Introduction
Have you ever looked up at the night sky and noticed all the neat things up there? What are they? How did they get there? How close are they? These are all very good questions. The sky is bigger than you or I can even see or imagine. Today, we will talk about what we see when we look at the nighttime sky.
Task
Students will be given two half-sheets of construction paper that have been taped in the middle. One half-sheet will be white, the other, black, to illustrate daytime and nighttime. The teacher will ask the students to volunteer some things they see in the daytime, and are encouraged to draw a picture of themselves doing what they do during the day, making sure to incorporate the elements they mentioned (i.e., clouds, the Sun, etc.). On the black side of their project, the students are to draw elements of the nighttime sky (i.e., stars, the Moon, etc.) and themselves below, doing what they typically do during the night.
Process
The teacher will instruct students to sit at tables while he/she passes out the black-white sheets. Each student will receive a black crayon and a white crayon. The black crayon will be used to draw on the day portion of the document and the white crayon on the night half. If students begin to struggle, the teacher might encourage students to discuss appropriate answers among themselves. The teacher's responsibility during the acvitity is to ensure students:
- stay on topic
- brainstorm valid ideas
- help fellow classmates develop ideas
Evaluation
The teacher will meet one-on-one with each student and review their day/night constructions. The teacher will ask them to explain the images they produced. The teacher will obtain a analysis of student comprehension based on their ability to apply transferred information.
Conclusion
The teacher will ask students to return to the carpet for whole-group review. The teacher may call on students to volunteer ideas regarding day-night concepts (i.e., What do we do during at night? What are some things we see at night?)
Teacher Page
Missouri Early Learning Standard, Science, Earth and Space:
III.4.d. Represents observations about Earth and space in a variety of ways; talks about Earth and space.