1-ESS1-2 Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

If you are teaching the Next Generation Science Standards and are looking for phenomena ideas, you’ve come to the right place! I like to think about phenomena as lesson starters. They are photos or videos showing an observable event in the universe and are used to get kids thinking, asking questions, and discussing their prior knowledge. For more information about using phenomena, there is a handy printable guide and video here:
https://www.nextgenscience.org/resources/phenomena

And now, on to our daylight phenomenon!

These pictures were both taken at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. 

How is that possible?

The sun rises in the morning.

The sun sets in the evening.

This happens every day.

But not at the same time every day. 

The sun rises and sets at different times in different places. 

How much daylight do you see?  It depends on where you live!

The sun rises and sets at different times during the year in the same place.

How much daylight do you see?  It depends on the time of year!

******************************************************************

This excerpt is from the text: Rising and Setting by Sarah Wassner Flynn.  Rising and Setting is found in, StarrMatica Texts:  Science Your Way, a collection of informational texts written specifically to address every K-5 NGSS Performance Expectation.  All texts in the collection are written at six different Lexile levels, so all students can read the same content at their reading level.  You can find out more about StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way here: http://www.starrmatica.com