Q2: How can I send a message using light and sound?

Science Connections:

ELA Connections: 1st grade students defined content vocabulary and wrote informational pieces to show their understanding of light and sound and the ability to

communicate through these mediums. They also demonstrated knowledge of content through oral presentations of various experiments completed during science

lessons. Students defined and wrote about different properties of light such as opaque, transparent and translucent. We discovered light can be produced as artificial

and natural light and we described and listed several of each kinds of light. We learned that sound is produced through vibrations and can have a variance in pitch and

volume. The following texts help support our learning:

Sending Messages with Light and Sound by Jennifer Boothroyd. In this text, students learned how we send and receive messages using light and sound in the world around us. We made a list and wrote about the ways we use these mediums to communicate.

Playing with Light and Shadows by Jennifer Boothroyd. We read about how shadows are made with light and got a deeper understanding of our words, "translucent, transparent, opaque and reflect."

The Secret of Sounds by Ruth Tepper Brown. This story describes how guitar strings and other instruments make music. We stopped to discuss how we need vibrations to create sound. We also learned that if you change the vibration, the sound changes. We discovered how we make sound with our voices.

Math Connection: First grade students needed to answer questions about measurement. Some of their questions were: "How can I measure length?", "What is an inch?", "What is a centimeter?". They will be using measurement as they create their instruments and develop their message to share using light and sound.

Students learned how to use a ruler using centimeters and inches. Their measurement unit included an assignment where they measured squares to make a Christmas tree.