lesson
Earth turns towards and away from sunlight
1 · Learn
Earth rotates on its axis about once every 24 hours. The side facing the Sun has daylight; the side facing away has night.
The Sun appears to move across our sky mainly because Earth is rotating. It does not need to orbit Earth once a day to explain day and night. Earth's yearly orbit is a different motion.
2 · Worked example
In a globe-and-lamp model, I mark one place and turn the globe. The mark passes into light and then darkness while the lamp stays in one place.
3 · Your turn
What Earth's motion mainly explains the daily cycle of day and night?
Check your answer
Rotation on its axis, which brings a place towards and away from the Sun's illumination.
4 · Apply your learning
An adult demonstrates with a safe low-heat lamp or a diagram. Track a marked place and explain day, night and the model's limits.
Adult guidance and safety
No direct Sun observation, hot lamps near hands or unsafe dark-room movement. Adults manage any electrical equipment.
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Check a calculation · Year 5 onward
Use this only when your teacher or adult allows a calculator for the task. Show your thinking first. It does not replace mental or written arithmetic and does not mark your lesson answer.
My observation notebook
With an adult, look at a safe real example or a checked photograph. Name the example and say which you used. Record what you actually notice. Do not taste plants or materials, approach unknown animals or invent missing observations.
Ask your teacher for support with the method and recording. A prediction is what you think might happen; an observation is what you actually see, hear or feel safely.
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