Subscribe

5th grade · Science · Unit 10 of 10

Sun, Stars & Shadows

Why the sun looks bright, and patterns in the sky.

What your child practices

Practices why the sun looks brighter than other stars (it is much closer), and the daily and seasonal patterns of shadows, day length and the stars we see, using Minnesota's long summer days and short winter days.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 5E.2.2.1.2; 5E.4.1.1.1 · patterns of shadows, day and night, and stars in the sky, and why the sun looks brighter than other stars

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Day and night happen because Earth spins on its axis.
  2. A constellation is a pattern of stars, like the one the Big Dipper belongs to.
  3. Shadows point away from the sun: west in the morning.
  4. The noon sun is lower in winter than in summer, so winter shadows are longer.

Example: In the morning, the sun is in the east. Which way does your shadow point? Shadows point away from the sun. Away from east is west. Answer: west

Sun, Stars & Shadows in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 10 of 10 in 5th grade Science, after Energy, Speed & Collisions.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Days in Minnesota are longest in…

    • March
    • June
    • December
    • January

  2. Question 2

    Shadows are shortest around…

    • sunrise
    • sunset
    • noon
    • midnight

  3. Question 3

    The Big Dipper is part of a…

    • constellation
    • planet
    • comet
    • moon

  4. Question 4

    A shadow graph over a day shows long, short, then long again. Why?

    • The ground moved
    • Clouds came
    • The object changed size
    • The sun rises, gets high, then sets

  5. Question 5

    The North Star seems to stay still because…

    • it is a planet
    • it doesn't shine
    • it is the closest star
    • it is almost straight above Earth's axis

  6. Question 6

    Day and night happen because Earth…

    • spins on its axis
    • moves around the moon
    • gets closer to the sun
    • stops moving

More 5th grade