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I am working on creating a 5E lesson plan for my first graders. The topic will be the types of energy, specifically Light Energy, and how it is important to our everyday life. For the engage portion of my lesson plan I had decided to do an activity where I placed students in pairs and each pair would have a small mirror. With the lights on I would ask students who can see their self in the mirror to raise their hand, which would only be one student from each pair. I would continue the activity by turning off the lights and again asking students who can see their selves to raise their hand (no student should raise their hand). The intention of this activity was to prompt students to think and talk about light. For the explore portion students were going to use a flash light and different types of materials to see the different types of shadows that were created. I really want everything to flow smoothly and want to change the engage activity so that it is also related to light and shadows. What would be a good way to change up the engage portion so that it makes my lesson flow? Also, during the explore activity students are going to come across vocabulary words such as dark, transparent, opaque. What can I do to help them when they come across those words without intervening in their exploration? Any and all ideas are welcomed!

Hi Maria,

I found a couple of articles with some ideas regarding shadows that you may be able to use! The first describes an entire 5E lesson about light and shadows - perhaps you can use parts of what is described here as your 'Engage:'

https://common.nsta.org/resource/default.aspx?id=10.2505%2f4%2fsc12_050_02_78

I also found an article that uses a formative assessment probe to get students engaged in 'science talk.' Maybe you could use this at the beginning to check for background knowledge, or at the end of the lesson as a check for understanding:

https://common.nsta.org/resource/default.aspx?id=10.2505%2f4%2fsc12_050_02_32

If you use any of these ideas, please let me know how it goes!

Does anyone else have any strategies that could help?

-Megan

Thank you so much! The articles definitely helped me out ALOT to make some changes to my lesson. I appreciate it!

-Maria