Sun, Earth and Moon Model

We created a Sun, Earth and Moon model to learn about predictable patterns in our solar system.   

These are the positions of the earth in its orbit around the sun during the Solstice and Equinox; Winter 2016 through Fall 2017. Click Here to watch the Seasons Song and Video.  Here we go!


The Hours of Sunlight a Day on the Winter Solstice 
(Dec. 21-22, 2016) in North America.

There are only around nine hours of possible daylight this time of year. We will only gain a few seconds of it each day for the rest of the week. But don’t despair: We will be gaining a minute a day by the end of January’s first week, and two minutes a day by the fourth week. 

Click here to watch the video called, phases of the moon for kids, its good stuff!  

First we wrote three Sun facts on our model.  

Next we colored the Earth and Moon.  

Then we cut our Sun, Earth and Moon out.

Last, we put it all together in a system where the Earth and Moon rotates around the Sun.

We learned that one rotation or orbit around the sun takes
365 days or one year!

In our concluding activity, we read our facts to our partners and used our model to show the orbits of the Sun, Earth and Moon.

Here is a completed model.

The science concepts we are learning are:

1. Follow the Sun:  Students will learn that the position of the sun in the sky changes during the course of the day and from season to season. 
2. Shadow Tracking:  Students will learn that sunlight can be blocked to create shadows.
3. Night-Sky Observations:  Students will learn the way in which the Moon’s appearance changes during the four-week lunar cycle by observing the moon over 4 days.
4. Phases of the Moon:  Students will learn the way in which the Moon’s appearance changes during the four-week lunar cycle by observing the moon over 4 days.
5. Star Patterns:  Students know the patterns of the stars stay the same, although they appear to move across the night sky and different stars can be seen in different seasons.
6. More About Stars:  Students watch a video that shows how a star brightness, distance and alignment converge to produce constellations.  Students learn about using telescopes to learn more about stars.
7. Planets in our Solar System:  Students learn about the planets in our solar system.  They learn their order and collect data in an investigation about planets and stars in our solar system.