Exploring Earth Science
The Earth and Moon
Third Grade
Mrs. Farrer’s Class
State Science Core
Travel along and we will find out where
we live in space and what we can see
in space.
Do you know
what a solar
system is?
Do you know
what is in our
solar system?
Our solar system is made up of an
enormous sun and everything that
travels around it.
We live on one
of the nine
planets in our
system. Other
small bodies
called asteroids
and comets can
be found in our
system also.
If we were to put the planets in order ,
from the one closest to the sun, they
would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and
Pluto.
What do you know about how our
planet, Earth, moves in space?
Earth is the third planet. We call Earth
our ‘home planet.’
It is the shape of a sphere.
It has oceans full of water,
green forests, animals,
plants, and breathable air. It
is a unique planet. From
space, the Earth looks like a
beautiful blue-green marble,
with white swirling clouds.
• Sunlight comes from the sun to the
Earth. The sunlight that warms our
faces right now left the sun over eight
minutes ago. The sun warms the Earth.
What causes
daytime and
night time on the
Earth?
What causes the
changing of our
seasons?
The Earth whizzes along spinning in
space at 67,000 miles an hour. We
can’t feel it spinning. Yet is makes one
complete turn every 24 hours.
This spinning
around like a
top is called
rotation. As it
spins only one
side faces the
sun. Day
begins when
our part of the
world turns to
face the sun.
Night falls when our part of the Earth
turns away from the sun. The side
facing away from the sun has
nighttime.
This rotation or spinning of Earth
causes day and night. The Earth
rotates on its axis. The axis is an
imaginary line through its center. It
rotates once every 24 hours causing
day and night.
www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astron
omy/activities/radiobuttonquiz/Earthpz.shtml
Every day the
Earth travels
around the
sun. The
Earth and the
moon travel
together in an
orbit around
the sun once a
year.
One revolution around the sun equals
365 days. This revolution causes the
changing of the seasons.
• http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/earth/seasons/
EarthSeasons.asp
When the Earth moves closer to the
sun, summer returns. When the Earth
moves farther away from the sun in its
orbit, winter returns.
• www.blueneptune.com/~xmwang/myGUI/
EarthSun.html
• What is the
Earth’s natural
satellite?
• What does it look
like?
The moon is the Earth’s only natural
satellite.
• The moon is a
ball of rock that
is dry and dusty.
It has craters,
valleys,
mountains, and
large patches
called seas.
In 1969, the first man stepped onto
the moon. There is no wind or rain
on the moon to wash the footprints
away.
http:/
• Where does the light shining from
the moon come from?
• Why does it seem to change shapes
in space?
The moon circles around the Earth
about once every 28 days. The moon
does not spin like the Earth. The moon
only spins once a month on its axis.
The moon looks bright at night, but it
does not make its own light.
• http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/
moon/moonphase/
We see the moon because the sun
shines on it. The sunlight bounces off
the moon and down toward the Earth.
We see reflected sunlight.
• As the moon travels around the
Earth, we can see different amounts
of the side lit by the sun. The
moon’s appearance changes each
day through the month depending
on where the moon is in its orbit.
• http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPh
ase.html
http://www.geocities.com/eedd88/moon/moo
n.html
• These changes of how the moon
looks from the Earth are called the
moon’s phases. Sometimes the
moon looks completely dark and
seems to disappear. This is called a
new moon. Sometimes the moon
looks round. This is called a full
moon.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon
/moonphase/
• After the new moon, the moon
appears to change. More and more
of the moon starts to show. This is a
crescent moon. When the moon is
growing larger, we call this a waxing
moon.
• It appears to grow
larger until it is a
round, full moon. Then
the full moon appears
to grow smaller. This
is called the waning
moon. When the
moon goes from a new
moon to a full moon, it
has complete one orbit
of cycle.
• A complete orbit
of the moon
around the Earth
produces the
moon’s phases
that we see.
This complete
cycle of the
moon’s phases
takes 29.5 days.
• Because of the
moon’s orbit or
cycle of 29.5 days,
moonrise can
appear later each
day. That is why
we see sometimes
see the moon in the
sky at night and
other times we see
it during the day.
Learning about the Earth and the
moon has made all of you Space
Kids. See if you can now answer
the following questions.
Do you know
what a solar
system is?
Do you know
what is in our
solar system?
What causes
daytime and
night time on the
Earth?
What causes the
changing of our
seasons?
• What is the
Earth’s natural
satellite?
• What does it look
like?
• Where does the light shining from
the moon come from?
• Why does it seem to change shapes
in space?
Continue to explore Earth Science.
Share with others what you have
learned. Have fun!
Works Cited
http://geogrpahy.about.com/library/misc/nearth.htm
http://www.icehouse.net/jmurphy.Home%20Page.htm
http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/planetarium/amateur.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy
http://www.moon-phases.com/
http://www.ac.wwwu.edu/~stephan/phases.html
http://wms.watertown.k12.ma.us/wmssg/Gr8HP/Gr8SCI/SC/seasons.htm
http://www.kidskonnect.com/Space/
http://www.spacekids.com/solarsystem
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon/htm
http://www.netaxs.com/~mhmyers/moon.tn.html
http://www.calacademy.org/planetarium/what/
http://www.ced.appstate.edu/~goodmanj/4401/phenomena/moonphases.htm
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPhase.html
http://home/hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonphase/
http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/earth/seasons/EarthSeasons.asp
http://www.blueneptune.com/~xmwang/myGUI/EarthSun.html
Http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/activities/radiobuttonquiz/Earthpz.shtml
http://www.goecities.com/eedd88/moon/moon.html