How Light Travels Activities for 5th Grade Science

This 5E Lesson for TEKS 5.8B guides 5th-grade students in understanding how light travels in straight lines and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed. Featuring editable presentations, worksheets, assessments, and student-choice projects, the lesson is low-prep and available in print and digital formats, with key resources also in Spanish. Students engage with hands-on experiments, reading passages, research tasks, and creative activities through a nine-station lab, with a bonus challenge station for early finishers. Editable PowerPoints, interactive notebook templates, and note-taking guides support learning, while STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments help evaluate understanding, making this lesson ideal for both classroom and virtual settings. The resources below will give students a comprehensive understanding of how light travels. All of the following materials are also included in the Kesler Science Membership.

This Kesler Science 5E Lesson for TEKS 5.8B is a comprehensive energy unit focused on how light travels in straight lines and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed. Designed for 5th-grade students, it offers editable presentations, worksheets, assessments, and student-choice projects for differentiated, student-led learning. The lesson is low-prep and flexible, with resources available in both print and digital formats, including Spanish translations for key materials.

Following the 5E Model, the lesson begins with engaging activities and vocabulary cards in English and Spanish. Students explore concepts through a nine-station lab that incorporates hands-on experiments, reading passages, research tasks, videos, and creative outputs like drawing and writing. A bonus challenge station extends learning for early finishers.

Explanation is supported by editable PowerPoints, interactive notebook templates, and note-taking guides. Elaboration involves student-choice projects focused on light behavior, while evaluation offers STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments, review questions, and worksheets. Ideal for classroom or virtual settings, this lesson ensures comprehensive, engaging learning aligned with the latest TEKS standards.

Engage your 5th-grade class with this student-led station lab aligned with the 2021 TEKS 5.8C standard. Designed for in-person or virtual learning, this lesson guides students as they explore how light travels in a straight line and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed through nine interactive stations featuring videos, readings, research, and hands-on activities.

Students will encounter new concepts through activities such as exploring light behavior, watching educational videos, reading differentiated passages available in English and Spanish, and conducting research with facts, images, and graphs. They will then demonstrate their understanding by organizing information, illustrating light interactions, writing responses, and completing assessments. A bonus challenge station offers extension activities like crosswords, games, and mini-projects to deepen learning.

This differentiated, low-prep resource promotes active learning, critical thinking, and personalized experiences, making it ideal for independent or small-group work.

The How Light Travels Student Choice Projects align with the 2021 TEKS energy standard 5.8C, offering 5th graders the opportunity to choose 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. This resource is also included in the How Light Travels Complete Lesson for TEKS 5.8C.

These flexible, multimodal projects allow students to creatively demonstrate their understanding. Two versions of the project page support differentiation, with modified options for students needing remediation and advanced challenges for those ready for more. Teachers can adjust the rubric to fit grading needs.

The resource includes nine project options, teacher directions for support, and editable rubric pages that assess vocabulary, concepts, presentation, clarity, and accuracy. Projects are designed to use common classroom supplies like paper, markers, and scissors, with many options available for digital completion.

The Reflection and Refraction Science and ELA Integrated Writing Activity engages 5th grade students in exploring the path of light through creative exercises. Aligned with TEKS, the activity allows students to investigate how light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object, where it is reflected or refracted. This low-prep, student-centered activity supports virtual learning, making it suitable for both in-person and remote classrooms.

The activity includes teacher directions with an answer guide, project ideas, and rubrics, along with projection versions for easy sharing. Full-sized and half-sheet handouts are provided, including the writing prompt, self-checks, and pre-writing strategies. A digital version is also available for use in PowerPoint or Google Slides.

This activity is ideal for cross-curricular learning, pre-tests, student choice projects, early finishers, extra credit, make-up work, TELPAS samples, and differentiation exercises. It can be used to enhance science literacy and writing skills, perfect for displaying on bulletin boards or collecting in student anthologies.

WIKI Tickets© formative assessments are a fun and engaging way to check student understanding of physical science concepts for 3rd–5th grade. This set includes 37 assessments, each available in five formats: a full-screen projection version, three printable handout sizes, and an interactive digital version compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides. Designed to align with NGSS and TEKS standards, every standard is covered with at least one ticket, and some topics include multiple assessments for deeper exploration. A helpful table of contents is also included to show the alignment with specific standards.

These assessments cover a wide range of topics, including forces and motion, forms and transfers of energy, states and properties of matter, electrical circuits, magnetism, gravity, and waves. Additional concepts such as conservation of mass, mixtures and solutions, reflection and refraction, and the Sun’s energy are also addressed. WIKI Tickets© can be used as exit tickets, bellringers, or quick comprehension checks and are adaptable for in-person, 1:1 digital, or virtual learning environments. Whether projected, printed, or assigned digitally, they offer a flexible, ready-to-use tool for assessing student progress.

Year-Round Resources

These year-round activities will increase your students' understanding of many middle school science topics. All of these activities are also included in the Kesler Science Membership.

Visual Data & Graphing

You're not alone if your students struggle with understanding graphs, charts, and tables. It's a skill that takes an enormous amount of practice. This resource will help students build a strong foundation in analyzing data and creating their own data visualizations.

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Bell Ringers and Warm-Ups

These middle school science bell ringers are an excellent way to engage your students as soon as they walk into your classroom. This comprehensive FULL YEAR resource includes everything you need to start off each science class with an interesting warm-up activity.

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Review Board Games

Each game board has been carefully designed to keep students engaged. There are 10 different action spaces on each board and dozens of question cards. All of the actions are related to science concepts and keep the students motivated throughout the game.

Each game is ready to play. Simply print out the board and the cards and let the students enjoy reviewing nine different units.

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Essential Questions and Standards

Below are the essential questions and standards associated with the lessons and activities included in the atoms unit. This topic is only one of more than 100 middle school science topics included in the Kesler Science Membership.

Essential Questions

Demonstrate how light travels in a straight line.
Explain what happens when light is reflected, refracted, or absorbed.

Standards

TEKS Science - 5.8C How Light Travels