5-ESS-1.1: Support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of…

Stars and the Night Sky Grades 3–6

Where the stars go in the daytime, why they wheel across the sky all night and why Orion is a winter sight in Canada but a summer one in Australia. Students sort real star data, spin and orbit as human models and read a printed sky chart. No materials needed: just the printed sheets, in either hemisphere.

• Why do stars come out at night? 45–60 min

  Teams sort ten real star cards by distance and then by how bright each star looks, and pace out the distances as a human line. They find that the nearest star after the Sun is too faint to see, explain why the Sun outshines every other star and where the stars go in the daytime.

Sun, Earth and Moon Grades 4–5

Why it's breakfast time in Calgary and bedtime in Singapore, why your shadow swings round the stick, why the Moon changes shape and why some places barely have seasons. Students build models with balls and lamps, track real shadows and read real sky data from cities around the world.

• How far away is the Sun, really? 50–60 min

  Teams build the Sun, Earth and Moon to one scale, with an exercise ball, a peppercorn and a grain of salt, then pace out the real distances on the school field. They use the model and a flashlight test to argue why the Sun looks so much bigger and brighter than any other star.

Printable practice for 5-ESS-1.1

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to 5-ESS-1.1 is partial.

• Stars and the Night Sky workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Sun, Earth and Moon workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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