Nicole Meyer ELD 376 Mr.

Messersmith Subject- Science Title- The Planets in Our Solar System Grade- 4th Resources- Dwarf Planet Pluto by Fraser Cain http://www.universetoday.com/13876/dwarf-planet-pluto/ Standards; 5.4 Earth Systems Science 5.4.4.A.4 Earth is the third planet from the Sun in our solar system, which includes seven other planets. Materials- Index Cards Dry Erase Board Dry Erase Marker Big picture of planets with characteristics Objective- By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify the eight planets in our solar system and their individual characteristics. 1) Engage: To engage the students I will begin by asking them what the planets in our solar system are and if they can tell me the order they are from the sun. I will than ask them if they can differentiate between the inner and outer plants. I will ask questions like: Would anyone like to tell me their favorite planet and why? Who can tell me how many planets we have in our solar system? Can anyone name the plants? Who can tell me the order the planets are from the sun? Does anyone know any characteristics of one of these planets or multiple planets? 2) Explore: I will explain to the students that we will be identifying the eight different planets and their characteristics. I will go through each planet with the students by showing them big pictures of each planet with their characteristics demonstrated on each. I will start with the planets closest to the sun and work my way out (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). After discussing the characteristics of the planets, we will compare and contrast some of the characteristics so the students get a deeper understanding of how the planets differentiate. Not only will I explain the characteristics of each planet to the students, but also I will show through a picture that an asteroid belt separates the inner and outer planets and that the outer planets are referred to as the gas giants. The gas giants are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, what makes them gas giants is the fact that theyre composed of gas as opposed

to the three rocky inner planets and the icy dwarf planet, Pluto. I will also explain to the students that all the planets orbit around the sun while the moon orbits around the earth. Can anyone tell me what makes Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune gas giants? What are their characteristics that consider them to be gas giants? Does the Sun orbit around the planets or do the planets orbit around the sun? What about the moon, does the moon orbit around the earth or does the earth orbit around the moon? 3) Explain: I will explain to the students that each planet is different and because of these different characteristics, some planets are able to sustain life while others are not. Earth would be the prime example of a planet that can sustain life, while Venus would be an example of a planet that cannot sustain life. I will explain to the students that when I mean sustain life, I dont mean simply plant life, I mean humans and animals, and when explaining to the students why Earth can sustain life and other planets cannot, I will explain the certain characteristics that make the planet suitable for living or not. 4) Elaboration: I will split the class into groups of three or four and assign each group one of the eight planets. I will then give the students several index cards with different characteristics on each of them. The students will have to work together to determine what characteristics belong to their planet. Once the class has completed the assignment, we will come together as a class and create a chart on the dry erase board. I will go from group to group and ask the students what planet they think they got and why based off of their characteristics. After we have figured out which group has received which planet, I will call on students to help me put the planets in order starting with the planets closest to the sun. Then I will have the students help me create a list of characteristics for each planet and write the characteristics underneath each planet. I will take the activity a step further and have the students compare and contrast the planets. Who can tell me the planets in order starting closest to the sun? What planet did your group receive? What makes you think its that planet? (Repeat for each group). What characteristics can we put underneath Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, etc? (Repeat for the rest of the planets). Can anyone tell me two planets that have similar characteristics? There may be more than one. 5) Evaluation: I will have the students pair off and write a letter to a classmate about their favorite planet and have them talk about what life is like on their planet (characteristics). I will have the students write the letter as if they lived on the planet, they will include what they live in,

what job they would have, what they would eat, etc. For instance, if a students is assigned the planet Venus, they may write, I live on the planet Venus, the atmosphere here is very poisonous, there for I have to live in a domed community to keep me sheltered from the extremely high temperatures and carbon dioxide that makes up the majority of the atmosphere. Since Venus doesnt have any water, I work in a factory that helps receive and cleanse the water we receive from Earth. Since Venus doesnt have water and the terrain is mainly rocky with craters we cannot get any food from our planet so we have to receive it from Earth. This exercise will have the students become even more familiar with the planets characteristics as well as work on their writing skills. This exercise will also demonstrate to me that the students comprehend the lesson since they will be regurgitating the information they acquired during the lesson back through the writing activity. I will also be evaluating the students during the learning activity as they help me make a list of characteristics on the dry erase board. As a final evaluation, I will have the students draw the planets on piece of paper starting with the planet closest to the sun. They may color the planets with the appropriate colors to help individualize the planets. Misconceptions: When explaining the characteristics of each planet to the students, they may have a misconception about Pluto, the dwarf planet because it was recently changed to a dwarf planet instead of a regular planet. The students may still believe that there are 9 planets, but since Pluto is now a dwarf planet, I will have to constantly reiterate that there are 8 planets now and that Pluto is not a normal planet. I will explain to the students that there is certain criterion in which a planet must comply to be considered a normal planet. According to the article, Dwarf Planet Pluto, by Fraser Cain published in 2008 on universetoday.com, to be considered a planet, the planet must orbit the sun, have enough mass and gravity to pull itself into a sphere and the object must have cleared its orbit. This is where Pluto falls down. The mass of Pluto accounts for only a fraction of the mass of the objects in its orbit, while Earth has more than a million times the mass of its orbital companions (Cain 1). Differentiation: If I realize that some students are having a harder time understanding the characteristics of the planets, when we approach the group activity, I will group those students together and I will work closely with them to help them comprehend the exercise. To make them comprehend the characteristics, instead of overwhelming them with multiple characteristics, when it comes to writing another classmate a letter, I will have the student or students focus on one or two characteristics that they must include in their letter instead of multiple characteristics. For students that struggle with differentiating information and organizing it into a letter, I would go up to the students and have them tell me the details of their letter and help them summarize their thoughts so they are able to write down only the key points necessary for the exercise.