Earth Day Network
Healthy Earth, Sick Earth
Earth is sick and needs our help! Read the children's book Planet Earth Gets Well to explain the various problems facing the planet, discussing what young conservationists can do to heal the planet along the way. A great Earth Day...
Space Awareness
Investigating the Atmosphere - Air Takes Up Space
How do you know there is air? Can you see it, smell it, feel it? To begin the investigation, learners watch a video and discuss what they know about air and the atmosphere. Then, they participate in five different hands-on, inquiry-based...
Curated OER
Reading and Writing about the Solar System
A superb interdisciplinary approach highlights this lesson which incorporates space science knowledge and narrative skills. After reading The Magic School Bus, two excellent poems, and watching a video, all about our solar system, young...
Space Awareness
Meet Our Home: Earth
Earth is a complex structure. Learners explore their home, the earth, using a fun hands-on activity. They create tactile models of the earth using ordinary household materials that represent some common features: land, polar caps,...
Curated OER
Solar Arrays for the Space Station
Students explore the challenges that are faced when transporting materials into space. They review the various forms of energy, including solar arrays, that are used on the International Space Station and how generating this energy calls...
Curated OER
Space Jeopardy Game
Students explore space. In this space lesson, students analyze the sky and what causes its changes. Students describe the moon patterns and use a model to show changes in its shape. Students also describe the first trip to the moon....
Curated OER
A View Of Home From The Front Door and From Space
Learners discover how distance can change how our view of an object. Students build a representative model of where their home is located from different distances. They create three drawn models of their home from various elevations as...
Space Awareness
Day and Night in the World
How do different parts of the world experience day and night? Introduce scholars to the concept of global citizenship while teaching about animal behavior with discussion of nocturnal and diurnal animals. Then, learners complete...
Space Awareness
Seasons Around the World
Why does Earth experience summer, fall, winter, and spring? Using an informative demonstration, learners see how the angle of the sun on Earth and the rotation of Earth determine the seasons. Scholars work in pairs to learn that the...
Space Awareness
Making A Sundial
Can people really measure time just by using the sun? Scholars venture outside on a nice, sunny day to build sundials and learn how people measured time 600 years ago. The class builds two different sundials while gaining practice with...
Curated OER
Earth in the Solar System
A three-week unit designed to be completed in an elementary level, dual-language immersion classroom, this resource includes several lessons intended to introduce young learners to the solar system, the Earth and how the Earth compares...
Curated OER
Waters of the Earth
Students make a striking visual display showing the distribution of water on earth.
NASA
Earth, Earth’s Moon, Mars Balloons
Very specific diameters are given for blowing up three different balloons to represent, in scale, the moon, Earth, and Mars. In groups of three, amateur astronomers explore scale measurements and distance in space.
Curated OER
Meteorites
Learners model how meteors fall to the surface of planets. In this space science lesson, students identify different types of meteorites using an interactive online website. They investigate the relationship between a meteorite's size...
Curated OER
The Magic School Bus Lost in Space
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students explore outer space as they visit the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars in order to learn about our solar system.
Curated OER
Warming the Earth
First graders investigate how the sun warms the Earth and examine the rotation of the Earth and the sun. They create an illustration of the sun, examine a solar system model, and listen to the book "The Sun: Our Nearest Star." They also...
NASA
Soda Straw Rockets
Three, two, one, blast off to a better understanding of force and motion with this exciting science lesson! Beginning with a discussion about rockets and gravity, young scientists go on to complete a series of worksheets about net forces...
Curated OER
Our Ever Changing Earth
First graders study ways in which the earth changes due to erosion and weathering in this series of lessons.
Curated OER
Earth to Saturn, Earth to Saturn!
Students compare and contrast the characteristics of Earth and Saturn. They practice writing analogies using those characteristics. They complete a worksheet to end the lesson plan.
Curated OER
Beyond The Earth Part I
Students explore the solar system. In this space science instructional activity, students take notes on the solar system provided by their instructors. Students then collaborate to design a computer-generated drawing of the solar system.
Curated OER
Good Old Earth Materials
Students investigate different types of building structures and how they are able to stand up to earthquakes. Through comparison they determine which buildings are better able to handle earthquakes than others. They create a building,...
Curated OER
Making Models of the Solar System
Students make several models of the solar system to learn the positions of the planets in the solar system as well as relative distances and sizes. Creation of these models will help them identify the planets by size, shape, color,...
NASA
Solar System Scale & Size
Use a variety of whole fruits to represent the different planets in the solar system to introduce scale sizes to your math or space science class. They follow suit by creating a non-scaled model of the solar system using specific-colored...
Curated OER
Earth And Moon Path
In this science worksheet, pupils examine a diagram of the moon revolving around the earth in an elliptical orbit. Students answer 3 questions.