Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
In January, Lucas's class in Toronto learned to find Orion, the hunter, with his three-star belt. In July, Orion had gone. Lucas emailed his pen pal Mia in Sydney, Australia: "Where did Orion go?" Mia wrote back: "That's funny. We saw him all through our summer holidays, in January. Now it's winter here and he's gone too." Your team's job: find out why we see different stars at different times of year, and why Lucas and Mia lost Orion in the same month.
Teams of three, with three rotating jobs: Walker (moves in the orbit), Spotter (says which sign is in the night sky) and Recorder (fills in the table).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
10 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Sky chart
- Worksheet: Season signs
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- Walk a year
- Are the stars of Orion close together?
- My star count plan
- Exit ticket
- Sky chart
- Season signs
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 3 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Earth's orbit
- Where Orion goes
- Hemispheres
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “Why do we see different stars in different seasons?” take?
45–60 min. Group size: teams of 3, and the whole class for the orbit.
How much prep does it need?
15 minutes. Print the Season signs worksheet (five signs) and cut them out. Put a chair in the middle of the room with the SUN sign on it. Tape ORION, LEO, SCORPIUS and PEGASUS to the four walls in that order, going anticlockwise round the room, at eye height. Print the Sky chart worksheet, one per student.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): 5-ESS1-2 (partly) and 1-ESS1-1 (partly). It also matches England National Curriculum, Year 5 and Cambridge Primary Science (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “Walk a year”, “Are the stars of Orion close together?”, “My star count plan”, “Exit ticket”, “Sky chart”, “Season signs”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 3 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.