Solar Eclipse
Student Learning Map
Vocabulary terms:
solar eclipse:
partial solar eclipse:
annular solar eclipse:
total solar eclipse:
hybrid solar eclipse:
Example:
Solar Eclipse - Lesson Plan
Objective: Students will understand that a solar eclipse occurs
when the Moon passes perfectly in line in front of Earth, and the
Moon’s shadow blocks out the sunlight from your perspective on
Earth either partially or totally. Students will also gain an
understanding of the four different types of solar eclipses.
Essential Question
How can the Moon’s motion cause a solar eclipse?
Vocabulary: solar eclipse, partial solar eclipse, annular solar
eclipse, total solar eclipse, hybrid solar eclipse
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Teaching and Instruction
Vocabulary Strategy: Learning
Map – Students will use the student
learning map for vocabulary
acquisition. They will focus on what a
solar eclipse is and the different types
of solar eclipses.
Thinking Skill: Classifying
Engage
Engaging Question: Explain what might happen if the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth were aligned in
a perfectly straight line (in that order), and your position on Earth passed behind the Moon’s shadow.
Guided Practice: Discuss the difference between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse, and check for
student understanding. Students should know that a solar eclipse is an eclipse of the Sun, when the
Moon passes in front of the Sun and temporarily blocks out the Sun’s light towards a part of Earth.
Explore
Guided Practice: Discuss perspective with the students and explore how your perspective on Earth is
very much dependent on where you are on Earth.
Explore Concept: Show students a visual of the Moon passing in front of, and perfectly in line with
Earth and how the moon can cast a small shadow onto Earth.
Optional activity: Have a flashlight (the Sun) in the front of the room and a globe towards the back of
the room. Turn off the lights and move a small white ball slowly in between the flashlight and the globe,
so they can see that a solar eclipse is caused when the moon passes behind Earth’s shadow. Explain that
the shadow is only covering part of Earth because the Moon is much smaller than Earth.
Explain
Guided Practice: Explain how the Sun’s shadow that the moon casts has three parts, and that causes
three different types of solar eclipses. The next several slides provide very good visuals showing the
roles of each of the shadows and how that causes the different types of solar eclipses
Collaborative Pairs: Have students use their own words and work in pairs to make their own
definition and illustrate each type of eclipse on their student learning map.
H.O.T. Questions: What type of eclipse does the penumbral shadow cause? (partial solar eclipse)
What type of eclipse does the umbral shadow cause? (total solar eclipse) What type of eclipse does the
antumbral shadow cause? (annular solar eclipse)
Elaborate
Guided practice: Explain that a solar eclipse is only visible in a small area as it happens, because the
Moon is so small in comparison to Earth. This is unlike the fact that a lunar eclipse is visible from
anywhere on Earth that is experiencing nighttime during the event, because Earth is so much larger
than the Moon.
Collaborative pairs: Partners review with each other and check partner’s example illustrations on
the student learning map for each type of solar eclipse.
Evaluate
• Summarizing Strategy: 4-3-2-1
4) List the four different types of solar eclipses.
3) List the three different shadows that the Moon casts when it blocks the Sun’s light.
2) Two things that you still wonder about space.
1) One paragraph explaining what causes a Solar eclipse.
The Trip of a Lifetime
Persuasive Writing
Breaking News: N.A.S.A. has made a monumental announcement. They are choosing one student
and teacher to go on their next trip to the Moon! Exactly one year from today you will be taking off
from Kennedy Space Center towards the International Space Station. Two days later you will be
leaving the International Space Station and taking the lunar lander to the surface of the Moon. In this
paper, you will try to persuade N.A.S.A. to choose you and your teacher. Why would you like to be a
part of this trip? What research might you conduct? What separates you from the other millions of
children who would like to go on this trip of a lifetime?
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