1. Big Idea 5: Earth in Space and Time Grade 4 Fair Game Benchmarks
SC.4.E.5.4: Relate that the rotation of Earth (day and night) and apparent movements of the Sun, Moon, and stars are connected. (Annually Assessed)
SC.4.E.5.1: Observe that the patterns of stars in the sky stay the same although they appear to shift across the sky nightly, and different stars can be seen in different seasons. (Assessed as SC.4.E.5.4)
SC.4.E.5.2: Describe the changes in the observable shape of the moon over the course of about a month. (Assessed as SC.4.E.5.4)
SC.4.E.5.3: Recognize that Earth revolves around the Sun in a year and rotates on its axis in a 24-hour day. (Assessed as SC.4.E.5.4)
Mary Tweedy, Curriculum Support Specialist
Keisha Kidd, Curriculum Support Specialist
Dr. Millard Lightburn, Elementary Science Supervisor

2. Grade 4 Big Idea 5: Earth in Space and Time
How are the movements of Earth, the moon and the Sun related?
Engage: Click on the hyperlink: Earth in Space and Time to play a video and then ask How are the movements of Earth, the moon
and the Sun related? Discuss.
Department of Mathematics and Science

3. Relationship with Earth
How is the Earth moving?
It turns or rotates spinning on its axis in a 24 hour day.
It revolves around the sun.
Let’s do the Cycle of Day and Night exploration.
Hands-on Activity
Materials:
AIMS foldable: It’s Apparent
tennis ball skewer thumbtack
Now let’s read It’s Apparent and explore.
Explore: Do the Cycle of Day and Night online Discovery exploration.
Explore and Explain: Have students make the foldable It’s Apparent. Then read It’s Apparent with students and model the movements of the Earth. pp. 4-5
Materials: tennis ball or styrofoam ball or apple skewer or stick thumbtack
How long does it take for the Earth to complete one whole spin on its axis? It takes about 24 hours or a day to complete a rotation. This rotation causes day and night. As the Earth spins the part of Earth that sun’s rays hit is lit up and has daytime. As the Earth keeps rotating, the side facing the Sun begins to turn away from the sun making it night.
You can model how day changes into night using a bare lit light bulb in a lamp and an apple on a stick. The light bulb models the Sun. An apple or a tennis ball is the Earth and the stick represents its invisible axis.
Let’s mark Miami’s location on the apple. This side of the apple with Miami faces the “Sun” and is lit up having daytime while the other side of the apple is dark. As the Earth keeps rotating, Miami begins to turn away from the Sun making it night.
When we return to where we started, a whole day and night has passed. We can’t feel the Earth rotating. But we can tell it is moving because of the changes in the sky. Ask your students to describe the changes they see in the sky from morning until night.
Department of Mathematics and Science

4. Observe the Sun Activity
Essential Question: How can I observe the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky?
Materials: 5 cm straw, lump of clay, compass, ruler, pencil
Procedures:
Label the direction words North, South, East and West along
the edge of the paper plate.
Put a small lump of clay in the center of the plate, and stick the
straw upright in the clay.
3. Place this sundial in a sunny spot outside that is exposed to the
sun for several hours.
4. Use the compass the identify North and make sure the label
North on the sundial is pointing North.
5. Observe the straw’s shadow on the sundial every hour.
Engage: Demonstrate how a shadow is made. Use a flashlight and a ruler to show a shadow.
Explore: See materials and the procedures listed on slide.
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5. Shadows on Sundial Observations (Data)
Time
Shadow
Length
Direction Sun is Pointing
(North, South, East, West)
Position of Sun in Sky
Explore and Explain: Make the observation chart. Observe and record hourly shadows. Compare your group’s to another groups.
After each hourly observation, record data and then look at another group’s sundial and compare yours to theirs. Record Group ____ Then answer:
How does your shadow compare to another group’s shadow on their sundial?

6. Direction Sun is Pointing (North, South, East, West)
Shadows on Sundial
Time
Shadow Length
Direction Sun is Pointing
(North, South, East, West)
Position of Sun in Sky
Explain: Discuss data and Connected Learning. Click on the hyperlink: Observe the Sun after the activity for review.
Connected Learning:
How does the position of the shadow change during the day?
How would you describe the Sun’s apparent movement in the sky?
What is the general relationship between the Sun’s position in the sky, and the direction of a shadow on Earth?
How can you use Earth’s rotation to explain shadow movement?

7. Let’s look again at the Movement of the Earth
How else is the Earth moving?
It orbits or revolves around the Sun.
How long is one full orbit around the Sun?
365 days = 1 year
Let’s read Rotation and Revolution.
Let’s explore: Fun-damental - Cycles in the Sky: Earth and Sun
Explore/Explain: Make the foldable Rotation and Revolution and read it.
Evaluate: Do Check Out: EARTH and SUN from the Fun-damental - Cycles in the Sky: Earth and Sun.
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8. Department of Mathematics and Science
What are Stars?
Stars are huge balls of burning gas that give off light.
Stars are very bright.
Stars come in different sizes.
Our Sun is our nearest star.
All the other stars we see are very far away.
More on Stars
There are more than 300 billion stars in the Milky Way.
Review (SC.3.E.5.1) and Elaborate: Click on the Discovery link: What Are Stars? and More on Stars to view a videos on stars. (SC.3.E.5.1) If available read pp. 8-9 from the Big Book, Watching the Night Sky. Have students tell you 3 facts about all stars and record in their notebooks. The record in their notebooks. Give corrective feedback as necessary.
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9. Department of Mathematics and Science
Watching the Night Sky
Do the patterns of stars or constellations in the sky stay the same?
Do we always see the same patterns or constellations of stars nightly?
Let’s explore Constellations.
What did you learn?
The patterns or constellation stay the same but are seen in different places in the night sky throughout the night and in different seasons.
Engage: One copy of this Newbridge big book, Watching the Night Sky is at every elementary school. If available, direct students to look at the photograph on p. 3. Ask What is the girl looking at? … thinking about? Encourage students to answer the ?’s on the page. Ask students what other questions they have? Introduce scientists who study space. Ask what tools do astronomers use? That’s right telescopes. How do they work? Let’s watch a (Discovery) video to find out more.
The patterns of stars in the sky stay the same although they appear to shift across the sky nightly and different stars can be seen in different seasons.
Department of Mathematics and Science

10. Musical Stars Activity
Look at the four star chart handouts that you have been given depicting the star patterns or constellations in each of the four seasons.
Each group member should stand facing south holding a star chart over their head in the order of the seasons.
Work together to determine in what direction the stars move relative to you on the ground and to each other as time and seasons pass.
Explain your answer and tell how you got it.
Explore/Explain: Have students do Dr. Chews’ Musical Stars Activity from his book, 4th Grade Science Inquiry Activities pp
Conclusion: The stars stay in the same pattern (constellation) but move across the sky from east to west each night as the Earth rotates beneath them. They also rotate counter-clockwise around the star Polaris, because it is situated almost directly above the north end of the planet’s axis of rotation.
Department of Mathematics and Science

11. Department of Mathematics and Science
What do you know?
1. What is a constellation?
Answer: A constellation is a group of stars that forms a pattern or image
2. Why do stars appear to move across the night sky?
Answer: The stars appear to move because of Earth’s rotation. Constellations or patterns of stars also change with the seasons because Earth is orbiting around the sun.
3. Why do constellations change with the seasons?
Answer: The constellations have been in the same positions for thousands of years. As Earth orbits the sun, it goes through different areas of space. This means that each season Earth is in a different part of space. For this reason, the constellations that can be seen from Earth change with the seasons.
Explain/Evaluate
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12. What do we call scientists who study space?
Astronomers
What tools do astronomers use?
Telescopes
How Do Telescopes Help Scientists?
Telescopes make distant objects in space look much closer.
Elaborate/Extend
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13. Department of Mathematics and Science
Up in the Sky
The planets and their moons and the Sun up in the sky Make up our solar system stretching far and wide. The Earth and the other planets all spin around the Sun. What spins around the Earth and can be seen by everyone? Round and round the Earth spins a moon that’s all our own. With mountains and craters that are hard as stone. The moon seems to change from full to very thin. Did you notice it last night? Did it look just like a grin?
The Moon
Engage: Up in the Sky poem
Explain: After reading the poem, click on the hyperlink: moon
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14. Department of Mathematics and Science
Phases of the Moon
Explain: Click on the link: Phases of the Moon to learn about the moon and its phases. Discuss.
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15. Lunar Looking Activities
Essential Question: What changes do we observe in the appearance of the moon each month.
Objective:
Identify the phases of moon and the current phase.
Sequence the main four phases of the moon in correct
order.
Activities:
Explore Gizmos: Phases of the Moon or
Cycles in the Sky: Moon Phases and/or
AIMS Gr. 4 Earth Science: Lunar Looking
Read AIMS Phase Facts: The Moon.
Explore/Explain: See lab handout for the directions Gr. 4 AIMS Earth Science pp
Click on the hyperlink GIZMOS: Phases of the Moon or Explore Cycles in the Sky: Moon Phases for a simulation labs.
Explain: Students make the Gr. 4 AIMS Earth Science booklet: Phase Facts: The Moon to read and discuss.
Homework: Have students observe the moon nightly for a month.
Evaluate: Connected learning: AIMS Gr. 4 Earth Science pp
Department of Mathematics and Science

16. Current Phase of the Moon Resources
Phases of the Moon
Open any of the sites above to identify the current phase of the moon.
Homework: Have students observe the moon nightly for a month.
Department of Mathematics and Science

17. Lunar Looking Connected Learning
How does the moon look when it is full?
Which moon phase would apply to use today?
Do you always see the moon at night? Explain
Have you ever seen the moon during the day?
How can you tell the difference between a first quarter moon and a last quarter moon?
What other things in the sky occur in a sequence
or cycle?
7. What are you wondering now?
Evaluate: Connected learning: AIMS Gr. 4 Earth Science pp
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18. Department of Mathematics and Science
Moon Phase Quiz
A. B. C. D.
New Moon
2. First Quarter
3. Full Moon
4. Third Quarter
Evaluate
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19. Department of Mathematics and Science
What Did You Learn?
TAG Reflection:
Tell a fact you learned about Earth, the moon and/
or the sun.
Ask a question about something you don’t
understand about Earth in space?
Give another idea that you learned in our study of
the Earth, moon, and the sun.
Evaluate/Reflect: Ask the question and then click on What Did You Learn? to watch the Discovery video: Review: A Closer Look at the Sun and Stars.
Then do the TAG reflection. Have students share out.
Department of Mathematics and Science