The Effect of Light from the Sun. A unit that introduces kindergarten students to the fundamental notion of the Sun’s energy.

Tanya Belitskus

Synopsis

Students entering kindergarten come with varied background knowledge of scientific concepts, due to previous exposure and experiences. Kindergarten provides a foundation for which all other learning in the student’s lives will take place. In Kindergarten students will be exposed to learning about the weather and being able to observe what the sun does to the Earth’s surfaces. They will also observe local weather patterns over time and will collect data to prepare for severe weather. The chief learning objective will be the understanding that we get light from the sun. The lessons in this unit all build upon one another and will merge to make a meaningful learning experience.

The main objective for this unit is for the students to understand the warming effect of the sun on the Earth’s surfaces. Students will complete hands-on activities to understand this concept. The final project will have the students building a structure to keep an object from getting too warm in the sun. The students will be asked to design, build and test their structures for satisfactory results of the objective. Students should then be able to describe that we get light from the sun.