Create Shade Device (Kindergarten)

Teachers have adapted this project for any weather-related condition, like sun, wind or rain.

Performance Expectation. K-PS3-2: Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.

Clarification Statement: Examples of structures could include umbrellas, canopies, and tents that minimize the warming effect of the sun.

Disciplinary Core Ideas. PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer. Sunlight warms Earth’s surfaces. (K-PS3-1, K-PS3-2).

Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect: Events have causes that generate observable patterns.

Prerequisite: K-PS3-1: Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surfaces.

Clarification Statement: Examples of Earth’s surface could include sand, soil, rocks, and water.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment of temperature is limited to relative measures such as warmer/cooler.

Lesson Plan

Part 1: Pre-req K-PS3-1 (1 class period)

Have a class discussion: Are objects in the sun warmer or cooler than objects in the shade? (Accept all predictions.)
Take students on a walk around the school to feel different surfaces and objects to judge if they are warm or cool.
Ask students to notice whether the objects or surfaces are in direct sunlight or in the shade.
Back in the classroom, make a list of warm vs. cold objects/surfaces.
Guide students to notice that objects/surfaces in the shade are cooler than objects in direct sunlight.

Part 2: K-PS3-2 (2 to 3 class periods)

Students work in pairs or individually to build a structure to provide shade for a Lego Minifigure.
Have a class discussion to brainstorm ways of providing shade.
Guide students towards items listed in the NGSS Performance Expectation and have pictures available, showing them examples of umbrellas, canopies, and
tents.
Provide a piece of cardboard (~ 10″x10″) as a base.
Have students brainstorm and/or sketch their initial designs before building.
Provide a variety of recycled materials: cardboard pieces, construction paper, wax paper, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, wooden dowels, tin foil, glue sticks, etc.
Have a space set up in an unlit part of the room with a clamp lamp, so students can test their designs for shade as they build.