fbpx

Let's teach! Primary

Lesson 1

What are some of the objects we can see from Earth?

Lesson Plan

Preparation

  • Colour photographs in reference books or charts of the solar system and the various space bodies would be useful to display while going through this lesson.

Curriculum links

  • Australian Curriculum: ACSSU048, ACSIS054, ACSIS060
  • NSW Curriculum: ST2-10ES-S, ST2-1WS-S
  • VIC Curriculum: VCSSU061, VCSIS066, VCSIS067, VCSIS072
  • WA Curriculum: ACSSU048, ACSIS054, ACSIS060

Teaching strategies

Introduction

  • Display the digital lesson on your smartboard to introduce the concept of days, nights, years and seasons.

Development

  • Provide students with printable versions of the student summary and worksheet. Have students complete the worksheet.

Differentiation

  • As an extension activity, students can pick one of the objects from the student text page to research and create a poster about.

Conclusion

  • Students can share their research as a whole class or in groups or pairs.

Assessment

Worksheet answers

1. (a) Possible answer: clouds/aircraft/rainbows/birds (b) Possible answers: sun/moon/stars/planets/comets/asteroids/meteors
2. (a) sun (b) comets (c) meteors (d) moon (e) planets (f) dwarf planets (g) asteroids (h) Ceres
3. A moon orbits a planet and a planet doesn’t orbit a moon. OR A moon is always smaller than the planet it orbits.
4. (a) Venus is hotter than Neptune. (b) All stars are not the same size. (c) The moon is smaller than Earth.

Investigation sheet answers

1. Teacher check
2. (a) Jupiter (b) Mercury (c) Venus (d) Neptune (e) Saturn (f) Mars

Student Pages

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Intro 1
Lesson 1
What are some of the objects
we can see from Earth?
Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Intro 2
LOADING
Lesson 1
What are some of the objects
we can see from Earth?
0%
Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 1

Can you guess what these words have in common?

clouds
stars
the sun
the moon
aircraft
rainbows
birds

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 2

They are some of the objects we can see from Earth.

Some, like the clouds, are closer to us in the atmosphere.

Others, like the stars, are far away in outer space.

Science – Unit 3 –Lesson 1 – image – clouds

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 3

Outer space is made up of space bodies such as the sun, stars, moons, planets, dwarf planets, asteroids and meteors.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 4

To see many of these objects, we need to use a powerful telescope.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 5

The sun is the centre of the solar system and is actually a star.

It is made up of extremely hot burning gases.

It gives Earth heat and light.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 6

Although the sun is enormous compared with Earth, it is only a medium-sized star.

It looks bigger and brighter than the other stars because it is so much closer to Earth.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 7

The twinkling stars we see are far beyond our solar system.

They are not all the same as our sun - they can be bigger, smaller, hotter or cooler.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 8

There are eight planets in our solar system.

Mercury

Jupiter

Venus

Earth

Mars

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 9

Plutoids and dwarf planets orbit the sun like the planets.

Like planets, they have enough gravity (force) to pull themselves into a round shape.

But they don’t have enough gravity to control other space bodies around them.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 10

Examples of plutoids are Pluto and Eris.

Ceres, found in the asteroid belt, is a dwarf planet.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 11

Most of the planets have one or more moons.

A moon is a space body that orbits a planet as it orbits the sun.

Science – Unit 2 – Lesson 1 – image – earth's moon

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 12

All of a planet’s moons are smaller than it.

Earth has one moon.

Jupiter has the most discovered so far - 79!

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 13

Comets are chunks of dirty ice, dust and gas.

When a comet gets too close to the sun, the ice starts to melt.

This pushes out from the comet with other material to form a tail.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 14
Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 15

Asteroids are chunks of rock which orbit the sun, mainly in a belt between Mars and Jupiter.

They can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a small planet.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Slide 16

Sometimes we call them falling stars or shooting stars, but they are not really stars.

Meteors are pieces of rocky or metal material which come into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.

They look like bright streaks of light.

Science Year 3 Unit 3 Lesson 1 Final Slide
POWER DOWN
Lesson 1
Complete
20%
Exit full screenEnter Full screen
previous arrow
next arrow

Downloads

Student Summary

Summary of student page information

Worksheet

Activities for students to complete

Investigation Worksheet

An experiment to consolidate learnings