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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 8 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. Why is the noon shadow shortest in June?
  2. 2. How long was it on December 21?
  3. 3. How long was the shadow on June 21?
  4. 4. What does this record not tell you?
2.When the sun is high in the sky, what is the shadow like?
  • A.Long
  • B.Missing completely
  • C.Short
3.Why are the noon shadow measurements more useful as a graph than as a list?
  • A.Graphs make shadows longer
  • B.The graph shows the pattern across the year at a glance
  • C.Lists cannot hold numbers
4.What else changes through the year in the same pattern as the noon shadow?
  • A.The length of the stick
  • B.The color of the sky at noon
  • C.The number of hours of daylight
5.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.A one-off event
  • C.The stick is shrinking
6.Why measure the shadow at noon every time?
  • A.So the stick stays dry
  • B.Because shadows only happen at noon
  • C.So only the date changes, not the time of day
7.In which month would you expect the shortest noon shadow next year?
  • A.Every month the same
  • B.December
  • C.June

LessonPrint · 5-ESS1-2 · Set 8 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — One Stick, Measured All Year

Set 8. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The sun is highest in the sky then, so the shadow is short. 2. 3.2 m. 3. 0.5 m. 4. It does not tell you how the shadow changed during each day.
  2. 2.Short
  3. 3.The graph shows the pattern across the year at a glance
  4. 4.The number of hours of daylight
  5. 5.A pattern that repeats every year
  6. 6.So only the date changes, not the time of day
  7. 7.June

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