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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 4 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 does this record not tell you?
  2. 2. What claim does this record support?
  3. 3. Why is the noon shadow shortest in June?
  4. 4. What was kept the same for every measurement?
2.A graph of noon shadow length across a year goes down then up again. What does that show?
  • A.A pattern that repeats every year
  • B.The stick is shrinking
  • C.A one-off event
3.The noon shadow was the same length in March and September. Why?
  • A.The stick was moved
  • B.It was cloudy both times
  • C.The sun was the same height in the sky at noon on those dates
4.Why is the noon shadow much longer in December than in June?
  • A.The stick is taller in winter
  • B.The sun is further away in December
  • C.The sun is much lower in the sky at noon in winter
5.When the sun is high in the sky, what is the shadow like?
  • A.Long
  • B.Short
  • C.Missing completely
6.In the northern half of the world, which way does a stick's noon shadow point?
  • A.South, toward the sun
  • B.North, away from the sun in the south
  • C.East
7.The class measures again in February. Will the noon shadow be longer or shorter than in December?
  • A.Exactly the same as December
  • B.Longer, because February is colder
  • C.Shorter, because it shrinks from December toward June

LessonPrint · 5-ESS1-2 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — One Stick, Measured All Year

Set 4. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It does not tell you how the shadow changed during each day. 2. Shadow length changes through the year in a pattern that repeats. 3. The sun is highest in the sky then, so the shadow is short. 4. The same place, the same stick and the same time of day.
  2. 2.A pattern that repeats every year
  3. 3.The sun was the same height in the sky at noon on those dates
  4. 4.The sun is much lower in the sky at noon in winter
  5. 5.Short
  6. 6.North, away from the sun in the south
  7. 7.Shorter, because it shrinks from December toward June

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