Star light, star bright! Teach students all about constellations and earth movement with this engaging science lesson plan. Broken out over several days, this unit encourages students to research and report on a constellation.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of constellation patterns and earth movement by writing and illustrating a legend about a specific constellation.
The adjustment to the whole group lesson is a modification to differentiate for children who are English learners.
Start a group discussion by prompting students to tell you what they see in the sky at night. Great discussion questions include: What do you see in the sky at night? What do you notice about the stars? Do you think people on the other side of the globe see the same stars and constellations as we do? Why or why not?
Beginning: Pre-teach key terms and visuals relating to constellations, stars, and space for context. Allow them to use the terms aloud and in writing.
Give them sentence starters to assist in their discussions.
Intermediate: Provide an opportunity to share in small groups before sharing with the whole group.
Allow ELs to share discussion responses in their home language (L1) or new language (L2) and provide the following sentence frames: