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One Stick, Measured All Year is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on using a year of noon shadows to reveal the seasonal pattern in the sky, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-ESS1-2. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 18 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

One Stick, Measured All Year

5-ESS1-2

NameDate

Read the record, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

One Stick, Measured All Year

Shadow lengths of a one-meter stick, measured at noon on four dates. SHADOW OF A ONE-METER STICK AT NOON December 21 ...... 3.2 m March 21 ......... 1.3 m June 21 .......... 0.5 m September 21 ..... 1.3 m Measured in the same place, at the same time of day.

  1. 1. What was kept the same for every measurement?
  2. 2. What claim does this record support?
  3. 3. What does this record not tell you?
  4. 4. Why is the noon shadow shortest in June?
2.Why are the noon shadow measurements more useful as a graph than as a list?
  • A.Lists cannot hold numbers
  • B.Graphs make shadows longer
  • C.The graph shows the pattern across the year at a glance
3.In which month would you expect the shortest noon shadow next year?
  • A.June
  • B.Every month the same
  • C.December
4.The class measures again in February. Will the noon shadow be longer or shorter than in December?
  • A.Longer, because February is colder
  • B.Shorter, because it shrinks from December toward June
  • C.Exactly the same as December
5.What else changes through the year in the same pattern as the noon shadow?
  • A.The number of hours of daylight
  • B.The length of the stick
  • C.The color of the sky at noon
6.Why measure the shadow at noon every time?
  • A.So only the date changes, not the time of day
  • B.Because shadows only happen at noon
  • C.So the stick stays dry
7.When the sun is high in the sky, what is the shadow like?
  • A.Short
  • B.Long
  • C.Missing completely

LessonPrint · 5-ESS1-2 · Set 18 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — One Stick, Measured All Year

Set 18. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The same place, the same stick and the same time of day. 2. Shadow length changes through the year in a pattern that repeats. 3. It does not tell you how the shadow changed during each day. 4. The sun is highest in the sky then, so the shadow is short.
  2. 2.The graph shows the pattern across the year at a glance
  3. 3.June
  4. 4.Shorter, because it shrinks from December toward June
  5. 5.The number of hours of daylight
  6. 6.So only the date changes, not the time of day
  7. 7.Short

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-ESS1-2 of the Next Generation Science Standards.