​After an exciting beginning of the week at the All School Fall Outing and hike, we continued to study and discuss the Earth’s sky; the sun and the patterns observed.

The students continued to delve into the NGSS cross -cutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; engineering/technology, structure and function throughout this unit.

After opening the unit with a read aloud and Mystery Science experience, the first graders explored shadows by experimenting and becoming “the sun.”  They worked in teams of 3-4, rotating to different workshops collecting data about the effect of the sun’s position in the sky in comparison to a solid structure; a statue.

We also took our exploring outside on a sunny morning and traced our shadows!  Everyone was smiling and enjoying soaking up the rays with their friends.  Instead of making shadow puppets, we were making shadow people!

​After, we met as a group and shared our scientific drawings.  This created a great group discussion where the students articulated the patterns observed and they did it all while having fun!