Skill Building

Lesson Plans for OUR SOLAR SYSTEM level S

Building Skills

Phonological Awareness
Discuss the meaning of the word satellite. Draw a Frayer Model on the board and write the word satellite in the center. Work with children to fill in the chart. For example:

Definition A body that orbits a planet.	Characteristics May be natural or man made Moves in a fixed orbit
Examples Non examples planets, rockets moons, comets, metsats, comsats

Have children complete the Worksheet.

Phonics/Vocabulary Skills
Write the words asteroid and meteoroid on the board.
Say and ask: Look at these words. What is the same about them? What letter patterns are common to both words?
Ask children the meaning of the words.
Ask: Who can use asteroid and meteoroid in a sentence to show their meanings?
Ask children if the know any other words that have the oid ending. List them on the board. Explain that the suffix –oid means like. For example—planet + oid = planet-like.
Discuss any that they offer that have the same sound but a different spelling—for example, annoyed, destroyed. If children are unable to think of any words, give them clues—for example, I’m thinking of a word that is a type of camera that instantly develops the photo after you shoot it. It starts with P. It’s called a ____ (Polaroid). I’m thinking of a word that describes newspapers that report sensational stories. These newspapers are called ____ (tabloids).

Grammar
Discuss sentences with children.
Say: Simple sentences are made up of two parts, a noun phrase that is the subject, and a verb phrase called a predicate.
Write the following sentence on the board: The sun is a huge ball of burning gas. Demonstrate how to break the sentence into a noun phrase, the subject and the verb phrase, and the predicate.
Say: I’m going to show you how to break this sentence into the subject and the predicate. First I’m going to find the verb. In this sentence the verb is the word is. The words that follow is all belong to the verb phrase, so is a huge ball of burning gas is the verb phrase of predicate. The sun is the subject or the noun phrase.
Draw a slash between the words sun and is. Write the following sentences on the board and invite children to come and break them into subject and predicate in the way that you have demonstrated.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.
The Earth’s atmosphere is made up of gases.
Venus and Earth are similar in size.
Some asteroids burn up before landing.
Comets orbit the sun.

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