1. The Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles

2. What is the sun?
Take answers from students. Various answers can be accepted for the first grade level. At the end of this lesson, students must be able to identify the sun, moon, and stars and explain what they are. They need to know what the Sun provides for the Earth, and how its rotation affects life of Earth. They need to identify how the sun is related to the moon, and explain the phases of the moon in sufficient detail. It is necessary for them to understand why the Sun is so important.

3. Why Does the Sun Really Shine?
The sun is actually a star!
A star is a large, fiery ball of gas in the sky.
There are millions of stars in our galaxy.
Why Does the Sun Really Shine?
Stars provide heat, light, and energy for the heavenly bodies around it, allowing photosynthesis and thus life to occur on Earth. The many stars create constellations. Ask students about their observations of the sun. How does it look? Does it create a sound? How do they feel on a cloudy day or a sunny day? Find out their prior knowledge before continuing.

4. The sun creates shadows, like the shadows of trees or your own!
These shadows can create shade that help keep us cool.
Shadows are dark areas or shapes created by an object covering the rays of the sun and a surface. Shade is the darkness created caused by shadow, and is usually cooler than the temperatures around the surface of the shadow. One can use the sun dial to observe shadows and the direction of the sun, which will explain the Earth rotating on its axis. The students can also draw chalk shadows of themselves consistently every top hour, acting as a sun dial.

5. Heat Heat occurs when something becomes hot.
The Sun provides heat for our planet, Earth.
The source of heat for our planet is the Sun, as mentioned above. The Suns energy radiates through space and into our atmosphere, where it travels down to Earth’s surface. The Sun’s energy and heat warms the atmosphere and surface, transferring to become heat energy. The heat energy is then transferred through our planet through three methods: conduction, radiation, and convection.

6. Light
Light allows everyone to see. Without light, everything would be so dark!
The Sun provides light for our entire planet Earth.
The sun transfers light energy that is transferred into chemical energy in plants.This transfer is processed by photosynthesis. It ensures that plant life will continue, as long as their is a sun in the sky. The light reaches the Earth in waves. There is a large spectrum of light, There is a visible spectrum, with the colors we can see, and the electromagnetic spectrum, containing waves such as UV light. It is important to wear sunblock to protect skin from being harmed from these light rays.

7. Sun Patterns The Sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
What does this mean?
In the morning, when you wake up, the Sun comes up on the right. At night, the Sun goes down on the left.
As the Earth rotates and orbits around the Sun, its position in the sky and in space changes. The Earth’s axis of rotation tilts at about 23.5 degrees, relative to the solar system also. As the Earth orbits the Sun, it makes a 47-degree altitude angle difference, and thus the hemisphere-specific difference between summer and winter. The sun is straight overhead at the equator, while in North America and everywhere else, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

8. Seasons There are four seasons on Earth! Spring Summer Autumn (Fall)
Winter
Seasons are caused by the Earth’s rotation on its axis, and the spin of the Earth at 365 degrees. The students can do an interactive activity in groups where they present about facts about their favorite season. Use poster, powerpoint, or other source. Seasons are caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis away or toward the Sun as it travels around the sun. Earth has a tilt of 23.5 degrees. The tilt is maximized during the Northern Hemisphere summer, as the amount of sunlight reaching the hemisphere is at a maximum.

9. Day and Night
The Earth spins on an axis. Because one side is away from the sun, one side of the Earth is day, and the other is night as it is spinning.
Use a globe to demonstrate how day and night occur on our planet. Rotate the globe with a lamp shining on it to depict how the Earth itself rotates. Emphasize the Earth rotating, as the Sun does not move. As the Western Hemisphere experiences daylight, the Eastern experiences nighttime, and vice versa. It is necessary the students understand that not everyone is living in daylight at the same time, and how the rotation of the Earth works. The Earth rotates one full turn per 24 hours, and rotates around the Sun one full turn in 365 days.

10. Stars
The stars create constellations, which you can see when you look up at the sky at night.
Astronomy is the study of stars, planets, and moons in our solar system. Astronomers are the scientists that study everything in space.
Note: Not many stars are seen nowadays due to air pollution and smog. The students may be observing less than ¼ of the stars in space when they look up at night. Students can use a telescope to observe stars closely at night. A telescope is an instrument used for looking into the sky and observing the heavenly objects in it. Rockets, spaceships, and satellites are all used to explore space.

11. Stars and Constellations
Constellations are the different patterns or pictures of stars in the sky.
For example, who has heard of the Big Dipper?
Ask for all the constellations the students know about. Ask them about the shape and ask them to draw it on their tablets, the board, or their papers or notebook. Explain that stars are not purposely put in the shape of a pattern, they just surprisingly create one. Once again, elaborate that global warming and pollution is making the stars harder to see, as the smog covers up the sight of the stars. Show students that they can see constellations clearer with a telescope, or they can make their own constellations by poking a whole through a black box and looking through it towards the sky. This activity is elaborated in the lesson plan.

12. Moon
The moon is a large, round object that circles the Earth and shines brightly at night!
It looks like that because it acts like a mirror to the Sun.
The moon is Earth’s only natural satellite, and the second most densest satellite in our solar system. The moon rotates with Earth in the same way, always facing the same side the Earth is faced. The surface of the moon is very dark, but since it reflects the light from the sun, the moon looks bright and luminous in the sky. The moon’s gravitational pull creates waves in the ocean and the slight lengthening of day.

13. The Phases of the Moon
There are eight phases of the moon depending on where the moon is between the Earth and the Sun.
A waxing moon is when you see the right side of the moon.
A waning moon is when you see the left side of the moon.
The eight moon phases are first quarter, waxing crescent, new moon, waning crescent, third quarter, waning gibbous, full, and waxing gibbous. Have students observe the moon nightly for about a month, and sketch their observations in a notebook. These drawings will then be discussed in class and matched to the different phases of the moon.

14. Let’s Review! Compare day and night.
What is an astronomer? What do they do?
What is a star?
What is the Sun? What changes do you see happen to the Sun during the day?
Have students study these questions for the test. Review answers with the students.

15. How does the Sun give us seasons?
What does the Sun provide?
What is the moon?
How does the shape of the moon change throughout a month?
Have students study these questions for the test. Review answers with them and ask these questions along with the presentation.