GoalShow the Sun’s path across the sky, with times of the day, and record how it appears to change.
New words
path · the way something goes from one place to anotherarc · a curved line like part of a rainbowshadow · a dark shape made when something blocks the light
Explanation
If we could follow the Sun’s path with a pencil, we would draw an arc, like a rainbow. The line starts low on one side. It rises to the highest point at midday. Then it comes down low on the other side. The Sun seems to move slowly, so we cannot see it move. But we can see that it has moved after some time. Our shadows change as the Sun seems to move. In the morning and evening shadows are long. At midday they are short. Never look at the Sun to check this: look at the shadows.
Worked examples
Lola draws an arc on a picture of her street. She puts a small Sun at the start, one at the top and one at the end, to show where the Sun seems to go.
Sun in the sky
Shadow
low
long
high
short
When the Sun is low in the sky, a tree makes a long shadow. When the Sun is high, the shadow is short.
The Sun seems to move so slowly that we cannot watch it go. We need to wait a few hours before we notice that it has moved.
Class activity
Shadow stick (with an adult): on a sunny day, push a stick into the ground or stand a toy on the pavement. Use chalk to trace its shadow in the morning, at midday and in the afternoon. Is the shadow long or short? Which way does it point? Record the results in a table: time, long or short. Never look at the Sun to do this.
Practice
1
What shape is the path the Sun seems to make across the sky?
An arc, like part of a rainbow: low, then high, then low again.
2
Dilshod looked at his shadow three times in one day. What should go in the empty box?
Time
My shadow
morning
long
midday
?
afternoon
long
Short. At midday the Sun is high, so the shadow is short.
3
The Sun is low, like in this picture, and your shadow is long. Is it midday?
No. At midday the Sun is high and shadows are short. It is more likely early morning or evening.
4
Put these in order, from first to last in the day: the Sun high in the middle of the sky; the Sun low in the west; the Sun low in the east.
The Sun low in the east, the Sun high in the middle of the sky, the Sun low in the west.
