Model Classroom Lessons:
Accessing Prior Knowledge

How is our day like the sun's day? Why do we need the sun? What facts do we know?

How is our day like the sun's day?

    The children related their day to the sun's day, as it rose in the sky, they got ready for school and other activities.

     Recommended children's literature:  The Sun's Day  by Mordecai Gerstein. 

"The sun's going down.  The mother sun is happy.  I'm going to make a baby sun going up."	"I'm dreaming about the sun and the moon."
"In  the morning, I have breakfast."	"This is me brushing my teeth"

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Why do we need the sun?

    Most of the children knew that the sun was important for giving us light and warmth.  Many knew that the sun was important for the flowers to grow.

    Recommended children's literature:  Sun Up, Sun Down by Gail Gibbons, Our Friend the Sun by Janet Palazzo.  

"The sun makes us warm."	"Me at the shadow.  I'm cold in the shadow."
"The sun is bright.  It is light."	"If you don't have the sun you can't see and then you can't go anywhere outside."
"The sun helps the flowers and I wanted a rainbow."	"It [my picture] shows why the sun is important to plants."

"I saw a colorful rainbow and the rain came down and the sun dried the rain up."

"The sun helps the kitty grow."

Simple investigations we did included:

1. Fill two identical bowls with ice.  Place one in a warm sunny spot in the room and one in a cold dark spot.  Time the melting process for both and compare.  Older children can make a bar graph.
   
2. Make solar tea.  Place one cup in the sun on the windowsill and one in a dark spot.   Color gives a good indicator of how strong the tea gets in a defined amount of time.

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What facts do we know about the sun?

    Distinguishing facts is something very difficult for a 4-5 year old!  To emphasize facts about the sun, the children listened to a non-fiction book, recalled and listed facts from the text, and wrote one single fact on an outline of a sun.

    Recommended children's literature:  Sun by Steve Tomecek.

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