Year 5 have been learning about the Earth, Sun and Moon. We have been learning about how night and day works.
We initially thought that the Sun moved across the sky but it doesn’t! The Earth is what moves. It rotates on its own axis while orbiting the Sun. This spinning of the Earth is what gives us our day. It takes 24 hours for the Sun to make one complete spin. Because the Earth is spinning, different parts of the Earth receive sunlight at different times of the day.
Here are some interesting facts:
We initially thought that the Sun moved across the sky but it doesn’t! The Earth is what moves. It rotates on its own axis while orbiting the Sun. This spinning of the Earth is what gives us our day. It takes 24 hours for the Sun to make one complete spin. Because the Earth is spinning, different parts of the Earth receive sunlight at different times of the day.
Here are some interesting facts:
- Millions of years ago, the length of a day was only 14 hours long!
- The Sun is a star. Its burning gasses produce sunlight.
- Many, many years ago, people used to think that the Earth was flat.
- The Earth is tilted on its axis which means that part of the Earth faces more directly towards the sunlight. This causes different seasons.
- It takes the Earth 365 ¼ days to do one full orbit of the Sun. This means that every four years we have one extra day creating our leap year.
