent) and what the planet would look like if it were removed.

  • Glaciers in Alaska

    The beautiful video offers landscapes covered with slow moving masses of ice (fields) called glaciers. The film would support questions about the phenomenon of glaciers.

  • Earth is the Water Planet Video

    This 4:23 video, Big Idea 5: Earth is the Water Planet, is created by the American Geoscience Institute (AGI) and helps the viewer to understand how water was formed on Earth and why water is so important to Earth. It also highlig ...

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Planning Curriculum gives connections to other areas of study for easier curriculum creation.