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  • 1st Grade

    Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

  1. Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted. 1-ESS1-1

    Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

  2. Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year. 1-ESS1-2

    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

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to simple investigations, based on fair tests, which provide data to support explanations or design solutions.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Analyzing data in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to collecting, recording, and sharing observations.

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.1.7 - Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of “how-to” books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions). (1-ESS1-1), (1-ESS1-2)
  • W.1.8 - With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. (1-ESS1-1), (1-ESS1-2)

Mathematics

  • 1.MD.C.4 - Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another. (1-ESS1-2)
  • 1.OA.A.1 - Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem. (1-ESS1-2)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (1-ESS1-2)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (1-ESS1-2)
  • MP.5 - Use appropriate tools strategically. (1-ESS1-2)

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.
  • How Can the Sun Tell You the Season?

    In this Mystery Science interactive video lesson, students discover how the sun’s path changes with the seasons. This is the fourth mystery in the series.  The “lesson” includes: a 20-minute video exploration section, a 25-minu ...

  • Moon During the Daytime - Phenomenon

    This one minute and twenty-nine second video starts with daytime in the forest.  Birds are heard.  Then it changes its focus toward the sky.  The video zooms in on the moon and its landscape.  The video ends by changing its focus ...

  • The Predictable Patterns of the Sun and Seasons

    In this lesson, students analyze and interpret data to look for patterns in sunrise and sunset times across seasons.  As a result of this analysis, students figure out that there are repeating patterns in seasonal sunrise and sunset times.   ...

  • Hooked on Science: Solar Eclipse Box

    This resource contains directions on how to create a solar eclipse box that works exactly like a pinhole camera.  Teachers can use this resource to help students observe and predict sun and moon patterns. To truly make this an engineering design ...

  • Bill Nye Explains the Seasons

    This video 4:45 video segment, of Bill Nye the Science Guy's full video call Bill Nye the Science Guy:  Earth's Season's, explains why earth has seasons.  Bill begins by activating students' prior knowled ...

  • Sky 4: The Moon

    In this lesson, a student draws the moon's shape each evening on a classroom calendar.  The class then determines the pattern in the shapes over several weeks. Student understandings should be confined to observations, descrip ...

  • Sky 1: Objects in the Sky

    In this lesson, students learn to observe and describe what the sky looks like at different times; to identify objects in the sky and recognize changes over time; and to look for objects that are common to the daytime and nighttime sky.

  • Space: Patterns in the Sky

    Students will be able to make observations of the sun, moon and stars to describe predictable patterns in space from earth.

  • Observing the Sun

    This lesson is an activity where students create a sun tracker and monitor the sun's position over the course of a day. Examples of student journals and connections within a larger unit are provided.

  • Patterns of Daylight

    This is a mini-unit that can be taught directly after Space Part 1or independently.  The author chose to teach the Space Part 1 unit (also available on Better Lesson! at http://betterlesson.com/lesson/613469/introduction-and-pre-assessment& ...

  • StoryBots: Outer Space Playlist

    StoryBots.com is an online program to build stories about different topics with children. In addition, the company creates original content such as the 5 "outer space" songs found on this link. The songs are very catchy, and include fa ...

  • Our Super Star

    This is a three part lesson where students use observations, activities, and videos to learn basic facts about the Sun. Students also model the mechanics of day and night and use solar energy to make a tasty treat. One of the videos is a time-lapse v ...

  • The Dynamic Trio

    In this lesson, students will learn about the stars, planets, and moons found in our solar system and how they relate to one another. The video segment enhances the learning. After a nonfiction read aloud, students work in groups to create model ...

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