We have made it to the planet Earth in our Astronomy study. With all the sickness and then dental issues that have happened in our house, our science, Astronomy by Apologia was put on hold.
We had already talked about how the earth rotates and it takes 24 hours to make a day. We also learned that while the earth is rotating, it is also revolving around the sun and that takes 365 days, to make a year. This lesson, we read about how the earth has a tilt, the equator, the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. As the earth revolves around the sun, the tilt allows the hemisphere that points to the sun to get that direct sunlight and they will be much warmer. The hemisphere that is not pointed toward the sun will obviously get less sunlight, making it the cooler months.
Our activity for the lessons was getting our globe out (it has a tilt to it) and a lamp. We put the lamp in the middle of the floor, had each of them to take turns walking Earth (the globe) around the Sun (lamp), counterclockwise.
Claire rotating the Earth around the Sun.
By doing this, the kids could see what hemisphere of the Earth was getting the most sun at that time and what hemisphere had less direct light.
Sammy rotating the Earth around the Sun.
The kids and I had fun with this lesson. It was fun to learn about how the tilt of the Earth provides the different seasons as it revolves around the sun.
Have you done any fun activities or projects in science lately? I would love for you to share them!
I am linking up with Adventures in Mommydom’s, Science Sunday.
I like that visual. I guess I’ll need a globe when we get to astronomy 🙂
Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday!
That sounds like a great, simple activity! My 8 yo did a Jupiter project a few months ago and we talked about the same thing and compared Jupiter to Earth (it takes about 11.4 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the sun, but a day on Jupiter is only 10 Earth hours). I have to admit, I love learning right along with the kids!