Day and night — Earth science, 4–6 years
Earth keeps turning, so the Sun lights different places at different times. Earth science, 4–6 years.
What day and night mean
Day is the time when our part of Earth faces the Sun and is bright. Night is when that part has turned away, so the sky looks dark and stars may be visible.
Why does it change?
People needed to know when it was light enough to travel, work and find food, and when it was time to rest. The changing light makes a natural rhythm: roughly one day and one night as Earth turns once.
A lamp and a ball
1. Put a sticker on one side of a ball. 2. Shine a lamp at it: the sticker side is bright. 3. Turn the ball slowly; the sticker moves into darkness, then back into light. The lamp is like the Sun and the ball is like Earth.
The common mix-up
It is easy to think the Sun travels around us each day because it seems to cross the sky. What we see is the effect of Earth turning, just as trees seem to move backwards when a car travels forwards.
Where it helps
Day and night help us plan when to wake, eat, play and sleep. They also explain why a friend or a place far away may have darkness while your window is full of morning light.
Keep exploring
Other languages
Loading MyLeoNes™…