Table of Contents

The Earth Is a Ball

The Earth Is a Ball

Brief Description

In this activity, use an UNAWE Earthball to facilitate the understanding of day and night.

Materials

Earthball

Pictures of Earth from space

Darkened room

Lamp

Learning Objectives

To simulate night and day. To show children how the Earth moves (approx) every 12 hours into shadow and then back into the light. In this activity, teachers and children take these details and put them together to demonstrate how night and day occur.

Background Information

When we speak of day and night, we say things such as ‘getting up with the Sun’, ‘The Sun sinks slowly in the West’ and ‘The Sun goes down like a big bald head’.

Our language indicates that it is the Sun that is doing the moving despite the fact that we know that it is the Earth that is moving around the Sun! Yet most children can recognize pictures of Earth from space. They know that the world is round and many also know or have been told that it is perpetually spinning.

For more information and images see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_rotation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_(astronomy)

Step 1

Show the ball. What is this? This is the Earth. This is your home. This is everyone’s home. (Image 1)

Step 2

Elicit what you can do with a ball: kick it, throw it, catch it, spin it. The Earth is spinning.

Step 3

Show images of the Earth from space. (Images 2–3)

Step 4

Include pictures taken of the Earth in some shadow. This is proof that the Earth is indeed round. (Image 4–5)

Step 5

Invite the children to play ‘The Earth goes on a Spin’. Darken the room and turn on the lamp.

Step 6

Choose a volunteer whose name begins with S or who is wearing sun-like clothes: orange/yellow, bright swirls, etc. The ‘Sun’ holds the lamp.

Step 7

Choose a volunteer whose name begins with E or who is wearing blue and green. This is E-Girl/E-Boy.

Step 8

Both volunteers take their place before the other children. The E-Girl in the middle and the Sun to the left.

Step 9

E-Girl faces the audience with her arms out-stretched and her left hand pointing towards the light. E-Girl sees Sunrise.

Step 10

Ask the question: At what time do the children think the light starts to shine on the Earth?

Step 11

E-Girl turns a quarter to the left until her face is fully in the light. She sees Daytime.

Step 12

Ask the question: At what time do the children think the light is brightest on the Earth?

Step 13

E-Girl turns a quarter to the left until she has her left hand pointing into the light. She sees Sunset.

Step 14

Ask the question: At what time do the children think the light leaves the Earth?

Step 15

E-Girl turns a quarter to the left until her face is totally away from the light. She sees the Night.

Step 16

Ask the question: At what time do the children think the Earth is darkest?

Additional Information

Extensions

Night and Day music:

Talk about the different noises that children hear in the day and night. If you have done the activity ‘As the World Turns’, refer to the scenes they drew on their paper plates and identify the sounds that would accompany their picture.

Create two groups on opposite sides of the room. One group shall represent daytime and the other nighttime. Allocate and practice sound effects for both.

Come together and repeat ‘The Earth goes on a Spin’ activity. This time you will narrate and animate the process by inviting all children of the group to play a role.

Enact the changes as E-Girl goes on a spin, prompted by the teacher: ‘Here come the frogs and the owl. The stars start to twinkle, the birds fall sleep’.

Vice-Versa:

Do the whole activity again, but with two children standing back to back.

Before you start, find your country on the globe.

Find the country on the exact opposite of the Earth. If you are Ireland, the other child is New Zealand.

Repeat the Earth’s rotation, demonstrating that when one child is in the dark (night time) some other child is always in the light (daytime) and vice-versa.

Keywords

Earth Sun Rotation Day Night

Source

Related activity: This activity is a good follow-up to ‘As the World Turns’, where children identify the differences between night and day.

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