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Hello! I'm a pre-service teacher working on a lesson for kindergartners. The standard is observing objects in the night and day sky, so that's what the unit is about. For my lesson, I am focusing on the sun. My misconception is that students believe the sun rises straight up and sets straight down. I was wondering if anyone had appropriate activities for kindergartners around the sun. Thanks!
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Hi, Stephanie.
In my son's kindergarten class, he studied shadows created by the sun's movement across the sky. The students stood in a sunny place, on an X that was marked on the playground. They drew a mark on the ground where the top of their head was at 9:00am, then every hour or two throughout the day so that they could see how their shadow moved as the sun moved across the sky.
I hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Rachel
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Hey Stephanie,
This is a great idea to introduce students to the sun movements. The students will be learning and collecting data throughout the day. I think another thing that could have enriched this lesson would be to have students make predictions. They could create an anchor chart with the information they collected and with the predictions they made. The students could also draw a picture of their shadow as it moves every hour.
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I did this with my third, fourth, and fifth grade students a few years ago, only we went out everyday at 10:00 to "Wonder About the Weather". We drew a frame and the sun. It was interesting to watch how the fixed points helped the students see the movement of the Earth. Also, we were outside to see the sun and moon in the sky at the same time. We had some weather stations set up and we gathered data for NASA's Global Positioning Satellite. The kids loved learning in the unexpected classroom of 'outside'. Noticing the movement of clouds and predicting the coming weather was always interesting. Any time the kids can get outside and make observations about the world is a good time.
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I really liked the idea of having the students going outside and drawing their shadow or the shadow of a flag pole. Exposing students to this activity since kindergarten will help them understand the concept of the sun moving across the sky. I like the suggestion of having students explain why the have the misconception of "the sun simply rises upwards in the morning and then sets downward at night" and then discussing their findings about how the sun moves across the sky. Thank you for the ideas!
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I really liked the activity that they had the students go outside and standing on the "X" in the playground to learn about shadows. I think this activity would be awesome to do with students because it would get the students attention since they get to go outside to a place they love to go to and play. Very interactive! I will keep this in mind when I get my own classroom.
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