Download Toys Watch the Sky

School Based Activities
Activities: Unlit at night
Key objectives:
This activity aims to help student to:
• explain the reason for day and night
• be aware of the Sun’s path across the sky.
People shadows (Sunny day required)
What you need
• Copies of worksheet: Oscar’s shadow has shrunk
• Coloured chalk
What to do
1. Read the worksheet Oscar’s shadow has shrunk! Ask the children to suggest reasons
for this.
2. Go outside to an open asphalt/concrete area. Ask the children to work in pairs and to
take turns to stand in a scarecrow position while their partner traces around their shadow
in coloured chalk.
3. Place a sign requesting that the rest of the school do not rub off the chalk during recess
and lunch.
4. Return to the same position just before lunch and again in the afternoon. Each time the
children should stand in the same position and use a different coloured piece of chalk to
trace their shadow.
5. Discuss what happened to their shadows and any suggestions they might have to
explain the different size and direction of their shadows.
Rotating Earth model
Background information
Do not use a torch for the light source in this activity. Some children may incorrectly think
that the Sun has a light side and a dark side as the torch only sends a light beam in one
direction.
What you need
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Access to a darkened space
Lamp without a shade
Globe of the Earth
Blu tak
Small cardboard figures
What to do
1. In a darkened room, turn on the shadeless lamp and illuminate the globe. (Do not use a
torch as some children may incorrectly think that the Sun has a light side and a dark
side, as the torch only works in one direction). Identify the lit and unlit sides of the globe.
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24 School Based Activities
2. Using blu tak, attach three small cardboard figures to the globe – for example, one on
Australia, one on Greece and one on Malaysia. Ask the children to watch the figures’
shadows change as the Earth rotates. Ask the children to watch the Australian figure and
to call out the part of the day it is experiencing as the Earth rotates. What is the Greek
figure experiencing whilst the Australian is experiencing morning?
Shadow stick (Sunny day required)
Background information
The Sun appears to move from east to west due to the rotation of the Earth in the opposite
direction (west to east). The time of day at which shadows are shortest is the time when the
Sun is due north, so the shortest shadow points in a north-south direction.
Some children may find it hard to believe that it is actually the Earth that is moving and not
the Sun. This is because it is the Sun that appears to move and they cannot feel the Earth
spinning. This is quite reasonable, considering that the Earth as the centre of the Solar
System was the accepted model until the 1500s. An analogy within the children’s
experience might be useful. For example – When sitting in a moving car it appears that the
country side is moving when it is actually the car moving in the opposite direction.
In Melbourne the Sun is never directly overhead. However, areas of Australia north of the
Tropic of Capricorn will have the Sun directly overhead during summer.
What you need
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Access to open asphalt/concrete area
Watch
New pencils
Large sheets of cartridge paper
Plasticine
Coloured chalk
Copies of worksheet Sun and shadows
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25 School Based Activities
What to do
1. On the centre of a large piece of cartridge paper stand a pencil in a vertical position
using a piece of plasticine.
2. Take the paper outside to an open asphalt/concrete area. Trace around the edge of the
paper and the base of the plasticine. On each side of the paper write or draw an
orientation landmark such as shelter shed, playground etc. This will enable the children
to return the shadow stick to the same position for each reading.
3. Every hour draw over the shadow of the pencil and mark the time. Continue to mark the
shadow every hour until 2.00pm. You should be able to have at least five shadows
marked (10am, 11am, 12.00noon, 1pm, 2pm)
4. At each reading note the position of the Sun using features in the landscape. For
example: at ten o’clock the Sun was just above the corner of the shelter shed.
Warn the children to not look directly at the Sun, because it will damage their eyes.
5. After a few readings ask the children to predict the length and direction of the next
shadow.
6. Repeat the same activity the following day. Ask the children to predict the outcome.
Discus how this could be used as a clock. How reliable is it? Ask the children to explain
why the shadows change.
7. Stress that although the Sun appears to move, it is the Earth that is moving. (Refer back
to globe activity and use an analogy if required.)
Evaluation
Read through the worksheet Sun and shadows. As a form of evaluation ask the children to
complete the pictures by drawing in the missing Sun or shadows.
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26 School Based Activities
Extension Activities
Background information
As the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn on
December 22. This is known as the (Southern Hemisphere’s Summer Solstice. It is the day
when we experience the longest day and shortest night.
By March 21, the Sun is directly overhead at the equator and we have an approximately
equal day and night. This is known as the (southern) Autumn Equinox.
By June 22 the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees north of the equator)
and the Southern Hemisphere has its shortest day and longest night. This date is called the
Winter Solstice.
By September 23 the Sun is directly overhead at the equator. It is the (southern) Spring
Equinox with roughly equal day and night.
Diagram showing the Earth’s tilt and the seasons
What you need
Copies of worksheet Find a Word
Copies of worksheet Crossword
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27 School Based Activities
What to do
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Use the Find-a-word and Crossword to develop a thematic vocabulary list.
Write an imaginative story about shadows that misbehave/go missing, etc. Read stories
such as The boy with two shadows for initial stimulus.
Make silhouettes portraits by tracing the outline of each child’s head onto black card and
cutting it out and pasting it onto a lighter background.
Make shadow photographs by arranging objects on light sensitive paper, exposing them
to sunlight and then developing them.
Use shadows as the basis for measurement activities.
For mathematics, complement shadow stick activities with time activities. Make other
forms of clocks. Learn to tell the time from clocks and to work out the interval of time
between two events.
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28 School Based Activities
Worksheet – Photocopy this page.
Oscar’s shadow has shrunk
“Toys, I need your help again!” wailed Oscar.
“What is it?” asked Nellie.
“My shadow’s shrunk! This morning I had a big shadow. Now it’s lunchtime and look
at this small shadow that’s following me,” cried Oscar.
“What could have happened?” asked Nellie.
“We’d better investigate,” said Oscar.
I think that…
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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29 School Based Activities
Worksheet – Photocopy this page.
Sun and shadows
Draw the missing sun.
Draw the missing sun.
Draw the missing shadow.
Draw the missing shadow.
“So the size and direction of your shadow depends on where the Sun is in the sky,”
said Nellie.
“The Sun appears to move across the sky from East to West,” added Tina.
“It’s not really the Sun moving at all,” reminded Scarecrow. “It’s the Earth rotating,
going around. When we move into the sunlight we call it day and when we’re facing
away from the sunlight we call it night.”
“I’m just happy that I know what to expect of my shadow,” stated Oscar.
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30 School Based Activities
Worksheet – Photocopy this page.
Find a word
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asteroid
axis
constellation
crater
day
Earth
gas
Jupiter
light
Mars
Mercury
meteor
Moon
Neptune
night
orbit
planets
Pluto
revolve
rocket
satellite
Saturn
see
shadow
shuttle
sky
Solar System
space
space suit
star
station
Sun
up
Uranus
Venus
watch
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31 School Based Activities
Worksheet – Photocopy this page.
Crossword
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Clues
Across
Down
4. A large blue looking planet
1. Falling space rock
6. It is called __ __ __ when your
2. A space traveller
part of the Earth is lit by the Sun
3. Our closest star
7. To move around another object
5. The red planet
9. A pattern of stars
8. To spin on an axis
11. The largest planet
10. The opposite to day
14. The Sun is the closest one of
12. A dwarf plant
these to Earth
13. Our home planet
15. It’s Earth’s only natural satellite
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