Grade 5 · Unit 6: Earth’s movements

The Earth rotates on its axis

One spin every 24 hours gives us day and night.

Spinning Earth

The Earth rotates (spins) on its axis. The axis is an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole. One full turn takes 24 hours – one day.

The axis passes through the North Pole and the South Pole. At the poles, a full day and night take the whole year!

Day and night

At any time, half of the Earth faces the Sun. It is daytime there. The other half faces away. It is night there. As the Earth spins, places move from day into night and back again.

Because the Earth is round, the line between day and night is a circle. On one side people see sunrise, on the other sunset.

Which way?

The Earth spins from west to east. That is why the Sun rises in the east: places in the east turn to face the Sun first. Dhaka sees the sunrise before Delhi, and Delhi before London.

If you look down on the North Pole from space, the Earth spins anticlockwise.

A tilted axis

The Earth’s axis is tilted – it leans to one side. This tilt is why we have seasons, as you will see in lesson 6.5.

The Earth’s axis is tilted at about 23.5 degrees and always points the same way in space, towards the Pole Star.

What I learnt

• I know that the Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.
• I can explain day and night using the Earth’s rotation.