Brightness of the Sun and Stars Activities for 5th Grade Science

The Kesler Science Brightness of the Sun and Stars 5E Lesson is a comprehensive Earth science unit designed for elementary students. It includes editable presentations, worksheets, choice projects, and assessments, requiring little to no prep. The lesson supports differentiated, student-led learning and is available in both print and digital formats.

Students explore how a star’s relative distance affects its brightness in Earth’s sky and why the Sun appears the brightest. The unit follows the 5E Model, featuring engaging discussion prompts and activities. A hands-on, student-led station lab offers nine multimodal stations, including hands-on experiments, reading passages in English and Spanish, video discussions, and interactive categorization tasks.

The explanation phase includes editable PowerPoints, interactive notebook templates, and note-taking guides. Students extend their learning through choice projects, and evaluation consists of STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments, review questions, and worksheets. Spanish translations are provided for vocabulary, reading passages, and notebook pages.

This resource is fully adaptable for both classroom and virtual learning, with digital components ensuring flexibility in any setting.

Engage your 5th-grade students in a student-led exploration of the brightness of the Sun and stars with this interactive station lab. Designed to promote independent learning, this lesson provides students with engaging, multimodal activities while minimizing teacher prep time.  

Students will investigate and compare star brightness through nine interactive stations, including hands-on experiments, research, reading, and video-based learning. They demonstrate understanding by organizing information, illustrating models, writing responses, and completing assessments. A challenge station offers extension activities for early finishers, and differentiated reading passages in English and Spanish support diverse learners.  

This flexible, high-engagement resource is designed for both in-class and virtual learning, ensuring accessibility in any setting.

The Brightness of the Sun and Stars Student Choice Projects lesson allows 5th-grade students to demonstrate their understanding through a project that matches their preferred output style. A project page outlines six student-led options plus a “design your own” project, with an editable rubric for teacher, peer, or self-assessment. 

These flexible, multimodal projects provide creative ways for students to showcase their knowledge. Two versions of the project page support differentiation, offering modified options for students needing remediation and challenge opportunities for advanced learners. Teachers can adjust the rubric to fit their grading needs.

The projects use standard classroom supplies like paper, markers, and scissors, with many options available for digital completion.

This 5th Grade Earth Science Interactive Notebook is essential for teachers seeking to maximize student engagement when teaching elementary earth science concepts. It is versatile for traditional classrooms, 1:1 digital settings, or distance learning, providing both digital and paper versions. Digital resources feature interactive PowerPoint files compatible with Google Slides, MS Teams, Schoology, and Canvas, reflection pages, note-taking spaces, teacher answer keys, and modified versions for students needing accommodations. The paper resources include blank templates, pre-filled versions for absent or modified instruction students, and color photos demonstrating template usage.

Topics covered include the brightness of the Sun and stars, observable patterns of the sky, Earth's spheres, the distribution of water on Earth, protecting Earth's resources, sedimentary rock and fossil fuels, changes to Earth's surface, weather and climate, the water cycle, Earth’s rotation, and the Sun, the Moon, and Earth. These notebook templates also integrate seamlessly into Kesler Science 5E Lessons.