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...
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Planets Word Search
In this planets word search worksheet, learners search for words that name eight planets reading across, up and down, or diagonally that are hidden in the puzzle. Students find 8 words.
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Daily and Seasonal Cycles
First graders identify the sun as a source of heat and light. They identify features of houses that help keep use sheltered and comfortable throughout daily and seasonal cycles. Students are told that summer is the best season to...
American Museum of Natural History
Planetary Mysteries
A website all about planetary mysteries—it's a one-stop-shop for all things, stars, planets, and space travel. Scholars read an astronomy overview to discover the page's big ideas, then choose from the plethora of resources, including...
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Our Solar System
Students analyze the theories of the formation of the universe and solar system. Students analyze planetary motion and the physical laws that explain that motion: Rotation, Revolution, Apparent diurnal motions of the stars, sun, and...
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Take a Spin Through the Solar System
Second graders participate in a variety of activities to explore the Solar System in this unit.
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Planet/Constellation Mobile
Pupils, through small group discussion, identify and share a rationale for shapes and patterns in the construction of a mobile that represents the solar system that makes them think of the creation of our solar system.
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Outer Space and Beyond
Students compare and contrast the size, characteristics, composition, and orbits of the planets in our Solar System. They view a PowerPoint presentation, and in small groups conduct Internet research on a selected planet. Each group...
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Determining distance between planets and the Sun
Students use a model to determine the distance between the sun and plants in our solar system. They determine a scale to use that represents the distance between the Earth and sun. Students calculate the scale distance that each planet...
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Sky Watching
Students complete night-sky observations to understand how our knowledge of the sky has been enhanced by telescopes. Students complete a timeline worksheet giving the history of telescopes. Students then then make their own observations...
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Solar System
In this solar system, students review information about the planets found in our solar system. Students complete 15 fill in the blank questions and then find the 9 planets in a word search.
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Solar System
Students study space. In this solar system activity, students discover the correct order of the planets and create a diagram showing this knowledge. They listen to the book A New View of the Solar System and then work in groups on their...
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Solar System (Lesson 2)
Eighth graders identify the objects that make up the solar system. They define new vocabulary and practice using them. They discover that the sun is a star.
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Solar System
In this Solar System worksheet, 5th graders demonstrate knowledge of parts of the Solar System. Students unscramble letters to list these parts.
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Word Processing and Internet Planet Report
Fourth graders write a research report on a selected planet in the solar system. They conduct Internet research, save a graphic from the Internet onto a disk, bookmark websites, and present their report.
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Our Solar System
In this solar system worksheet, learners find the names of the eight planets in the word search puzzle. The names of the planets are listed.
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Outer Space and Cyber Space
Fourth graders learn about the Solar System while they use mean, median and mode to explore the characteristics of the planets. Students web publish expository writing.
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Classroom Planetarium
Students work in groups to create the planets of the solar system. In this planets lesson, students create a hanging solar system taking into account the size, shape and position of the planets. Students discuss the gravity...
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Earth Science
Young scholars explore the planets and celestial bodies in our solar system. In this outer space lesson, students identify the planets and record journal information about them and other celestial bodies. Young scholars define outer...
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Investigating Planetary Soils
Learners study soil characteristics and identify properties of soils from different parts of the solar system. In this soil lesson students divide into groups, read soil descriptions, test and record soil samples.
University of Colorado
Are All Asteroids' Surfaces the Same Age?
There are more than 600,000 asteroids in our solar system. Pupils analyze images of two asteroids in order to determine if they are the same age. They count craters for each asteroid and compare numbers.
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Our Intriguing Star, the Sun!
Explore the sun in a lesson plan about space. The lesson plan spans ten weeks, with students performing activities to answer weekly questions about the Sun and Earth.
Research Parent
Universe Cards
A 9-page packet comes with 24 cards that have pictures and informational text about each object in the universe. From nebulae to dwarf planets, objects we see—or don't see—are represented in the cards through pictures and words.
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Star Words
Learners identify and categorize apostrophes. They create maps of the solar system and write simple sentences using apostrophes that describe each planet's characteristics.