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Here you will find
all of the work we have done on our unit covering Energy in Our Lives. I will try to include a brief explanation of the lesson,
as well as any worksheets we have used. Remember that the lesson plans are found on the grade 1 page. |
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Lesson 1 What is Energy?
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We used out first lesson to discuss the concept of energy,
and briefly touched on the fact that we need energy in order to do things.
We used the example of going outside at nutrition break (using our energy),
then coming in for lunch (getting more energy). We discussed other
situations in which we have heard the term energy, and followed that up by
making a list of words that we associate with energy.
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Lesson 2 The Sun
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We started today learning the words to Raffi's "Mr. Sun".
We then brainstormed information we knew about the sun (provides light,
warmth, energy etc). We discussed what the world would be like without
the sun and what would happen to people, animals and plants (none would be
able to live). Finally we discussed the fact that the sun is the
single most important energy source to the planet Earth. At the end of
class students were to draw pictures to show the importance of the sun and
what the sun does for us.
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Lesson 3 Energy Chains
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After reviewing the concept of energy and the idea of eating
to get energy, we talked about different foods and how they get the
energy inside them. This led to a discussion about the sun and how the sun gives
energy to the plants, and in the end is the source of all our food energy.
Once the concept of food energy from the sun was taught, we discussed
"energy chains" as a means of following the path the energy takes to get to
all living things. The students reinforced their learning by
completing three activities on a worksheet.
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Lesson 4 More Energy Chains
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At the start of class each student was handed a card with a
word on it. We played a game in which each student had to find their
source of energy (another student, i.e., if they were a frog they would need
to find an insect). Once everyone had found their food source we sat
down and found that we were all sitting in radial lines around the student
holding "sun." The sun then passed "energy" to the people near by, all
of whom were plants. The plants then passed that energy back to the
animals behind them. This reinforced that all energy for living things
comes from the sun. The students then sat down and drew their own
energy chain.
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Lesson 5 Sources of Energy
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After reviewing energy chains we discussed where different
things get the energy they need in order to function. For example, a
car needs gasoline, we need food etc. The terms "source of energy"
or "input" were
then introduced. The students then worked on matching sources of
energy to the object that uses that energy.
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Lesson 6 Output
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We reviewed the idea that energy can come from many places,
and that things need energy to function. We then sat down and looked
at a fan and a toaster. We determined that they both have the same
source of energy, but the purpose of them was different. We learned
that when you put energy into something you get an "output", and
in this case we had moving air from the fan, and heat from the toaster (we
also noticed the toaster hummed, sound, and when the lights were off it
glowed, light). Our conversation took most of our class, so we used
the rest of the time as a finish up period.
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Lesson 7 More Output
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Similar to our sources of energy worksheet, after a review of
concepts, we did two activities to get a better understanding of output.
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Lesson 8 School Energy
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Today we discussed energy use in the school. We talked
about how energy is used in the school, where the energy comes from, and how
it gets into the school. This was all leading up to a "school energy
tour." Mr Taylor, the school's caretaker, was kind enough to take us
into the boiler room and other areas of the school to show us where we could
find the school's energy sources. We got to see how fire alarm system
works, among many other cool things.
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Lesson 9 Energy Video
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In class today we watched two short videos about energy.
the narrator gave us a lot of information about energy, and types of energy
(some of which was a bit beyond us), but the most important part of the
video was watching what energy can do - "Energy makes things happen."
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Lesson 10 Thank You Mr. Taylor
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We started class by discussing all of the cool things we saw
when Mr. Taylor took us on the school energy tour. Following that, we
used our science time to practise our writing and made thank you cards.
Thank you Mr. Taylor, it was awesome!
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Lesson 11 Camping Without Electricity
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Today we talked about camping. We started by having a
conversation about things you do while camping, and then talked about the
different "levels" of camping (motor home vs. backpacking). I told the
class about an annual camping trip I take with my family, where we canoe
into our site and can only take things we can carry with us. As a
class we pretended we were all going on a camping trip like this. We
talked about how we would prepare, and what things we would take with us.
On our worksheet we showed some of the things we would not be able to use,
and how we would replace them (no shower, so swim in the lake to stay
clean, no stove, so cook on the fire).
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Lesson 12 Energy at Home
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Over the past few weeks we have talked a lot about energy at
school. Today we talked about energy at home. Each student will
have brought home a small booklet that is to be filled in over the next
week. We talked about what information is needed to complete the
booklet, and we also talked a lot about making sure that we have an adult
helper when doing this work. If you need to print the booklet at home,
it comes in two pages, which when printed on both sides of a piece of paper,
then folded, will form the pamphlet.
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Lesson 13 Plants and the Sun
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We had a conversation today about what plants need in order
to grow and stay healthy. We then looked at two relatively similar
plants. We drew pictures of both plants, then put one in a nice sunny
location, and the other in a closet. Over the next three weeks we will
be watering both of the plants and monitoring the changes that occur.
We will use our plants booklet to document our findings. To print the
booklet, double side your pages, flipping the second and fourth page, then
place pages together and fold in half.
I will be doing an oral conference with each student during lesson 15. Today a note went home with all of the questions we will be discussing. Try talking about these things at home to see what your grade 1 student knows.
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Lesson 14 Energy Moving Things
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Today we made fans. We played with our paper fans, and
discovered that by using energy that we get from food (which gets its energy
from the sun), we can make the air move. The moving air could in turn
move an object. Follow the energy: Sun - Plants - Animals - People - Muscles - Fan - Air - Ball
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Lesson 15 Conferences
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We used today's period to start our conferences. Meanwhile, we used the rest of our time to get caught up on any incomplete work, both in science and in other subjects. | |||||
Lesson 16 The Affects of the Sun
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One week has passed since we started observing our plants.
We brought the plants out to have a look at how they are doing. We
then made our next set of drawings in our plants booklet. At the end
of class today we set up a couple more experiments to see what else the sun
can do. We half overlapped two pieces of paper and taped then on the
window. We then placed a cup of water on the window sill with our
plant, and another one in the darkness with the second plant. Also,
any of us who had not done our conference did so during our work time.
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Lesson 17 People Using Energy
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Our lesson today began by talking about how humans use the
energy they get from the food we eat. Most of the time humans use
their food to create movement, but we also use it to grow and to do things
like using our senses. Our worksheet today helped us to practise
writing some moving words and spelling the words for our senses.
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Lesson 18 Manual Toys
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Time to play! Today's lesson started with a table full
of toys. One by one we volunteered to demonstrate how the toys worked,
and also we explained how they worked using our scientific knowledge.
In the end we determined that all of the toys that were presented to us were
operated by using energy from our muscles (which of course we get by eating,
and the food gets the energy from the sun.) Our next task was to
categorize the toys into "push" toys and "pull" toys. When we were
finished we discussed how sorting can be important for scientists. Our
last task of the day was to sort some pictures of toys be making up our own
categories. We cut out the pictures and glued them onto lists.
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Lesson 19 Wind-Up Toys
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It has now been two weeks for our plants. We once again
brought them together and drew how they looked (lots of changes happening).
Then it was back onto the shelf and into the closet for them. Then, on
to more play time. Today we were looking at wind-up (and some
pull-back) toys. We just took the remaining time we had to explore how
the toys work and talked about how we still use our muscles, but the toys
store the energy for future use (just like how we eat food and store the
energy).
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Lesson 20 Wind-Up Toy Experiment
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Back to our wind-up toys today, but this time we were doing
an experiment. We wound our toys a set number of times, and then we
measured how far they travelled. We pulled them back set distances, then
measured how far forward they moved. With this experiment we discussed
the concept that the amount of energy output is related to the amount of
energy input. We also talked about taking in too much energy. If
we wind out toys too much they can break. Just like people, if we take
in too much energy, we can not use it properly and it converts to fat in our
body.
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Lesson 21 Safety
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We started today's class by looking at a series of pictures.
As each picture was shown we were asked: What is in the picture?
What uses energy? What is the source of energy? What is the
energy output? What safety precautions are necessary when using this
item? We then talked more about safety rules in general (don't sit too
close to the TV, don't shine flashlights in people's eyes, etc) and how our
senses can warn us it there is danger (we can smell smoke, see fire, feel
heat, etc). At the end of class we made a poster to show using some
type of energy safely.
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Lesson 22 Plant Finally
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It has now been three weeks since we started our plants
experiment. For the last time we brought our two plants together.
We made our final drawings and we discussed the appearance of our plants.
As it turns out, neither of the plants faired too well in our experiment.
We discussed reasons as to why both plants appeared to have died (they were
pulled from the ground and re-planted, we forgot to water, etc).
Although they did not do well, we still found that the plant in the sunlight
had more green left than the one in the darkness. Next we answered the
questions at the back of our plant book. To finish class we got a head
start on our next lesson...
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Lesson 23 Making a Toy
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Today we are making a toy. All of the instructions are
in the file below, but here is a quick summary:
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Lesson 24 Limited Resources
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We started today by reviewing energy sources. We then
learned that we call some sources of energy "resources". Next we
talked about the fact that some resources that give us energy do not run out
(like the sun, or wind), but some resources can run out (like oil). To
help learn more about resources we watched a video called "Learning About
Natural Resources".
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Lesson 25 Using Energy Wisely
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The first thing we did today was review the idea that some
of our energy sources will not last forever. We then thought
about what would happen if we ran out of some of these things. That
led us to understand the importance of being "energy wise" (not being
wasteful with energy). It also helped us to understand why John T. Tuck
has been doing "Eco Challenges" in the school. Our worksheet today
showed us some examples of ways we could use energy more wisely. We
also had a chance to look at many of the things in our homes that would not
work if we ran out of some of our resources.
At the end of class today we were told that we will be ending our unit soon. We were given a review sheet with all of the things that we have learned about energy, and asked to make sure we know the things on the review.
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Lesson 26 Review
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We used today's class to review all of our work from this
unit. We did this in a series of games. The first game was a
true/false game. This game involved a "T" and an "F" being taped to the
wall, then we were given a statement and had to move to the "T" if we
thought it was correct, or the "F" if we thought it was wrong.
Following that we worked together to complete a chart that listed a series
of objects. Our job was to figure out what the source of energy for
each object is, as well as the output produced. The last activity was
to work in groups to answer a series of questions.
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Lesson 27 End of Unit
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This is our last energy lesson. Starting today we will
show that we are energy experts. This lesson will actually take place
over about three lessons, using the first 15 minutes or so of each.
Over the next few periods, at the start of each period, we will answer some
short questions about energy. We will use the remaining time in each
lesson to start our unit on Daily and Seasonal Changes.
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This concludes our unit on Energy. Our next unit is Daily and Seasonal Changes. |