Mars: The Red Planet

1
Mars The Red Planet

• By Danielle Kozin, Chrissy Schneider, Tracy
  Schreiber, Zanne Newman

2
First Grade

• Math
• Social Studies
• Language Arts
• Science

3
Essential Question

• What is life like on Mars?

4
Math Unit Questions

• How far away is Mars from earth?
• What are the different colors of rocks on Mars?
• What are the different shapes of rocks on Mars?
• What are the different sizes of rocks on Mars?

5
Social Studies Unit Questions

• Has anyone ever been to Mars?
• Have any space ships been to Mars?
• Do people live on Mars?

6
Language Arts Unit Questions

• What does these books show you about Mars?
• What do the characters of this book look like
  when they are on Mars?
• How do you spell different Mars related words?

7
Science Unit Questions

• What kind of atmosphere is there now?
• What kind of atmosphere would humans need to
  survive?
• How do we study this?
• What would you need to eat and drink to survive?

8
Standards Math

• C. Compute and estimate using mental mathematics,
  paper-and-pencil methods, calculators and
  computers.
• 6.C.1a Select and perform computational
  procedures to solve problems with whole numbers.
• C. Solve problems using systems of numbers and
  their properties.
• 8.C.1 Describe the basic arithmetic operations
  (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
  orally, in writing and using concrete materials
  and drawings.
• B. Formulate questions, design data collection
  methods, gather and analyze data and communicate
  findings.
• 10. B.1b Collect, organize and describe data
  using pictures, tallies, tables, charts or bar
  graphs.

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Standards Social Studies

• 14. A.1 Describe the fundamental principles of
  government including representative government,
  government of law, individual rights and the
  common good.
• 14. B.1 Identify the different levels of
  government as local, state and national.
• 16. A.1b Ask historical questions and seek out
  answers from historical sources (e.g., myths,
  biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork,
  and other visual or electronic sources).
• 17. B.1a Identify components of the Earth's
  physical systems.
• 17. C.1a Identify ways people depend on and
  interact with the physical environment (e.g.,
  farming, fishing, and hydroelectric power).
• 17. C.1b Identify opportunities and constraints
  of the physical environment

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Standards Language Arts

• C. Comprehend a broad range of reading materials.
• 1.C.1a Use information to form questions and
  verify predictions.
• 1.C.1b Identify important themes and topics.
• 1.C.1c Make comparisons across reading
  selections.
• 1.C.1d Summarize content of reading material
  using text organization (e.g., story, sequence).
• A. Understand how literary elements and
  techniques are used to convey meaning.
• 2.A.1a Identify the literary elements of theme,
  setting, plot and character within literary
  works.
• B. Read and interpret a variety of literary
  works.
• 2.B.1a Respond to literary materials by
  connecting them to their own experience and
  communicate those responses to others.
• C. Communicate ideas in writing to accomplish a
  variety of purposes.
• 3.C.1a Write for a variety of purposes including
  description, information, explanation, persuasion
  and narration.
• B. Speak effectively using language appropriate
  to the situation and audience.
• 4.B.1a Present brief oral reports, using language
  and vocabulary appropriate to the message and
  audience (e.g., show and tell).

11
Standards Science

• E. Know and apply concepts that describe the
  features and processes of the Earth and its
  resources.
• 12.E.1a Identify components and describe diverse
  features of the Earth's land, water and
  atmospheric systems.
• 12.E.1b Identify and describe patterns of weather
  and seasonal change.
• 12.E.1c Identify renewable and nonrenewable
  natural resources
• F. Know and apply concepts that explain the
  composition and structure of the universe and
  Earth's place in it.
• 12.F.1a Identify and describe characteristics of
  the sun, Earth and moon as familiar objects in
  the solar system.
• 12.F.1b Identify daily, seasonal and annual
  patterns related to the Earth's rotation and
  revolution.

12
Activities Math

• The topics included in this math lesson are
  colors, shapes, and addition.
• We will display these concepts by having the
  children come up and model the different colors
  and shapes through the paint program on the
  computer.
• http//www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/paint_program.html
  
• http//spacekids.com/playanddo/

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• The teacher will ask a student to come up to the
  computer at the front of the class and draw a
  circle.
• Then she will ask another student to come up to
  the computer and color the circle in red (or any
  color).
• The teacher will continue doing this until there
  are many shapes of different colors on the
  computer.
• The teacher will then explain to the students
  that there are millions of different shapes,
  sizes, and colors of rocks on Mars.

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• Then you can keep all the different shapes on the
  computer and have the students all together count
  how many shapes there are on the computer screen.
  This will help them count different shapes and
  colors.
• The students will save all of their pictures on
  the computer and we will show them to the parents
  at our Mars open house.
• After they have learned all of these concepts
  they will use a computer programs to learn
  distance.
• http//www.marsacademy.com/intro/intro1_7.htm
• http//www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link/windows3.ht
  ml

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Activities Social Studies

• Students will first go to this website
  (http//www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link/mars/disco
  very.htmleduelem) to learn a little more about
  Mars.
• The students will use this website
  (http//www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link/mars/explo
  ring/exploring_mars.htmleduelem) to find out
  more about space missions to Mars.
• Students will spend time on their own at this
  website (http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/funzone_flash.ht
  ml)

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• The class will watch a video with Bill Nye, the
  science guy, talking about why people do not live
  on Mars. The video is at this website
  http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/
• After watching the video and looking at the
  websites, students will make a brochure
  advertising why someone would want to take a
  vacation to Mars. These will be on display at the
  Open House event at the end of the unit.

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Activities Language Arts

• The teacher will read a childrens book aloud to
  the class on Mars. There will be an open
  discussion from the questions asked by the
  teacher.
• Landau, Elaine. Mars. Franklin Watts, 1999.
• Then the teacher will read a second childrens
  book on Mars aloud to the class. The students
  will repeat the same procedure in answering
  questions the teacher asks.
• Branlay, Franklyn. Mission to Mars. True Kelley,
  2002.
• The students will compare and contrast the two
  books and be able to identify the similarities
  and differences.

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• The students will do a word search prepared by
  the teacher. The word search will include Mars,
  alien, space ship, rocks, gravity, trip,
  astronaut, moon, orbit, and travel. They will
  circle the words and try to find all ten in the
  word search.
• In groups of three the students will present a
  narration of an imaginary trip to Mars. Each
  group will have visual objects to help present
  their trip. The teacher will video tape these
  presentations and show them to the parents at our
  Mars open house.

19
Activities Science

• Have a list of websites about Mars that will show
  them pictures.
• Spacekids.com will guide them through Mars
  general information.

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• Have them try to figure out what people need to
  live air, water, sun, food, etc.
• Organize students into groups of explorers.
• They need to pretend that they are going to Mars
  on rockets. They have one week to design a
  successful mission.
• They will all keep a log of what they need to
  eat, drink , sleep and breathe and be happy.
• The group that figures out what they need to
  survive will win the contest and pretend to
  travel to Mars for a day.
• At our Mars open house the students will show
  their parents their logs from their imaginary
  travel.

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Wrap Up

• At the end of the unit, in order to tie each
  subject together, the teacher will host an Open
  House for the parents to attend.
• Throughout the unit, the teacher has been taking
  digital pictures of the class doing the different
  activities, which will be presented in a slide
  show that the students created with the help of
  the teacher.
• The students will show their videos about their
  imaginary trips to Mars to their parents.
• Students will show the paint program they made
  with all the different shapes and sizes.

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• The computers will be open so students can show
  their parents the games they have played on
  spacekids.com
• The brochures the students created will be on
  display for the parents to see.
• The books about Mars will be displayed throughout
  the room for parents to read with their children.

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Credits

• Clip art from Microsoft Clip Art
• Illinois State Standards from www.isbe.com
• Website
• http//www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/paint_program.html
  
• http//spacekids.com/playanddo/
• http//www.marsacademy.com/intro/intro1_7.htm
• http//www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link/windows3.ht
  ml
• http//www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link/mars/discov
  ery.htmleduelem
• http//www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link/mars/explor
  ing/exploring_mars.htmleduelem
• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/funzone_flash.html
• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/
• www.spacekids.com
• /imgres?imgurlwhyfiles.org/044robot/images/mars.g
  ifimgrefurlhttp//whyfiles.org/044robot/sojourn.
  htmlh144w144prev/images3Fq3Dmars26svnum3
  D1026hl3Den26lr3D26ie3DUTF-826oe3DUTF-8