Lesson video

Hello, My name is Ms. Chorekdjian.

I'm so excited to be learning with you today.

I will be guiding you through our lesson.

We are going to do some great learning together.

Let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson from my unit called Seasons: how does the weather change through the year? This lesson is called Introducing the Seasons.

Your learning outcome will be to explain Earth's movement and how the sun gives us night and day and the seasons.

Some of this learning is brand new, but I am here to help you.

This links back to previous learning you might have done about the weather.

You might also be able to name some basic weather elements and notice how the weather changes between seasons.

You might have done some simple observations of the weather, and you might have used different equipment to measure and map the weather in your school grounds.

Here are the key words that we will be using together in today's lesson.

Before we find out what they mean, let's practise saying them together doing my turn, your turn.

Axis.

Axis.

Orbit.

Orbit.

Cycle.

Cycle.

The sun.

The sun.

Good job, everyone.

Let's find out what these key words mean.

Axis.

An axis is an imaginary straight line through Earth which rotates around it.

Orbit.

An orbit is the regular route in space that one object takes around another, for example, the path Earth takes around the sun.

Cycle.

A cycle is something that happens from start to finish, usually before it starts again and repeats.

The sun.

The sun is a star around which Earth orbits.

It is a source of light and heat for our planet.

Good job, everyone.

I want you to be using these keywords throughout our lesson as well.

Here are the learning cycles that we will be working through together in today's lesson.

First, we're going to be thinking about what makes it day or night, and then we're going to be thinking about what the four seasons are.

I'm really excited to get started today.

I hope you are too.

Shall we begin? Earth is 3D.

It has height from top to bottom, width from side to side, and depth from front to back.

It's shaped like a sphere and round.

It doesn't sit upright in space, but it is tilted on its axis and doesn't stay still.

So we've talked there about Earth being the shape of a sphere, like this.

So it's round and 3D, and it's not upright but it's tilted on its axis and it doesn't stay still, it moves.

It spins on its axis and goes around, it orbits the sun.

Let's find out what this means.

Earth has an imaginary line running through it from the North pole to the South pole called an axis.

There, you can see the axis is represented by that dashed blue line.

The Earth is tilted on its axis.

So let's do this together with our hands.

Imagine you've got a ball or a sphere in your hands, like this.

And now, we're going to tilt that ball or sphere slightly to the side like this, and then it's going to move around.

So can everyone practise doing that together, please, to help you think about Earth's movement? Pause the video and have a go at practising that.

Good job.

So you've talked about the Earth having the imaginary line running through it.

That's called its axis, and the Earth is tilted on its axis.

And there you can see the axis, as I said, represented by that blue dashed line.

And then you can see the black arrow is representing how the Earth rotates on its axis.

So the Earth is round and spherical, it's 3D, it's tilted on its axis, and then it rotates on its axis.

Good job if you were able to practise that with a partner.

Let's have a quick check here.

The imaginary line through Earth is called it's: A, rotation, B, orbit, or C, axis.

Pause the video here and complete that check.

How did you get on completing that sentence? Did you say that the imaginary line through Earth is called its axis? Good job.

Well done if you did.

You can give yourself a big thumbs up.

Earth spins on its axis from west to east.

So you can see that black arrow is showing us how Earth is spinning and rotating on its axis, and the direction it moves from is from west to east.

So that compass there is to help you to locate and work out the direction that it's spinning in.

As you can see, the black arrow is what represents it.

And again, the axis is there shown as the blue dashed line.

There, you can see west is located, and so is east.

So the arrow shows us the movement of direction from west to east as the Earth spins on its axis.

It takes 24 hours, so that's one complete day, to complete one rotation.

So that rotation of 24 hours when the Earth spins on its axis from west to east is one day.

Let's have a quick check here.

How many hours does it take for Earth to complete one full rotation on its axis? Is it A, 48 hours, B, 12 hours, C, 24 hours, or D, 36 hours? Pause the video and complete this check.

How did you get on? Were you able to say that it takes 24 hours for Earth to complete one full rotation on its axis? Good job.

Well done if you got that right.

And remember that it rotates from west to east.

Fantastic learning so far.

While the Earth is rotating on its axis, one part of the Earth is facing the sun and receives the light.

This is daytime.

So you can see the sun is represented there in that diagram.

And then all of those yellow arrows represent the sun's rays reaching Earth.

And so the parts that receive the sun's rays make it daytime.

You can see that the other half of the Earth doesn't receive the sun's rays, and it looks dark there and that's what makes night.

So there, you can see the sun's rays are hitting the Earth, and the Earth is full of light.

It's daytime because of the sun's rays.

At the same time, the other part of Earth faces away from the sun.

It's in darkness, this is the night.

So there, you can see the night.

Because it's not getting any light from the sun, it's dark.

This is how the Earth is tilted on its axis, and as it rotates, it receives light from the sun while the other half of the Earth doesn't receive any light.

So there, you can see that that bit that's in darkness is night, and this bit that's light receives the light from the sun, and that makes it daytime.

So there, you can see how we get day and night.

Let's have a quick check here.

Earth rotates on its axis.

This takes 24 hours and gives us: A, summer, B, day, C, winter, or D, night.

Pause the video here and complete this check.

How did you get on? Were you able to say that the Earth rotates on its axis? It takes 24 hours, and that gives us day and night.

Good job, everyone.

Well done if you did.

I'm going to give you another big thumbs up.

This is really tricky learning, but you're working through it so well.

It's time for task A.

What I would like you to do is to explain to your partner how Earth's movement gives us day and night.

Pause the video here and complete task A.

How did you get on with task A? Were you able to say that Earth has an imaginary line running through it called an axis, and that Earth is tilted on its axis? Good job if you were able to say that.

Did you expand your answer further by saying Earth spins and rotates on its axis from west to east? This takes 24 hours, which is the same as one day, to complete one rotation.

Good job.

Again, well done if you did.

And then finally, were you able to say that while the Earth is rotating on its axis, one part of Earth is facing the sun and receives the light? This is day.

At the same time, the other part of Earth faces away from the sun.

It is in darkness.

This is the night.

Well done if you were able to record and write how the Earth's movement gives us day and night.

If you did a picture or you used your hands to represent that as well, that's totally fine too.

It's really tricky learning, like I said before, but you're doing so well with it.

Good job, everyone.

You can have another big thumbs up.

It's now time to move on with our lesson.

We are going to be thinking about what the four seasons are.

So we've looked at what makes it day and night, and now, we're going to be thinking about the seasons.

While Earth is rotating on its axis, it also orbits, which means moves around the sun.

Both movements are happening at the same time.

So the movement that we learned about that gives us day and night, Earth rotating on its axis, happens at the same time as Earth orbits the sun.

So Earth is moving around constantly on its axis, like this.

So it's tilted on its axis, and it's rotating.

And while it's doing that, it's orbiting the sun.

So it's going around the sun while it's doing that.

And if you look carefully at this diagram, it shows you with the small black arrows how the Earth is rotating on its axis.

And then the larger black arrows are showing you how it orbits the sun.

Remember, both of those things are happening at the same time.

Earth orbits the sun, that means it goes around the sun.

So you can see in this diagram, the sun is in the middle, Earth goes around the sun, that means it orbits the sun, and that orbit is represented by that blue dashed line.

It takes the Earth 365 and a quarter days to orbit the sun.

One cycle is one year, so that's 365 full days, and then a quarter of another day.

We add the quarter days together to have a leap year.

That means that we get an extra day every four years on the 29th of February.

So three years out of four, February only has 28 days.

And then on the fourth year, February's got 29 days.

And that's because the Earth's orbit of the sun takes 365 full days and a quarter.

Let's have a quick check here.

How many days does it take Earth to orbit the sun? A, 356 and a half days, B, 346 days, or C, 365 and a quarter days.

Pause the video here and complete this check.

How did you get on? Were you able to say that it takes Earth 365 and a quarter days to orbit the sun? Fantastic.

Well done if you did.

You can give yourselves another thumbs up.

The equator is an imaginary line that runs around the centre of the Earth.

So in our diagram here, the equator is represented by that pink line that goes around the centre of the Earth.

Remember that the Earth is tilted on its axis, and that axis is represented by the blue dashed line.

The yellow arrows show us the light the Earth receives from the sun.

There's the equator located on our diagram.

The areas around the equator are hotter than the areas at the North Pole, and that's because that light travels a shorter distance.

You can see those arrows around the equator are shorter than the arrows that are at the top and the bottom of the Earth.

There, you can see those bits are hotter, and the bits that are at the top and the bottom are colder.

And that's because the light travels a lot further to reach Earth.

Let's have a quick check here.

The equator is an imaginary line that runs around the (instructor humming) of Earth.

Is that A, the top of Earth, B, the side of Earth, or C, the centre of Earth? Pause the video and complete this check.

How did you get on completing that sentence? Were you able to say that the equator is an imaginary line that runs around the centre of Earth? Good job.

Well done if you did.

You can give yourselves another big thumbs up.

Fantastic learning so far for today.

When the Earth orbits the sun, the places tilted towards the sun experience warmer seasons, while those tilted away experience the colder seasons.

And that's because the parts that are tilted towards the sun are closer to the sun, so they receive all of that warmth and light a lot earlier than places that are tilted away from the sun.

The light travels a lot further to get to those areas so it's colder.

There, you can see the warmer parts represented, and the colder parts represented.

So the warmer parts are the parts that are tilted towards the sun, and those are warmer seasons, while the colder parts are the colder seasons because they're tilted away from the sun.

Again, you can see on this image the colder parts represented, and then the warmer parts.

So always remember that the warmer parts are warmer seasons, and they're warmer because the Earth is tilted towards the sun.

This learning is so tricky, but you're doing really, really well with it.

Seasons show us how weather changes over a year.

So here's a picture that shows you four different images of the same place, but at different times of the year, one in each of the seasons.

In the UK, we experience four seasons in one year.

Remember that one full orbit of the sun takes one year.

The length of daylight also changes between seasons in the UK.

The four seasons we experience in the UK are called: winter, spring, summer, and autumn.

I wonder if you can identify which of these trees is showing us which season.

I'm going to tell you in a minute, but I wonder if you can do that first as a partner activity just to see your thinking so far.

Pause the video here and tell me which of these trees represents which season.

How did you get on? Did you say that the first tree represents winter, and that's because all of the leaves have fallen? Good job if you said that.

The next tree represents spring, because it shows us the leaves starting to grow.

Summer shows us a tree in full bloom, so that's represented there.

And then finally, autumn is the season where all of the leaves start to change colour and fall to the ground.

Well done if you were able to match those seasons with the pictures of the trees.

There are four seasons.

Can you name them? Complete this check with a partner.

Pause the video now.

How did you get on naming the four seasons? Did you say autumn, winter, spring, and summer? Good job if you did.

Well done, everyone.

Tell your partner what season we are in now.

Good job, everyone.

Well done If you were able to name the season that we are in at the moment.

When we experience spring and summer, that means that during this part of Earth's orbit, the UK is facing towards the sun.

Remember that we said the areas that are tilted towards the sun experience warmer seasons.

In those two different parts of Earth's orbit, we are experiencing summer and spring because the UK is tilted towards the sun.

There, we can see spring and summer.

Because of this, it feels warmer, and there are more hours of daylight.

Let's have a quick check here.

Places that are tilted towards the sun experience: A, colder seasons, B, no difference in seasons, or C, warmer seasons.

Pause the video here and complete this check.

How did you get on completing this sentence? Did you say that places that are tilted towards the sun experience warmer seasons? Good job.

Well done if you did.

You can give yourselves another big thumbs up.

When we experience autumn and winter, it means that during this part of Earth's orbit, the UK is facing away from the sun.

Remember, we talked about parts of the Earth that are tilted away from the sun means that they experience colder seasons.

So there in these two parts of Earth's orbit, you can see that we are tilted away from the sun, and that means we are experiencing the seasons of autumn and winter.

And that means it feels a lot colder and there are fewer hours of daylight.

Let's have another quick check here.

Places that are tilted away from the sun experience: A, colder seasons, B, milder seasons, or C, warmer seasons.

Pause the video here and complete that sentence.

How did you get on, geographers? Were you able to say that places that are tilted away from the sun experience colder seasons? Good job.

Well done if you did.

You can give yourselves another big thumbs up.

It's now time for task B.

What I would like you to do is to complete the paragraph below to explain how Earth's movements gives us seasons.

You can also draw a picture.

The paragraph says, Earth (instructor humming) the sun.

It takes Earth (instructor humming) days to orbit the (instructor humming), which is the same as (instructor humming) year.

When Earth orbits the sun places tilted towards the sun experience (instructor humming) seasons while those tilted (instructor humming) experience colder seasons.

And the words that you can use to complete those sentences are written in the box at the bottom.

Pause the video now and complete Task B.

World geographers, how did you get on with task B? Were you able to complete this paragraph to explain how Earth's movement gives us seasons? Did you complete the sentences like this? Earth orbits the sun.

It takes 365 days to orbit the sun, which is the same as one year.

When Earth orbits the sun, the place is tilted towards the sun, experience warmer seasons, while those tilted away experience colder seasons.

Well done if you were able to complete that paragraph using those words below.

You might have also drawn a picture there.

So I've drawn a picture of Earth, and I've shown it tilted on its axis.

I've shown it doing one rotation representing one day, and then I've also shown it to orbit the sun.

And remember, that takes 365 and a quarter days to orbit the sun.

Well done, everyone.

You've worked really, really hard explaining Earth's movement and how the sun gives us day and night and also the seasons.

We've come to the end of our lesson now, so let's go through a quick summary of all the learning that we've completed together today.

The Earth orbits the sun.

The Earth spins on its axis from west to east once every 24 hours.

As one part of Earth facing the sun receives its light, the part facing away is in darkness.

The places tilted towards the sun experience the warmer seasons, while those tilted away experience the colder seasons.

Good job, everyone.

You can give yourselves one big thumbs up because that was a really tricky lesson, but you've worked through it so well.

You've been fantastic today.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson, and I'll see you really soon for the next lesson.

Bye.