Unit 4 · Six weeks plus Celebration Week
Galactic Guides Planning Guide
Landforms, Water, & Our Changing Earth
A typical week
Reading & Writing runs every day in a 90-minute block. Science comes on Monday and Wednesday (45–55 minutes), and Social Studies on Friday (about 50–55 minutes), after that week’s science.
| Day | Science · 45–55 min | Reading & Writing · 90 min | Social Studies · about 50–55 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Science Lesson 1 Teach first Zod’s transmission and the Survival Plan. Every other lesson this week builds on it. | Mini Lesson A (15) Move to stations (5) Rotation (60) Share and clean up (10) | |
| Tuesday | Warm-up (5) Rotation (60) Read-aloud (25) | ||
| Wednesday | Science second lesson | Mini Lesson B (15) Move to stations (5) Rotation (60) Share and clean up (10) | |
| Thursday | Warm-up (5) Rotation (60) Read-aloud (25) | ||
| Friday | Read-aloud (25) Catch-up and Teacher Table make-up (35) If You Have Time (30) | Social Studies lesson, after both science lessons, ending with sending help to Zod |
Minutes are approximate. The units don’t include phonics or math, so those blocks, specials, and intervention stay in your schedule as they are. Each week’s plan notes any changes to this pattern.
Prep calendar
The things that need lead time, from the unit’s Letter to Teachers.
These are the things that need lead time. The Materials Library lists everything else by week.
Before Week 1 (2–3 weeks ahead)
- Get the read-alouds: Galaxy Zack: Hello, Nebulon! by Ray O’Ryan (Weeks 1–2), Magic Tree House #28: High Tide in Hawaii by Mary Pope Osborne (Weeks 3–4), and Galaxy Zack: Return to Earth! by Ray O’Ryan (Weeks 5–6).
- Fill in the date and send the Letter to Families home. It asks for recyclables and wheels in matching pairs for the Week 2 rovers.
- Request library books for popular guidebook places from the Earth Wonder Book List, so they arrive by Week 3.
- Start the class Earth library: space and Earth books for Week 1, and landform and water books by Week 2 (Building Your Earth Library).
- Start collecting clean recyclables for the rovers in Week 2: small boxes, cardboard tubes, straws, and wooden skewers, plus plenty of tape. The family letter asks families for wheels in matching pairs.
- Keep the physical world map from Unit 3 on the wall, or post a large one (W1 SS-L1).
- Clear a long wall space for the Survival Plan and Driving Question Poster (W1 Sci-L1).
- Put Earth Explorations on each device and gather headphones (W1 Launch Day).
- Set up the Transmission Station app in Mission Control, then open its setup link on every class device, or build the shoebox Transmission Station if you don’t have devices (Mission Routines).
- Get a ping-pong ball, a large clear bowl, clear cups, tissues, and a zipper bag for each pair, and a tub of water and a towel for each table (W1 Sci-L2).
During Week 1, for Week 2
- Add landform and water books to the class library before Monday.
- For the wheel test: cut cardboard circles about 2 inches across, and fill a small cup with sand and one with gravel (W2 Sci-L3).
- Set up the rover station at Finish It & Fluency by Tuesday: recyclables, wheels, straws, skewers with the points snipped, masking tape, scissors, a 2-foot string and a rover bin for each pair. An adult pokes holes in the bottle caps (W2 Sci-L4).
- Set up rover test tracks: a tray of sand, a tray of gravel, and a ramp (W2 Sci-L4).
- Get play dough, blue dough or paper scraps, paper plates, and toothpicks for landform models, plus firm modeling clay and plain, unwaxed dental floss for your mountain-slicing demo (W2 SS-L2).
During Week 2, for Weeks 3–4
- Gather hard-boiled eggs, salt, and clear cups for the mystery water samples (W3 Sci-L5), and crayons melted at home in a muffin tin, marshmallows, plain popcorn kernels and a brown paper lunch bag (or microwave popcorn), a raw egg, and chocolate chips for the heating and cooling tests, plus access to a microwave (W3 Sci-L6). Check food allergies first. Get a number cube for each group for the Supply Run board game, and print the game sets (W3 SS-L3).
- For the Week 4 science stations and volcano demo, gather: several trays, play sand (damp sand for the trays, a bag of extra damp sand for topping up, and dry sand for Wind Blow), wooden blocks or sugar cubes, a few pebbles, small paper cups, a shoebox lid, a straw for each student, a clear plastic jar with a lid, sugar cubes, dish soap, red food coloring, baking soda, vinegar, a pumice stone (sold for feet at drugstores), zip bags, towels, and bags for the Fast or Slow? card sets (W4 Sci-L7 and Sci-L8). The volcano demo reuses your sliced clay mountain from Week 2, so save it in a zip bag.
- Add water, ocean, and volcano books to the class library.
During Week 4, for Weeks 5–6 and Celebration Week
- Collect erosion-challenge materials: foil pans or trays, damp sand, paper cups (some for rain cups), index cards, a measuring cup, a pitcher, clear plastic cups, craft sticks, pebbles, cotton balls, foil, plastic wrap, cardboard scraps, yarn, leaves or grass, sticky notes, and paper towels (W5 Sci-L9).
- For the rover upgrade, keep the Week 2 rovers and strings, and gather a tray of wet sand, cardboard and books for two ramps, masking tape, marbles, rubber bands, strips of corrugated cardboard, extra bottle caps, empty thread spools, small paper cups, tape, and glue, plus small boxes, straws, and skewers to rebuild any missing rover (W5 Sci-L10).
- Choose a date for the Guidebook Launch and send the invitation home about two weeks ahead (Celebration Week).
- Print two color sets of the Earth from Space Photo Cards (W6 Sci-L11), and get sticky dots, three per student (W6 Sci-L12).
Books
The read-alouds and mentor texts the lessons use. Buy them or borrow them from your school or public library. Students also research in a class library of Earth and space books, gathered from your school or public library; the unit includes a guide and a book list for each guidebook place.
| Book | When | How it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy Zack: Hello, Nebulon! Ray O’Ryan | Weeks 1, 2 | One copy for you to read aloud. |
| Magic Tree House #28: High Tide in Hawaii Mary Pope Osborne | Weeks 3, 4 | One copy for you to read aloud. |
| Galaxy Zack: Return to Earth! Ray O’Ryan | Weeks 5, 6 | Galaxy Zack #10. One copy for you to read aloud. |
Supplies
Most are ordinary classroom items. Each one shows the weeks that use it.
- Butcher paper for the Survival Plan Weeks 1–6 · One long sheet that stays up all unit.
- Ping-pong ball, clear bowl of water, clear cups, tissues Week 1 · Air takes up space: a teacher demo, then a tub of water, a towel, and a cup and tissue for each pair.
- Large physical world map Weeks 1–6 · The map from Unit 3 works.
- Clean recyclables for rovers Weeks 1, 2 · Small boxes, cardboard tubes, bottle caps, straws, wooden skewers.
- Sticky notes and book bins Weeks 1–6 · One bin and pad per student.
- Rover test tracks: a tray of sand, a tray of gravel, and a ramp Weeks 2, 5 · Shallow bins or box lids work. A ramp can be a sturdy piece of cardboard on a stack of books.
- Wheel test: bottle caps, cardboard circles, and thread spools Week 2 · A few of each per group, plus a book propped up as a ramp. The family letter asks for wheels from home in matching pairs (LEGO wheels, bottle caps, jar lids, buttons, toy car wheels).
- Rover station: straws, wooden skewers, masking tape, scissors, string, and a rover bin per pair Weeks 2, 5 · Snip skewer points and poke holes in bottle caps ahead of time. A 2-foot string per pair pulls rovers on the sand and gravel tracks. Use tape, not glue.
- A small cup of sand and a small cup of gravel Week 2 · Students pass them around to feel the ground Zod’s rover must cross.
- Play dough, blue dough or paper, paper plates, toothpicks, tape, and zip bags Week 2 · One plate and a fist-sized ball of dough per pair. Blue dough or blue paper scraps make water. Zip bags keep the models from drying out.
- Firm modeling clay and plain, unwaxed dental floss for the mountain demo Week 2 · Oil-based, non-hardening clay (like plasticine) slices cleanly. Slick “glide” floss slips. Enough clay for a practice mountain and a demo mountain, plus a bamboo skewer to poke the center hole.
- Counting cubes in three colors: 97, 2, and 1 per group Week 3 · Any colors work. Beans or paper squares work too.
- Hard-boiled eggs, salt, clear cups, and ice cubes for the mystery samples Week 3 · Use fresh eggs. One egg and three labeled cups (A, B, C) per group. Make the salt water and melt the ice before the lesson. Check for egg allergies first.
- Old crayons, a muffin tin and foil liners, marshmallows, plain popcorn kernels, a brown paper lunch bag, a raw egg, chocolate chips, and wipes Week 3 · Melt the crayons at home ahead of time. Teacher runs the microwave tests. Refrigerate one hard-boiled egg from Sci-L5. Check food allergies first: chocolate, popcorn, eggs, and gelatin.
- Number cubes and zipper bags for the Supply Run game Week 3 · One number cube and one zipper bag per group. Laminate the boards and cards if you want to reuse them.
- Earth changes station supplies Week 4 · Trays of damp sand and a bag of damp sand for topping up, wooden blocks or sugar cubes, cups of water, pebbles, towels, a paper cup with a small hole poked in the bottom with a pencil, a shoebox lid with dry sand, straws, a clear jar with a lid, and sugar cubes for Rock Tumble.
- Volcano demo supplies Week 4 · Your clay mountain from Week 2, a small paper cup, baking soda, dish soap, vinegar, red food coloring, a tray, a pumice stone (sold for feet at drugstores) in a zip bag, and a clear cup of water.
- Plain roasted nori sheets (optional) Week 4 · For the optional taste of Zod’s new snack. Choose plain, unseasoned sheets. Check food allergies and your school’s food policy first.
- Erosion challenge supplies Week 5 · Foil pans or trays, damp sand, paper cups (some for rain cups), index cards, a measuring cup, a pitcher, clear plastic cups, craft sticks, pebbles, cotton balls, foil, plastic wrap, cardboard scraps, yarn, leaves or grass, sticky notes, paper towels.
- Rover upgrade supplies Week 5 · The Week 2 rovers and strings, a tray of wet sand, cardboard and books for two ramps, masking tape, marbles, rubber bands, corrugated cardboard, bottle caps, thread spools, small paper cups, tape, glue; small boxes, straws, and skewers to rebuild any missing rover.
- Blue, green, and purple colored pencils Week 5 · For revising chapters with the Chapter Revision Checklist.
- Sticky dots or small sticky notes for voting Week 6 · Three per student for the Top 10 Tips vote.
- A box or bag for ballots Week 6 · Any box works. Students like decorating it as a Plainoan ballot box.
- Hole punch and binder rings (or a long-arm stapler) Week 6 · To bind the class guidebook after the launch.
- A device to record video or audio Week 6 · For recording the reader’s theater transmission to Zod.
Standards & assessment
Galactic Guides is aligned to 60 2nd-grade standards across Common Core ELA, the Next Generation Science Standards, and the C3 Framework for social studies. Every lesson lists the standards it teaches.
Each unit includes a rubric for Reading, Writing, Science, and Social Studies, built around the unit’s standards, so you can document what each student has mastered. Each rubric has a matching student self-assessment, so students reflect on their own work too.