Light and Shadows

Yesterday, we began our Lights and Shadows topic. We went outside in the morning and drew around our shadows and three hours later we went to check if they had moved. We noticed that the shadows had changed position and were now turning slightly clockwise, they had also shrunk a lot too! 

Why was this happening?

Firstly, we thought about how the shadow itself was created. The sun creates light and since the light from the sun cannot go through your body, you get a shadow in front of you (when the sun is behind you). You are blocking the light source.

Why were our shadows moving? 

The earth is spinning which causes the sun to be shining on a different spot on the earth, which is why our shadows kept moving directions.  Since the earth spins in the same direction all the time, the shadow always moves in the same direction as well.

I think this is going to be a fascinating topic Year 3 :)