JUST BLAME MY TILT
By: Jen Ramey and Jessica Willoughby
Standard:
E.ES.05.61 Demonstrate using a model, seasons as the result of variations in the intensity of sunlight caused by the tilt of the earth on its axis, and revolution
around the sun.
Grade Level:
5th
Prior Knowledge:
Students should know terms such as rotation and orbit. They should have a strong idea about how the planets rotate around the sun.
LESSON OUTLINE:
Engage:
Students will do an anticipation guide on seasons, this will be revisited in the evaluate section. Then the teacher will read, “The Twelve
Months”, a folktale from Slovakia about the seasons. After reading the folktale, the teacher will discuss things that are important to the lesson





Even before astronomers began writing details about the solar system people knew the sun played an important role in creating seasons.
Early cultures prayed to deities that they believed controlled the movements on the sun.
Early people made the connection between the sun and fire because they both bring warmth.
Calendars and many festivals are based on the suns movements.
During the winter some places, like the Arctic and Antarctic Circle, see the sun for short periods of time or not at all, like they mention on page 29,
in the Tales of the Shimmering Sky book.
Explain that the largest contributor to the change in seasons is the tilt of the Earth's axis. You can show this by shining a flashlight on a piece
of paper. Shine the light straight onto the paper, so you see an illuminated circle. All the light from the flashlight is in that circle. Now slowly
tilt the paper, so the circle elongates into an ellipse. All the light is still in that ellipse, but the ellipse is spread out over more paper. The
intensity of the light hasn’t changes but the area it covers has.
Explore:
Students will be in groups of 3 or 4. Each group will be assigned a point on the map, and taking provided materials (a lamp, a ruler, a large
piece of butcher paper and a globe) they will model the earth’s progression around the sun, answering questions at every season.
Explain:
The teacher will model the Earth’s yearly progression around the sun, showing how the 23.5degree tilt creates seasons. The teacher will ask the
same questions that the students answered in the explore section, and provide in depth answers.
The Earth’s tilt brings each hemisphere closer to the sun, causing
seasons.
The tilt does not actually make a significant difference in our distance to the sun. In fact, the Northern Hemisphere is
tilted closer to the sun in January.
The Earth’s rotation brings us closer to the sun, causing seasons.
While it’s true that the sun is at one focus of earth’s elliptical orbit, the fact that the orbit is nearly a perfect circle
means that the distance from earth to the sun remains nearly constant all year.
The sun is pretty far off-center within the earth's orbit, making the
distance between earth and sun vary with time of year even more
The sun is nearest the center of our orbit as possible, and what little variance there is happens to be too small to make
a difference.
The seasons occur at the same time all over the Earth.
Nope, while we experience winter the southern hemisphere is experiencing summer!
There places on Earth that experience 24 hours of continuous daylight.
Yes, Scandinavia gets scarce sunlight during the winter.
It is important to point out that the North Pole always points to Polaris, also known as the North Star. The teacher should also define key
terms, such as: winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox and autumnal equinox.
Elaborate:
After answering all the questions on the worksheet, the students will take what they’ve learned about the Earth’s seasons and write a folktale
for the location on the globe that their group focused on. They can use the teacher model to see how that particular location is effected during
each season (i.e. does it not see the sun because of the tilt? Etc.)
Evaluate:
Students will go over their anticipation guides and follow the directions for the “after” portion. Students will also be evaluated on participation
throughout the lesson. Students will be evaluated on their folktales for the following criteria: correct terminology, and representation of the
seasons.