Day and Night Interactive Resources and a Freebie for New Followers

We are working on Astronomy right now, particularly the concepts of Day and Night, Seasons and moon phases.  Here are a couple of great links for visuals that enhance these big ideas.  They are perfect for those of you who are fortunate to have interactive whiteboards!

BBC Bitesize Science:  Astronomy!  These are some of the most kid-friendly interactive flash files that I have used in my classroom.  This one does a great job giving a very clear, concise overview of day and night, seasons and moon phases....plus the narrator has an awesome British accent!

The Living Earth Viewer:
Check out this updated satellite image that shows the parts of Earth that are in daytime and darkness.  We checked it throughout the day when learning about Earth's rotation/day/night and my students loved seeing how different cities moved from daylight to darkness.  You can also zoom in, which is particularly cool in the areas experiencing sunrise or sunset.

I know we all use BrainPop here and there, but some of their movies are definitely more informative than others.  I'm a big fan of this one, as it shows really clearly how Earth's rotation causes day and night and why Earth is divided into time zones.

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/geography/timezones/preview.weml

And now a Day and Night Deal!

If you are teaching timezones and/or the concept of day and night in grades 4-6, I know you will like the day and night spinner activity that I have in my TpT store!  

Earth Timezone Spinner Activity

Students spin the Earth to show how different locations travel through daylight and darkness and experience different times of day.

Here is what the mat looks like in color.  I could not justify making color copies for the whole class, so I used a highlighter to color in the sunlit side and it worked just fine!

The product includes printable day and night spinner mats with assembly directions, student questions and teacher answer key!

I'm offering this product FREE via email to the first 3 NEW followers that sign up for my blog.  Just sign up to follow and then leave a comment below that includes your email address.  In addition, I'll be putting this product on sale in my store for only $1.00 starting today!

Happy Teaching...