Unit Title: Our Changing World

Conceptual Lens: Change

Subconcepts:
Science: Math

● Observation ● Counting
● Investigation ● Comparing numbers
● Patterns ● Addition and Subtraction
● Comparing and contrasting ● More/Less

Subtopics:
Science: Math

● Five senses ● More/less

● Energy ● Counting fluently
● Motion ● Subitizing
● Light ● Addition and subtraction within 20
○ Night and day
○ Shadows
○ Heat
● Sound

Unit Overview:
This concept-based interdisciplinary unit will center around the concept of change,
focusing on science and math topics specifically. It is designed for a small group of high-ability
kindergarten students and will take place over 10 consecutive extension time periods, where
students will be pulled out of their regular classroom. Each lesson will last for 45 minutes each.
Kindergarten is a year full of change for students as they enter the school institution for
the first time. Not only is their world being changed, but they also learn about all kinds of topics
and subject matter that center around the big idea of change. In this unit, students will take the
basic kindergarten science topic of energy through motion a bit more in depth, including a brief
introduction to other types of energy through a first grade science standard; as a result, this unit
will also include a bit of acceleration. Kindergarten science standards involve a lot of observing
and investigating using the five senses, and I want to help students understand this complex
concept using a “vessel” (the five senses) they are already familiar with. In addition to using our
senses to learn about energy, students will also be given some math enrichment and acceleration
as we learn about how numbers change through basic addition and subtraction. At the conclusion
of the unit, students will complete a culminating performance task to help show what they know.

Enduring Understandings:
 - Change allows the world around us to be different and new.
- We can see, touch, taste, hear, and feel different kinds of energy all around us.
- Students understand that energy is based is how things move and change.
- Numbers can change when we add to or take away from them.
- Certain math words such as “more, less, altogether, and left” indicate that change is
happening.

Guiding Questions:
● What is change? What does it mean for something to change?
● How can we use our five senses to explore the world around us?
● What is energy? How can I use my five senses to learn about different types of
energy?
● How does each type of energy cause change?
● How can I manipulate numbers to change them?

Standards:
SKP2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare and describe different types
of motion.
a. Plan and carry out an investigation to determine the relationship between an object’s
physical attributes and its resulting motion (straight, circular, back and forth, fast and
slow, and motionless) when a force is applied.
S1P1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to investigate light and sound.
SKE1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate observations about time patterns (day to night and
night to day) and objects (sun, moon, stars) in the day and night sky.
MGSEK.OA.1 Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images,
drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or
equations.
MGSEK.OA.2 Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10,
e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.

Lessons:
1. Change and Energy
2. Energy as Motion
3. More on Motion
4. Light
5. Sound
6. Strategies to Solve
7. More on Addition
8. Subtraction
9. Addition vs. Subtraction
 10. Choice Board: Wrapping Up

Culminating Performance Task: Learning Menu

To help wrap up the unit and to gauge overall student understanding, students will be
completing a learning menu that assesses their understanding of the overall concept of “change”
as well as topic knowledge covered in this teaching unit. Students will be completing a variety of
tasks involving them drawing and writing responses to questions, building a science “story” to
show their understanding of movement, observing and categorizing the different types of energy
in their classrooms, and finally solving an addition or subtraction word problem. To further
document their understanding, I will be taking pictures and anecdotal notes of what students say
and do during this task, particularly during the tasks that are more hands-on.