posted by: mmelady
It was an interesting day today from making planets by changing the diameters from equatorial to scale, to physically showing the distance out on the sidewalk. Did you really think we’d remember your l o n g sentence Kate?!
Caroline your presentation was very informative and enthusiastic! You really can hold our attention!
posted by: phindsley
Thursday
Caroline’s presentation was great – her enthusiasm was unbelievable! The outside activity was fun, and something I could do with first graders. The afternoon Spectrum Lab was not valuable for me. I think it would have been better to divide the group by grade levels taught to discuss what would be appropriate for each level. I wish this would have been done on other days as well.
posted by: hkerckhove
Loved the planet size and distance labs this morning. (Minus the raindrops on my head) Really made an impact to have hands on activities. Looking forward to making them first grader friendly. My partner and I have had many brainstorms throughout this week. We were fortunate to have another first grade teacher at this institute. It is very helpful to have teachers teaching similar age groups together.
The spectrum lab was cool. Good background information for me, but I am stretching my brain to figure out how to make this work for first graders. This is probably only applicable to high school. or very ambitious middle school students. I would love to have my peers in the middle school attend this institute.
posted by: kwolfram
Today was fun, especially the planets outside. I do think that since I will be working with younger kids, that I will premark a twine and have the students line up according to the marks. Spectrum was nice might use it if I can think how to “lighten ” it up.Too heavy for the majority of my students.
posted by: bnowakowski
We began the day by looking at the the distance of the planets from the sun and performed a simulation of that activity outside. When was came inside, we calculated the scaled diameters of the planets and Pluto (dwarf) by dividing the Equatorial Diameter by 4000. Using the centimeter scaled measurements, we measuring, drew, and cut out circles of construction paper. It was quite interesting how much difference there is in diameters of the planets! The day continued with a lesson about the light spectrum. We used a spectroscope to look at the light emitted from different kinds of light bulbs. It was remarkable seeing the range of colors and the amount of lines that could be viewed.
posted by: mmelady
We will be using the Indiana State Standard 1.3.2 – investigate, describe and discuss surroundings and question why things move and change.
The purpose of this lesson is to teach children about the sun and its relationship with the earth. We will investigate why we have day and night.
Tell the children they will be investigating why we have night and day and how does the sun help.
Form four groups and give each group one flashlight and a baggie with play dough per student. Have helpers pass out materials to each group.
Challenge them to use the flashlight and play dough to show how we have day and night on earth.
Let the children investigate for about 10 minutes or until they are ready.
Encourage them to share, help each other and follow directions. Ask them what they discovered.
Each group will choose someone to explain what they learned and compare their ideas with the other groups.
Gather the class back on the floor and choose 2 children to use a large flash light and globe to demonstrate day and night .
Discuss whether the sun moves or the earth moves to cause day and night.
Demonstrate that it is the earth that moves and not the sun.
End the lesson by asking the children what they have learned and finish the chart.
As a follow up to this lesson the children can draw a picture of what they learned and write a sentence describing it in their Sun notebook.
