Terrestrial planets vs. gas giants
Objectives:
Events of Instruction:
Resources:
References:
Objectives:
- Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are considered terrestrial planets.
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called gas giants.
- Define gas giant: further away from the sun, large size, cold temperature, and rings
- Define terrestrial planet: closest to the sun, small size, warm temperature
- Equity sticks
- Colored construction paper
- Scissors
- Colored pencils, crayons, or markers
Events of Instruction:
- Review the characteristics about each planet that we learned yesterday and the day before, so that all planets' characteristics are reviewed. Call on 2 students per planet. Use equity sticks to ensure that each student gets to participate and that students are called on at random.
- Hand out sheets of colored construction paper. Show students how to make a foldable, a trifold. See website under Resources (http://www.education.ucsb.edu/webdata/instruction/hss/Visual_Literacy/foldables.pdf) for more instructions on how to make a trifold.
- Write the terms gas giant on the board and ask the class what they think it means. Do the same with terrestrial planet. Call on students at random and give them feedback to their responses. Next, provide the true definitions for a gas giant and terrestrial planet:
- Gas giant: further away from the sun, large size, cold temperature, and rings
- Terrestrial planet: closest to the sun, small size, warm temperature
- Write these definitions on the board. Under the definitions, write down which planets are gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and which are terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars).
- Hand out markers, colored pencils, or crayons. Instruct the students to write gas giant on the top of one of the outside flaps of their foldable, and then terrestrial planet on the other. On the inside, instruct students to write the definitions under the corresponding term and to list the planets under the corresponding term under the definition.
- Instruct students to write their name on the last flap. Students may decorate their foldable in any way they wish.
- Assessment: Next, hand out a worksheet that has pictures of the four gas giants and four terrestrial planets. Tell students to complete the worksheet. Students will identify that the first four planets shown are gas giants, and that the second set of planets are terrestrial planets. Students will then draw an arrow to the correct definition of gas giant to the gas giant planets, and the same with the terrestrial planets and their definition.
- Review the definitions of a terrestrial planet and a gas giant with the class.
Resources:
- More information on gas giants & terrestrial planets: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/astronomy/the-solar-system/terrestrial-planets-gas-giant-planets
- How to make a foldable: http://www.education.ucsb.edu/webdata/instruction/hss/Visual_Literacy/foldables.pdf
References:
- http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/astronomy/the-solar-system/terrestrial-planets-gas-giant-planets
- http://www.education.ucsb.edu/webdata/instruction/hss/Visual_Literacy/foldables.pdf