Reilly Medzadourian

SIOP Lesson Plan

SUBJECT: Earth and Space Sciences

UNIT FOCUS: Origin and Evolution of the Universe

Lesson # 1 Length of lesson: 40 minutes

STANDARD(S): Standard - 3.3.4.B1 (Grade 4)

· Identify planets in our solar system and their basic characteristics.

LESSON TOPIC: The Earth and the Solar System

OBJECTIVES: write on board & will be read aloud

Language Students will
· Define new science vocabulary and terms visually and in writing
Content Students will
· Identify planets in the solar system
· Separate between different planets

KEY VOCABULARY: Solar system, planets, sun, space

MATERIALS: “Our Solar System” worksheet, computer, white board, dry erase markers,
smartboard, solar system model, exit ticket, pencil, pictures of planets, notebook
--------------------------------------------------------------
PREPARATION:
1) The teacher will post pictures of all the planets on the board prior to class.

MOTIVATION:
· The teacher will post, read, and explain the content and language objectives of
this lesson to the students.
· The teacher will say, “let’s look at our language objectives for today. Students
will define new vocabulary visually and in writing. Now let’s look at our content
objectives for today. Students will identify planets in the solar system and separate
between different planets.”
· The teacher will explain the objectives.

Warm Up/Building Background (15 minutes)

 · The teacher will tell the students that they will be learning about the planets
today. Then the teacher will ask the students if they can name the planets, while assessing
their prior knowledge about the planets. There will be pictures of planets on the board.
After, the teacher will list the names of the planets on the board.
· Next, the teacher will point to the display of pictures of planets on the board. The
teacher will speak the name of the planet and the students will point to which planet
matches. The teacher will tell the students it is okay if they get it wrong because they will
be learning about the planets in class today. The teacher will remind students about what
they learned in the class before about how the sun is the center of our solar system.

PRESENTATION: (10 minutes)

· The teacher will ask the students if they know where each planet is located by
saying, “Where are the planets?” After the students answer, the teacher will point to the
sky and say, “the planets are in space.”
· The teacher will bring out a physical solar system model that has all the planets
revolving around the sun. The teacher will name each planet on the model. The students
will be able to touch the planets on the model and observe their different sizes, shapes,
colors, and etc. After, the students will draw a picture of that model with labels in their
science notebooks. The students can refer back to the board for the names of the planets.
The students will title their model of the solar system, “my solar system.” The students
will share the pictures of their drawings with their shoulder partner.
· The teacher will explain that planets closer to the sun are hot and planets further
from the sun are cold.
· The teacher will explain to the students that there is a trick to remembering the
planets in relation to the sun and that they can easily remember the planets' relation to the
sun if they memorize the sentence, My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nachos.
The teacher will have the students repeat after her and say the sentence three times.
· The teacher will explain that the first letter of each word in that acronym
represents the name of a planet in relation to the sun. After explaining, the students will
repeat the phrase again three more times. While saying each word, the students will point
to which planet in their notebooks that represent that word.

PRACTICE/APPLICATION (10 minutes)

· The teacher will emphasize that all planets are in our solar system and revolve
around our sun. The teacher will display the vocabulary card for “solar system” on the
board and students can interact with the vocabulary card on their own computer for three
minutes.
· The teacher will then give students the graphic organizer, “Our Solar System.”
Students will fill in the blanks and write the names of the planets in the blanks. The
teacher will say to the students, “on the Our Solar System graphic organizer, fill in each
blank bubble numbered one through eight with the names of the correct planets that
 match the arrow each blank bubble is pointing to. The names of the planets are on the
board for your reference.” The teacher will display these two-step directions on the board
along with the graphic organizer itself for reference.
· The teacher will tell students to remember the mnemonic device from earlier
when completing the graphic organizer.

REVIEW/ASSESSMENT: (5 minutes)
· The teacher will hand students an exit ticket. Using the list of planets on the
board, the teacher will ask students to answer the question which planet is closest to the
sun, which planet is farthest from the sun, and what are the names of all the planets in our
solar system? The question will also be written on the exit ticket. After the students hand
in the text, the teacher will leave the students with a question to think about over the
weekend. The question is: “do you think there are other planets out of our solar system?”

3 STRATEGIES:
1. I used a graphic organizer as strategy, so that students could organize their thoughts. The
graphic organizer I used was of the solar system. It had all the plants revolving around
the sun and blank bubbles for the students to fill in the names of the planets. I used the
graphic organizer so students could apply the concepts they just learned to it. I think this
was effective for my lesson because it allowed ELL students to see visual illustrations
that helped them better understand where the planets are and understand the term, the
solar system, more clearly.
2. I also used a physical model of the solar system as a strategy to facilitate learning. The
model had all the planets and the sun on it. This helped the ELL students to see a visual
representation of what they were learning. They could also move and manipulate the
model to help them better understand the planets and the solar system.
3. Lastly, I used a mnemonic device as an instructional strategy. Mnemonic devices help to
organize information and help students to remember information better. While mnemonic
devices can be difficult for students to learn in their L2, through constant reinforcement
in many classes and having multiple exposures to this mnemonic device, it can be
beneficial to ELL students.