Kindergarten · Science · K-PS2-1, K-PS3-1, K-PS3-2
Energy Lesson Plan for Kindergarten
A ready-to-teach energy lesson for Kindergarten. Everything below is classroom-tested structure: an objective, a 45-minute sequence, a way to check who got it, and 6 printable practice pages.
Approximately 45 minutes
Learning objective
- Identify natural and artificial sources of light
- Explain that light helps us see and keeps us warm
- Describe at least two properties of light such as it travels straight and can be blocked
Materials
- People or fuel
- Heat, light or sound
- Hot or cold?
- Shade structures
- Sunshine and melting
- Sun and shade
- Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples
Lesson steps
1. Ask the question (5 min)
Open with a question about energy that students cannot answer yet. Take predictions and record them without correcting anything. Wrong predictions are the point: you will come back to them.
2. Explore (12 min)
Students investigate energy through a hands-on activity, a demonstration, or a set of images. Their job is to notice and describe, not to be right yet.
3. Explain (10 min)
Now give the vocabulary and the explanation for energy. Tie it directly back to what students just observed and to the predictions on the board. Name which predictions held up.
4. Independent practice (you do) (13 min)
Hand out "People or fuel". Students record what they learned and answer the questions independently. Circulate and press for "how do you know?"
5. Extend the thinking (5 min)
Ask where else energy shows up outside the classroom. Collect two or three examples and leave the question open for tomorrow.
Check for understanding
Ask students to explain energy to a partner in one sentence, then write that sentence down. Collect the sentences: they show you exactly which part of the idea did not land.
Differentiation
Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild energy with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.
Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own energy problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand energy.
Skills covered in this lesson
Light · Heat · Sound · Sources of energy · Sun and shade · People power vs fuel power · Shade structures · Sunshine and melting · Heat light or sound
