In our Science lesson this afternoon, the children completed an investigation to observe what happens to shadows throughout the afternoon. The children set up rounders posts in the playground and whenever the sun came out, they were able to see the shadow it created. The children measured the length of the shadow and where it was on the ground. They could soon see the movement of the shadow and the length changing. By 3pm the shadow had gone from 160cm to 210cm in length and had completely moved in a clockwise direction. We discussed our findings back in the classroom and worked out that it wasn’t the sun that was moving but the Earth. Some children used the words rotating and spinning to describe their thoughts about what was causing the movement. Connor went even further and described the effect of the sun disappearing over the horizon and therefore casting shadows at a different angle. That was why they looked longer! Well done Connor!

Science-Shadows during the day