EARTH AND SPACE
Kindergarten
SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS — Students will be able to:
1. Observe that the sun is the main source of light.
2. Observe and describe what makes a shadow.
3. Describe the relationship between time of day and the shadows created by the sun.
4. Demonstrate the relationships between shadows and the position of the light source.
First Grade
SOIL: PARTICLES AND CRITTERS — Students will be able to:
1. Describe why soil is important and where it comes from.
2. Describe the role of earthworms in healthy soil.
3. Describe physical and behavioral characteristics of worms in natural and unnatural environments.
4. Describe how soil supports life and how it has many living (animals and plants) and non-living (rocks, clay, sand) parts.
Second Grade
SUN AND SEASONS — Students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate how day and night are caused by the rotation of the earth.
2. Know that seasonal changes are caused by the tilt of the earth and its revolution around the sun.
3. Recognize that time is measured in hours, days, months, seasons, and years.
4. Describe the colors and causes of a rainbow.
5. Know Nebraska seasons/weather and how they differ from other regions.
6. Observe how seasonal changes can affect the land and land use.
7. Understand how the water cycle is affected by the sun and seasons.
Third Grade
DINOSAURS — Students will be able to:
1. Classify dinosaurs by physical (size, stride, feet) and environmental (diet, habitat) characteristics.
2. Describe kinds of dinosaur evidence (fossils, geological formations).
3. Describe current theories regarding the life and death of dinosaurs.
4. Locate on a time line the age of dinosaurs and describe the periods involved.
Fourth Grade
AEROSPACE — Students will be able to:
1. List the planets according to distance from the sun.
2. Research the many phenomena that exist in our universe (asteroid belt, comets, meteors, black holes, plants and stars).
3. Classify stars and non-stars by stating the difference between a plant and a star.
4. Define the cause of day and night in relation to the rotation of the earth.
5. Compare the times when shadows caused by the sun are the longest and when they are the shortest.
6. Construct a model to show why the moon’s observed shape changes during the lunar cycle.
7. Construct a model to compare the position of the earth in relation to the sun during the four seasons.
8. Identify the position of the constellations during the four seasons.
9. Construct a model to measure and compare heat and light energy received from a light source at varying distances.
Fifth Grade
ROCKS AND FOSSILS — Students will be able to:
1. Identify parts of the earth and describe conditions that exist in each layer.
2. Infer that the continents were once joined and that the earth’s crust is broken into parts called plates.
3. Observe convection currents and explain how heat makes air and liquids rise.
4. Make and observe a model of the movement of the plates and infer what happens when the plates separate and collide.
5. Infer why the volcanoes appear at plate boundaries.
6. Define an earthquake.
7. Describe the effect that glaciers have on the earth.
8. Describe the three categories of rocks (sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous).
9. Communicate how rocks are used in students’ lives.
10. Identify rocks and minerals through luster, hardness, streak, and chemical tests.
11. Generalize that fossils provide evidence of life in the past.