Having a SPACEtacular time in Science!

In Year 5, we have started our brand new topic all about Earth and Space. Over the past few science lessons, we have already learnt about some fascinating facts relating to our own planet and all the other planets in our solar system. The children quickly learnt the order of the planets and their proximity to the sun using a mnemonic (memorable rhyme).

On Tuesday’s lesson, the children travelled back in time in order to learn about the famous philosopher, Aristotle. We learnt how he gathered evidence that Earth was round. He found that when he observed a ship sail across the ocean, the ship’s hull disappeared below the horizon first. He found that you could see different stars in the northern skies than you could see in the southern skies. We also learnt about how he observed that the shadow that the Earth made on the Moon during an eclipse was curved.

Today’s lesson involved the children learning about how the planets move in our solar System. We did this practically out on the playground with an Earth, Sun and Moon. We even looked at just how long some of the other planets take to orbit around the Sun. Did you know that Neptune takes 60,190 Earth days to fully orbit the sun!?

It’s been a cracking start to the project and the kids are all brimming and buzzing with facts.

Tom