• First Grade Science Units of Study

    Dear First Grade Families;

    Welcome to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Family Pages. We hope the information you find here assists you in supporting your child while s/he is learning important skills and concepts throughout the first grade year.  
     
    The Ann Arbor Public Schools uses Science Companion as its core elementary science learning resource. Science Companion is an inquiry-based program that engages students in hands-on science and the process skills used by scientists. The units of study are aligned with Michigan Science Standards that include a life science and an earth science module at each grade level. Project Lead the Way - Launch resources are used to provide units of study in physical science as well as engineering.

    To take a deeper look at each unit go to:   Atlas: First Grade Science

    Key Science Learnings    

    Life Science

    Collecting and Examining Life - Living Things: General

    • How can you tell when something is alive?
    • Many different kinds of living things share our neighborhood environment.
    • Like animals, plants are living things.
    • Animals, plants, and fungi are living things.

     Animals, Plants, and Fungi 

    • Animals are living things. They have many parts that help them move, breathe, eat, and sense their environment.
    • Plants are living things. They have many parts that work together to help them grow and make new plants.
    • Fungi are living things that are neither plants nor animals.

      Skill Building  

    • A magnifying lens makes things look larger than they really are. You can use a magnifying lens to examine objects closely and to see details that you might not see without it.
    • A scientific drawing is accurate. It contains details about its subject.
    • Measurements are not exact. It’s all right to round to the nearest unit and say the object is “about ___ units long”.
    • Measuring how much something weighs is a basic scientific skill.

    Earth Science

    Weather

    Weather Conditions
    • Weather is how the sky looks and feels.
    • Weather is how the sky looks and feels. A meteorologist observes, measures, describes, and records the weather.
    • Weather is measurable.
    • Weather is measurable. The sun plays a role in weather.

     Weather Patterns

    • We notice weather patterns by observing, measuring, and graphing weather over time.

    Water

    • Water, in its many forms, plays a role in the weather.

     Air and Wind

    • Air plays a role in the weather. Air surrounds us, and takes up space.
    • Air plays a role in the weather. Wind is a moving flow of air. 

     Skill Building  

    • A compass can be used to find north and other directions.  
    • Number scales give precise temperature measurements.
    • A magnifying lens makes things look larger than they really are. You can use a magnifying lens to examine objects closely and to see details that you might not see without it. 

    Physical Science


    Engineering and Design

     

     

     

    *Unless noted units are Project Lead The Way - Launch  resources

     

    Light and Sound

    Students investigate

    • light and the effect of different materials on the path of a beam of light
    • sound including vibration from sound waves.
    Students are challenged 
    • to design a model to solve a design problem. Students
    • to use the design process to sketch, build, test, and reflect on a device that uses light or sound to communicate over a distance.

     Animated Storytelling

    Through this exploration of both storytelling and animation, students

    • are presented with the problem of arranging moving images and sounds to depict a story.
    • learn that computers need specific instructions written in a language that the computer can understand
    • develop an understanding of events as triggers that make computer programs carry out instructions.
    • create animations that show characters, settings, actions, and events in a short story of their own creation.

    The programming environment in which students create these stories is appropriate for emerging readers and offers an appropriately scaffolded environment for piecing together logical steps to produce an animation.