Introduction
The Earth rotates in front of the Sun on an imaginary line called itsThis is an imaginary line that something rotates around. . It takes 24 hours or one day to make a rotation.
When parts of the Earth face the Sun, it's daytime. When they are in the shade, it's night time.
Watch: Day and night
Find out how it goes from day to night.
Watch: Explaining day and night
Understanding why we have day and night.
Video transcript for 'Day and night'
SEYMOUR: Hello, Seymour Science here! As we all know, sometimes it鈥檚 day鈥 and sometimes it鈥檚 night鈥 but why do we have day & night? My guest today is here to tell us! Ladies and Gentlemen鈥 Rosie!
ROSIE: Thanks Seymour! Many of us live in villages, towns or cities鈥 but these are all part of one big place that we call鈥 Planet Earth! Earth is lit up by the Sun 鈥
SEYMOUR: which is a star!
ROSIE: That鈥檚 right. There are billions of other stars similar to the Sun, most are even bigger鈥 they're just much further away, so look really small. Our planet spins on an invisible line 鈥 called 鈥榓n axis鈥. Half of the Earth is always facing the Sun, meaning it is lit up. The other half is in darkness until the planet turns around. That鈥檚 why we have day and night!
SEYMOUR: The Sun keeps us warm too, right?
ROSIE: That鈥檚 right! The Sun is a HUGE ball of gas, MUCH bigger than Earth, and the gas is exploding all the time, so it gets very hot and very bright.
SEYMOUR: But what about the moon?
ROSIE: The moon can look bright too鈥 but that鈥檚 because sunlight bounces off it, helping us see at night!
SEYMOUR: Now for the really clever stuff!
ROSIE: The Earth takes one day to completely spin around鈥nd it takes about a month for the moon to go all the way around the Earth in a circle,
SEYMOUR: we call this an orbit!
ROSIE: and then it take a whole year for both of them to go all the way around the Sun. So this is how we measure days, and months and years.
SEYMOUR: Like I said鈥 clever!
MUM: I hope you two aren鈥檛 making a mess up there!
SEYMOUR: Ooh, got to go!
Activity 1: Tap day and night
Activity 2: Quiz
Activity 3: Get creative
Let's make a model of the Earth and the Sun.
Place a ball on a stick or hang it from some string and use a lamp to model the Sun.
Place yourself on one point on the ball (Earth). Observe what happens when the ball spins on its axis in front of the Sun.
What does this tell us about day and night?
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