5-ESS1-2: Shadows, day and night, and the stars by season
What students must show for performance expectation 5-ESS1-2, with a lesson sequence built on live data, the misconceptions to expect, and assessment questions with answers.
Last updated . Curriculum links last reviewed November 2026.
What students must show
Our summary- Students collect data and show it in graphs that reveal daily patterns: the length and direction of shadows, and day and night.
- Students describe the seasonal pattern of which stars can be seen at night.
Patterns that come from Earth's spin and its orbit, including star groups seen only in certain months.
The causes of the seasons.
Our summary, in our own words. Read the official wording.
The three dimensions
Grade 5Analyzing and interpreting data
Show data in graphical displays to reveal patterns.
ESS1.B Earth and the solar system
Earth's spin and orbit, and the Moon's orbit, cause patterns of day and night, shadows and the sky.
Patterns
Similarities and differences in patterns can be used to sort and explain.
Live tools for this standard
2 toolsLesson sequence
Engage to evaluate- Engage10 min
Put the live tracker on the board and point to the edge of the night side. Ask: in an hour, where will that edge be? Do shadows change during the day too?
- Explore4 x 5 min
Stand a pencil upright in modeling clay on paper outdoors. Four times in the day, mark the tip of the shadow and the time, and measure its length.
- Explain20 min
Graph shadow length against time as a bar graph: shortest near midday, and pointing north, because in the US the midday Sun is in the southern sky. The Sun seems to move because Earth turns: link it to the moving line on the tracker.
- Elaborate15 min
Seasonal stars: Orion is an evening constellation in winter; in summer look for the Summer Triangle. Why do we see different stars in different months? Earth goes round the Sun, so our night side faces a different part of space.
- Evaluate15 min
The ISS sunrises sheet, then one prediction: how long will the midday shadow be in a month's time?
Common misconceptions
3 to watch forShadows are always the same length.
Shadows are longest in the morning and evening and shortest around midday.
The shadow-stick data.
The Sun is straight overhead at noon.
In the 48 contiguous states the Sun is never straight overhead. At midday it sits in the southern part of the sky.
Check the direction of the midday shadow.
We see the same stars every night of the year.
The night sky changes through the year: some constellations are seen only in certain seasons.
Compare where Orion is on a January evening with a July evening (it is in the daytime sky).
Assessment questions
Answers folded away5-ESS1-2: Shadows, day and night, and the stars by season · orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/5-ess1-2
- When is a shadow shortest?
- Early morning
- Around midday
- Late afternoon
- At midday in the US, which way does a shadow point?
- North
- South
- East
- Your graph shows the shadow got shorter all morning. Predict the afternoon.
- Why can you see Orion on winter evenings but not on summer evenings?
- Look at the ISS tracker. About how many times a day does the station go from day to night?
Answer key
- Around midday.
- North.
- It gets longer again and points the other way, toward the east.
- As Earth moves around the Sun, our night side faces a different part of space; in summer Orion is up in the daytime.
- About 16 times: one lap takes about 90 minutes.
Worksheet
US LetterOne page on US Letter, filled in with live numbers when you open it. Teacher notes and answers included.
The same idea in state standards
Texas, Florida, Georgia- Texas: 5.9
- Florida: SC.4.E.5.1, SC.4.E.5.4
- Georgia: S2E2.a, S2E2.b
Related, not equivalent: each state words and groups its standards differently.
More standards pages
Grade 5About these codes
These are our suggestions for where each tool fits. Always preview a page before using it with a class: some tools show ads, these school pages do not.
Codes are performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards*, for example 5-ESS1-2. Each summary is our own wording; follow the link on a standard page for the official text.
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Cite this page
Pick a style, then copy it or download it for your reference manager.Orbital Radar. (2026, November 6). 5-ESS1-2: Shadows, day and night, and the stars by season. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/5-ess1-2
“5-ESS1-2: Shadows, day and night, and the stars by season.” Orbital Radar, 6 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/5-ess1-2. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) 5-ESS1-2: Shadows, day and night, and the stars by season. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/5-ess1-2 (Accessed: 6 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “5-ESS1-2: Shadows, day and night, and the stars by season.” Last modified November 6, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/5-ess1-2.
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* Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.