Lesson Plan Information

Subject/Course: Earth and Space Science Name: Ms. Garrett

Grade Level: Third grade
Topic: The Solar System
Expectation(s)
Students will be able to identify the planets as well as know their position in relation to the sun.
Content
Learn about each planet and their different characteristics as we work through them one by one in the
order from closest to the sun to farthest.

Assessment
The students will do a small research assessment on one of the planets we talked about, this will involve
going to the library as a class and looking at books/ online resources for more information about their
planet.

Day by Day Look

Day 1: As a class we will begin discussing the planets ad what we know about them. I will ask the class
questions like; What planet do you think is the biggest? The coldest? Farthest away from earth? And so
on to get the students thinking. We will write down our predictions to come back to after we have
learned about each planet. (20 minutes)
Then I will introduce the students to an easy way to remember the order of the planets which is, My
Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nachos and Pie. (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) Explaining that the first letter of each word is an acronym for the planets.
(20mintues)
Day 2: As a class we will go over the acronym again to make sure that we are starting to remember it. (5
minutes)
I will hand out a work sheet that has pictures of the planets in their correct order that will have a space
next to each to write. Then we will begin going over each planet and learn 3-4 interesting facts about
each planet, only needing to write down two for each on their paper. (35-40 minutes)
I will have each student write down their top two favorite planets so far and I will use this to try and
place them in a group the following day that they will be happy with.

Day 3: As a class we will again go over the acronym and I’ll ask the students which facts they liked the
most that we talked about yesterday. (15 minutes)
I will pass out sheets with a single planet on it to each student, I will begin to explain that whatever
planet they got on their paper they will be researching more into that planet. I will break the students
into groups based on the planet they were given. Then we will then head to the library (I have spoken to
the librarian already) to begin researching using the books and computer resources. (45 minutes)
Day 4: Once again we will go over the acronym.
We will break into the planet groups again and I will walk around to stop and chat with each group, see
where they are at with their research now just using the books we borrowed from the library. I’ll check
to see if there is any confusion or questions. (35 minutes)
Day 5: I will pull out 7 poster boards and a bucket of markers for each group. Stopping the students from
their discussion of their planets to get their attention so I can explain what we will be doing with the
materials in front of them. They will need to draw their planet the best they can and then add facts they
found interesting around their planet. (45minutes)

Day 6: Once again we will go over the acronym. (5 minutes)

Start by refreshing their memories of their planets since the weekend just ended. Then the student will
finish up their planet poster boards and start thinking about how they as a group want to share it will
the class. (40 minutes)

Day 7: Start presentations! Just a quick few minutes of the kids going up and sharing their drawing and
he few facts they learned! (45minutues)
Take a small quiz to see if the students retained the information. (20 minutes)