5E Lesson Plan Template – Ground Hog Day

Teacher Name: Kiley Elbaor

Date Created:

Subject Area: Science- Shadows/Light

Grade Level: First Grade

Standard(s):
- ESS.1. B Earth and the Solar System: Seasonal patterns of the sunrise and sunset can

be observed, described, and predicted.

- ELA. RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

- ELA. RI.1.6 Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations

and information provided by the words in a text.

Materials:

Teacher: Ground Hog Day Books, images of previous Ground Hog Day shadows, picture
cutouts that they will color so we can chart our positions (40 copies)

Students: Science notebook, pencil

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Lesson Objectives / Learner Outcomes:

 Student’s will be able to understand that the sun’s position will decipher if the ground
hog sees their shadow or not with 90% accuracy.
Differentiation Strategies to Meet Diverse Learner Needs:

 Accommodation for non-white, middle-class culture – I do not need to make

accommodations for my students in the case that they are not white. All students
have an equal opportunity during my lessons and in the classroom, I am in.
 Accommodation for Visually different – I do not have any students with visual
impairments in my classroom. But if I did I would have them sit in the front for the
group reading, or I would put the book on the projector to allow them to see it better.
 Accommodation for Hearing different – I do not have any students who are hearing
impaired, but if I did, I would use a microphone so my voice was projected, and the
student would be able to hear me.
 Accommodation for Emotionally different – I do not have any students in my
classroom that need these accommodations but if I did, I would know their triggers
and ensure that they are not affected by their schoolwork.
 Accommodation for Physically different – This would mean they have a disability, and
I would not use the term physically different, but depending on the disability of the
student I would have things such as enlarge lined paper, or large pencils depending on
student needs if they were in a wheelchair I would ensure the classroom is wheelchair
accessible.
 Accommodation for Intellectually different – low – I would have them work with their
peer partner that they usually work with, so they are comfortable with who they are
working with, and their peer understands their needs. If writing is an area of deficit,
then I would have them type out their journal responses or use voice to text.
 Accommodation for Intellectually different – gifted – I do not have this in my
classroom but if I did I Would have them do more to their shadow such researching
how many times the ground hog has seen their shadow in comparison to not seeing
the shadow.
ENGAGE

 Create interest and stimulate curiosity; provide meaningful context for learning; raise
questions for inquiry and science practices; reveal students’ current ideas and beliefs.
 Describe how the teacher will capture students’ interest.
 What kind of questions should the students ask themselves after the engagement?

Say this.
“This past week we have been working on shadows and we looked at our own shadows

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yesterday. Ground Hog Day is coming up next week. Does anyone know what Ground Hog
Day is, and what is means?
^ Students will respond
“Ground Hog Day is when we see if a Ground Hog is going to see its shadow. If the ground
hog sees its shadow, we are going to have six more weeks of winter, but if the ground hog
does not see their shadow, then we will have an early spring, which means no more snow!”
“We are going to start by learning more about Ground Hog Day before we get into our
activity, let’s start by hearing some books about it, Grandma is going to read you a story
about Ground Hog Day, and I am going to read you one as well.”
(We have a classroom grandma volunteer, so we partnered to teach this lesson, as she
wanted to read to the students.)

Transition (How will you get the students to the next phase? What will you say or do?)
Say this: “Now you are going to get a chance to make some of our ground hogs in our science
notebooks. But before we do this, I want you to all show what it would look like if your
ground hog saw its shadow. We have to use some of the things we learned yesterday to
make this picture first.”
EXPLORE
 Provide experience of the phenomenon; examine students’ questions to test their ideas;
investigate questions and problems.
 Describe what hands-on/minds-on activities students will be doing.
 List “big idea” conceptual questions the teacher will use to encourage and/or focus
students’ exploration.
Students will be using their investigation skills and prior knowledge from yesterday’s lesson
to draw an image of the sun and a ground hog with its shadow showing. The must use their
investigation and prior knowledge to remember where the shadow is based on where the
suns’ current location is in the sky.

 Say this: “We are going to start off by drawing our pictures of the ground hog seeing
its shadow. Then we will do some think pair and share, of how our pictures look, and
finally we will track data on what we think the ground hog is going to predict on
Monday.”
 “You can make this is your science journal or if you would like to make the image
larger, I have some construction paper at the front of the room. There are also boxes
of markers and colored pencils at each table for you to share with your group.”

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  “Someone tell me what you are going to do first? After you decide to use your
notebook or not what are you going to be drawing? Are you going to choose now if
the ground hog is going to see its shadow or are you all going to draw a ground hog
seeing its shadow?

 “What level are our voices going to be while we are working?”

 “What are we going to do if we are having trouble deciding which way the shadow is
going to be going?”

 “What happens if we mess up with the shadow?”

 Teacher circulates, ask and answer questions as they work, and assist where
needed.
“How do you know where to put the shadow? Does the location of where you put the sun
decide where the shadow is? Should we be drawing any of our suns at the top of our paper?
“

Transition Say this: “First grade… let’s put all of our materials back in the bins where we got
them from, good scientists always clean up after themselves. Once we are done cleaning up
we are going to make our predictions.”

EXPLAIN

 Introduce concepts and practices that can be used to interpret data and construct
explanations; construct multimodal explanations and justify claims in terms based on
evidence; compare different explanations generated by students; review current
scientific explanations
 Student explanations should precede introduction of terms or explanations by the
teacher. What questions or techniques will the teacher use to help students connect
their exploration to the concept under examination?
 List higher order thinking questions the teacher will use to solicit student explanations
and help them to justify their explanations.

Formative Assessment – Students will be able to explain why they placed the sun and the
shadows where they put them.
Students will respond. Use questions below to extend responses.
“What questions do you have for me?”
Read questions one at a time and record any answers students may have.

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 Potential Higher Order Questions
Why does it matter where you put the sun and she shadow?
Can we see our shadows if we were to put the sun at the top of our paper, like where the
sun is at 12:00pm?
Can we stop the ground hog from seeing its shadow?
Transition
“We are going to collect some classroom data, you will come up here with calm bodies, and
pick if you think the ground hog is going to see his shadow or if he is not. After you color your
picture choice, we are going to have you go in the hallway and grandma is going to hang it
up. This way we can see how many students think the ground hog will see its shadow and
how many students think the ground hog will not see its shadow.”

ELABORATE

 Use and apply concepts and explanations in new contexts; reconstruct and extend
explanations using different modes, such as written language, diagrammatic and
graphic modes, and mathematics
 Describe how students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the
concept.
 What vocabulary will be introduced and how will it connect to students’
observations?
 How is this knowledge applied in our daily lives?

Teacher Directions

 Have the students finish up their prediction images.

 Have the students sit on the carpet when done.
 Now, we will talk about why they chose their predictions and then we will look at
the weather for Ground Hog Day.
 Explain to them that it is going to be sunny outside that day.
 Ask the students to elaborate on if that changes their thoughts at all and if they
think he is going to see his shadow since it is going to be sunny.

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 Transition “We did an awesome job being scientists today and learning about Ground Hog
Day and shadows more. Let’s make sure everything is cleaned up and we put everything back
where it goes.”

EVALUATE

 Provide an opportunity for students to review and reflect on their understanding and
skills; provide evidence for changes to students’ understanding, beliefs, and skills.
 How will students demonstrate that they have achieved the lesson objective?
 This should be embedded throughout the lesson as well as the end of the lesson
(formative and summative assessment).

 Once they clean up and go back to their seats take each group into the hallway and
show them, the data we collected based off of their predictions.
 As they look at it have them discuss the data on if they think it is going to be right.
 Summative Assessment – Ask specifically about how their data helps them
understand and how the weather and sun decide if he will see his shadow or not.

Bibliography:

ADDITIONAL TEACHER NOTES/REVISIONS:

This lesson went great. The students really enjoyed making predictions and learning about
ground hog day today. We were able to tie in a “holiday” as well as a unit we have been
learning about over the past several days.