Worksheet: Earth and space (Year 5)

Name or group: ____ Date: ______

Curriculum (England, Year 5 Earth and space):

• the movement of the Earth and the other planets relative to the Sun,
• the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth,
• the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies,
• day and night.

In SpaceWise: Grown-ups > Start a lesson > Year 5 Earth and space. Choose the mission "Day and night", the Journey "Tour of the Planets" or the Science Lab "Sun, Earth and Moon model".

Never look straight at the real Sun, even with dark glasses. In the app the Sun is safe to look at, because it is a picture.

Part 1: Day and night (mission "Day and night")

1. Find the UK on Earth. Look for the gold pin. Is the UK on the sunny half or the dark half right now?

2. Speed up time so that 1 second is 1 hour. What moves: the Sun or the Earth?

3. Finish the sentence: "We have day and night because ______."

4. How many hours does the Earth take to turn once, from noon to noon? ______ hours

Part 2: Round worlds

5. Look at the Earth, the Moon and the Sun in the app. What shape are they all? __

6. Earth is 6,371 km from its centre to its surface. The Moon is 1,737 km. About how many Moons fit across the Earth?

[ ] about 2 [ ] about 4 [ ] about 10

7. The Sun is 695,700 km from its centre to its surface. Is the Sun bigger or smaller than the Earth? __

Part 3: Orbits (Journey "Tour of the Planets")

8. What does the Earth travel round? __

9. What does the Moon travel round? __

10. Match each world to the time it takes to go round once.

    World	Time
    The Moon round the Earth	A. about 687 days
    The Earth round the Sun	B. about 27 days
    Mars round the Sun	C. about 365 days

    Moon: _ Earth: _ Mars: ____

11. Name the eight planets in order from the Sun.

    ---

Part 4: Think and talk

12. People long ago thought the Sun went round the Earth. What did you see in the app that shows the Earth turns instead?

    ---

Answers for the teacher

1. It depends on the time of the lesson. In daytime in the UK, the pin is on the sunny half.
2. The Earth turns. The Sun only seems to move across our sky.
3. "... the Earth spins (rotates), so each place turns into the sunlight and then away from it."
4. 24 hours. (The Earth turns once relative to the stars in 23 hours 56 minutes. A full day from noon to noon is 24 hours.)
5. Approximately spherical (round like a ball).
6. About 4 (6,371 ÷ 1,737 is about 3.7).
7. Bigger. The Sun's radius is about 109 times the Earth's (695,700 ÷ 6,371).
8. The Sun.
9. The Earth.
10. Moon B (27.3 days), Earth C (365.26 days), Mars A (687 days).
11. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
12. With time sped up, the stars and the Sun all seem to move together because the Earth turns. From space you see the Earth spin and the line between day and night move.

Sources: NASA planetary fact sheets for the Sun, Earth, Moon and Mars (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/), checked 3 October 2026. National Curriculum in England: science programmes of study (GOV.UK).