Day and Night on a Spinning Earth

Use a flashlight and a ball to model day and night, the seasons and the moon's phases before each page. On a sunny day, measure a real shadow in the morning and at noon. Remind your child never to look straight at the sun.

Label day and night on a spinning Earth and read a sunrise time table. Earth rotates (spins) on its axis, an imaginary line through the North and South Poles. One full rotation takes about 24 hours and makes one day and one night. The directions on the page read: Label parts A to D. Then, use the sunrise table for questions 5 and 6. The answer key shows every answer.

Yes, both. We made it for 5th Grade Earth, sun and moon, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Earth spins on its axis once about every 24 hours. The half facing the sun has day and the half facing away has night. Because Earth spins from west to east, cities farther east see sunrise first.

The sun seems to move across the sky because Earth spins. When the sun is high around noon, shadows are short; in the early morning and late afternoon they are long and point away from the sun.

Earth's tilted axis, not its distance from the sun. When your half of Earth tilts toward the sun, sunlight is more direct and you have summer; tilted away, you have winter.

Yes. All five Earth, sun and moon sheets have an answer key that shows every answer, including sample answers for the questions children explain in their own words.