You Say You Want a Revolution

Renee Brown, Pre-Student Teacher

Grade Level: 5th
Topic: Science, Solar System
School: Geer Park Elementary
District: Dearborn School District
Duration: 1 hour
Objective
Students will be able to make a graphic organizer following my example.
Students will be able to describe how seasons result from intensity of sunlight and length of day.
Grade Level Content Expectations
E.ES.M.6 Seasons- Seasons result from annual variations in the intensity of sunlight and length
of day due to the tilt of the axis of the Earth relative to the plane of its yearly orbit around the
sun.
E.ES.05.61 Demonstrate and explain seasons using a model.
E.ES.05.62 Explain how the revolution of the Earth around the sun defines a year.
Interdisciplinary connections: ELA/Literacy
RI.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
I decided to teach this lesson because the students are currently exploring the solar system. The
unit has focused on general characteristics of the planets and objects in the solar system. Now,
we shift our focus to Earth. A previous foldable discussed the rotation of the earth on its axis and
now we will make a foldable about the earths revolution.
Learning Resources and Materials
- Students need their science journals, a pencil and their miniquiz book.
- Each students will get one sheet of white construction paper.
- Scissors for the whole class.
- Glue for the whole class.
- Enough copies of the Sciencesaurus for everyone, or at least one per group.
- I will use the ELMO during my lesson to write the notes on my own graphic organizer.
- Small whiteboard to put under the ELMO.
- The classroom globe for demonstration.
Teacher Procedure / Lesson Development
Teacher Preparedness:
Read through the pages 220-221 in the Sciencesaurus book to become familiar with the material
the students will be reading. During transition, have the students get a Sciencesaurus textbook
from the shelf.

Introduction / Anticipatory Set:

Last time we had Science, Mrs. Gwizdz made a foldable with you with four flaps. You talked
about the rotation of the Earth on its axis. Can somebody remind me
Essential Question:
Methods / Procedures:
1. Have the class paper passer and two helpers pass out paper, glue and scissors. Your
classmates are passing out paper, scissors and glue. Please dont do anything before me. If you
dont cut your paper right, you wont get another one.
2. Hold up your construction paper so that all students in the class can see you and it.
3. You all have a paper
4. I would like you to take your paper and fold it hot dog style.
5. Model the fold. It should be a long fold about 4 by 12. Hold it up for the class to see.
6. Now I would like you to make a hamburger fold.
7. Model the fold again. It should be a folded to about 4 by 6 now. Hold it up.
8. Once again, please make a hamburger fold.
9. Fold it in half again so the result is about 4 by 3. Hold it up.
10. Now please open it back up completely.
11. Open the paper back to its original size. Hold it up.
12. You will make 3 cuts into this paper. I would like them to be on the long side of the paper
where you have a fold.
13. Indicate the folds for the students.
14. Cut it from the right side of the paper on the folds up to the center where it is folded the
other direction.
15. Cut your three folds and hold it up. The left side of the paper should be solid, and the right
side should look like 4 flaps.
16. Were done with the scissors now. I would like you to open your science journals to the next
blank page and were going to glue this into the book so that the folded side is on the left side of
your page and the bottom flap sticks out of the bottom of your notebook. After you glue it down,
you can fold the bottom flap up so that it fits inside the notebook if you closed it.
17. Hold up a notebook with the graphic organizer held up to it so it looks how it should look
when it is glued in. Observe to make sure the class is putting their organizer in properly.
18. Sit at the desk and turn on the ELMO. The light needs to be on (the switch by the camera)
and it needs to be set to Camera on the base. Make sure the Promethean board is on and
showing your blank example.
19. Place the Sciencesaurus under the ELMO, opened to page 220. Draw a stick (they are
numbered and students know their class number) to choose a student to read the first paragraph.
20. Have a student near the front of the classroom come up for a demonstration. Walk in a
REVOLUTION around the student to demonstrate.
21. Briefly discuss leap year. Make a connection to math where they are learning about whether
remainders are important. There are 6 hours extra every year that dont fit. These hours still
matter but we simply add them together every 4 years to make up for them.
22. So on our first flap, were going to write ORBIT. We have a lot of information about the
Earths Orbit that were gathering.
23. How long is the orbit? Lets write that down in our notes.

24. Choose another stick to read the next paragraph.

25. So the pathway that the earth follows during its revolution is called an orbit. If you were
describing Earth moving around the sun, you could say it is revolving or it is orbiting.
26. If we look at the picture on the page it shows the shape that the orbit takes. (Students name
who read the paragraph) told us that it is called an ellipsis. It is not a circle. (Write a note in the
foldable about ellipse shape.)
27. Draw a stick for paragraph 3.
28. What can we write on our next section of our foldable to describe what were reading
about? Have students make suggestions. The section is about tilt, so lead students to that word.
29. Altogether how many degrees is the earth tilted? 23 *
30. The book describes Earths tilt as the reason for the seasons. Were going to talk about the
angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth next time we have science. For now, lets note that the tilt
is one reason for the seasons. (Write in the pamphlet.)
31. Draw a stick to read paragraph 4.
32. Now were going to talk about our seasons here in North America. The last two sections of
our pamphlet are going to be SUMMER in NORTH AMERICA and WINTER in NORTH
AMERICA. Lets write that. (Write it.)
32. We talked yesterday about how the days get shorter during the winter. That means the sun is
in our sky for less time every day and it has less time to heat us up. That is one reason that we
have winter it gets colder here because the sun isnt up as long. (Write in the pamphlet under
winter.)
33. If its cold during the winter because the days are short and the sun cant heat the ground as
long, why is it hot during the summer? Discuss. Write under summer that the days are longer
and the sun heats the ground longer.
34. Read the remaining two paragraphs.
35. Discuss the months of each season. Make sure the students understand where the Earth is in
space during these months.
36. Now were going to watch a BrainPOP video on Seasons.
37. Pull up the BrainPOP video on the computer. Switch the ELMO to PC.
38. Allow students to watch the entire video.
39. Ask them to get out their miniquiz book. Alternate freezing the screen so that students can
see the question but not you answering it. We will do 1, 2, 3, 5, 7.

Methods of Practice
Students will work with me and receive direct instruction on how to make their foldable. My role
in this lesson is to model how to do the foldable and to help guide the discussion and condense
all of the answers discussed in class to write in the notebook.
Cross Curriculum
This lesson incorporates ELA because the students will read and quote accurately from the text
during the discussion.
Closure
The foldable will remain in the students science notebook to aid their studying when it comes
time for the unit test. It is meant to be a more reliable source than the textbook because it
contains information from other sources as well. They will do an activity with raw spaghetti to

observe direct and indirect rays of the sun hitting the Earth to demonstrate why seasons are
hot or cold.
Technology Use
I used the ELMO during my lesson to project my example on to the board and BrainPOP.
Accommodations
There are two elements to this lesson that serve as accommodations for those with special needs.
First, students are reading from the text in pairs and sharing their examples as a class. This
allows all students to comprehend the same information from the text even if they missed
something when they read it. It is especially helpful for those who are low-performing in
reading. Additionally, once the discussion of each section comes to a close, we decide as a class
the most important fact or facts for the foldable and I write it in correct English under the
ELMO. There are many ELL students in the class and they need the added exposure to proper
sentence structure and writing.
Outcomes and Assessment
The main form of assessment for this lesson is observation during the sharing portion of the
activity. I will gauge students understanding of the information as they tell me facts they got
from the book. I will use this rubric as a checklist to keep track of student response. The two
items on the rubric are content area related and related to the interdisciplinary standard they are
accountable for.
1

Chooses appropriate facts

from the text to share with the
class
Quotes accurately from the
text

Although their work is not officially graded, they will receive verbal praise for quoting
accurately and finding appropriate facts. The quality of their work will also affect their unit exam
grade as these notes are the most important study source they have available to them.
Methods of Assessment
Questioning: Although I provide the questions to lead the discussion, I would like for the
discussion itself to be provided by the students. I will help draw out prior knowledge and relate it
to the text they are responsible for in class.
Observation: I will follow the abbreviated rubric provided above.
Seasons BrainPOP Quiz

1. Why do globes lean sideways? B

2. What causes the seasons to change? C
3. What happens when the area in which you live tilts away from the sun? D
5. What happens when it's spring in the Southern Hemisphere? A
7. Why does the area around the equator stay the same temperature year-round? B
Reflection
I felt like my lesson went over very well. In the beginning, I was not sure if I was going to be
able to fit everything in because I had things to cover from the book and I had chosen a
BrainPOP video I wanted to show. As I reached the end of the material I was covering from the
book, I saw that I had about 10-15 minutes left to do the BrainPOP video which happens to be
the perfect amount of time for the video and the miniquiz I had planned. I am not sure how the
mini-quizzes went yet because I didn't have a chance to check them... but when I went over the
answers to the questions, most of the kids seemed to be very excited. I definitely feel like that's a
good sign! It feels wonderful to teach a lesson and have kids so excited that they are jumping and
screaming "YES!"