DS1.1: Compare and represent daily and seasonal changes of natural phenomena…

Light and Shadows Grades K–2

Why does my shadow follow me, and why is it so long in the morning? Young scientists chase their shadows, track the Sun across the day and test which things let light through.

• Why does my shadow follow me? 30–40 min

  Children go outside on a sunny day and try everything to escape their shadow: running, jumping, spinning and hiding in the shade. They find out that a shadow is the dark shape where their body blocks the sunlight, so it has to go wherever they go.

• Why is my shadow long in the morning? About 40 min in total, split across one sunny day: 15 min in the morning, two 4 min visits outside, and 15 min at the end of the day

  Pairs stand a bottle on a chalk X and trace its shadow three times in one sunny day, measuring each shadow with a piece of yarn. Back inside, a flashlight held low and then high shows them why shadows are long when the Sun is low in the sky and short when it is high.

• What can light go through? 35–40 min

  Pairs shine a flashlight through everyday materials, from plastic wrap and wax paper to foil and cardboard, and sort them into 'lots of light', 'a little light' and 'no light'. Then they use what they found to choose the right material for a window, a lamp shade and a curtain for a sleepy bear.

Weather Watchers: What Will the Sky Do Today? Grades K–2

Is it sunny, windy or wet today, and how can we tell? Young scientists keep a class weather chart for two weeks, build wind socks to catch the wind and make a rain gauge from a bottle to measure the rain.

• What's the weather like today? 30 min to start, 5 min a day for two weeks, 30 min to graph

  Children look at the sky at the same time every school day for two weeks and add a weather picture to a big class chart. Then they count the sunny, cloudy, rainy and snowy days, build a bar graph together and use it to say what kind of weather their two weeks had.

• Which way is the wind blowing? 40–45 min, plus 5 min on two or three other days

  Children make a paper-plate wind sock with crepe-paper streamers and take it into the schoolyard to see which way the wind blows and how strong it is. They find out that we can't see wind, but we can see what it does, and they sort days into calm, breezy and windy.

• How much rain fell? 40 min, plus 5 min a day for a week

  Teams build a rain gauge from a clear, straight-sided bottle with a ruler taped on, set it outside and measure the rain each day for a week. On a dry week they make a watering-can 'storm' instead, and test what happens when rain lands on grass, soil and pavement.

Printable practice for DS1.1

• Weather Watchers: What Will the Sky Do Today? workbook included with the unit

  3 English-support pages, 3 practice pages, 3 readings, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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