Learning about Day and Night

Kindergarten Sun Unit Study

I had the best first year of homeschooling last year with JZ.  We use My Father's World kindergarten as our core curriculum, and the hands on activities kept school fresh and exciting each day.  I am excited to announce that I recently starting kindergarten with J-Bug.  He asks for his own school work daily, so once he turned five I decided to jump in and begin.  Unit one is a unit study of the sun.  I set up a simple demonstration to teach J-Bug how the earth rotates on its axis once each day, creating day and night.

How to Demonstrate Day and Night

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Supplies:

• globe
• flashlight
• dark room

I asked JZ to hold the globe while J-Bug held the flashlight.  First we located our city on the globe, then I instructed J-Bug to shine the light directly where we live.  The flashlight represents the sun.  I told him that when our side of the earth is facing the sun it is day time.

I instructed JZ to slowly rotate the globe, stopping when our part of the country was facing directly away from the flashlight.  I explained how when our part of the earth faced away from the sun it was night time.  We will be learning about the moon next week, and it will be fun to revisit this demonstration.  We noted that it was day time on the other side of the world when it was night time at our house.

For more ways to learn about the sun follow me on Pinterest.

More activities for a sun unit study:

Growing Bean Seeds ~ Making Raisins ~ How to Make a Sundial