The Earth's Orbit

 


The Earth's OrbitThe Earth's orbit influences much of our lives, from the length of our year to the changing of the seasons.

We are travelling at a speed of approximately 30 kilometres per second or 110 million metres per hour around the Sun yet we don't feel ourselves moving!

The Earth takes 365 and a quarter days to orbit the Sun, giving us our 365 day year with an extra day once every four years as a 'leap year'. The Earth is also spinning on an axis, tilted at 23°. This means that different parts of the Earth receive more direct rays from the Sun at different stages of the orbit, giving us our seasons.

Find out more about the Earth's orbit around the Sun and our changing seasons with our collection of worksheets and printables.

Equinox Colouring Page

Equinox Colouring Page

Here's a simple equinox colouring page to print out for the children to colour in - perfect for a space topic. 

Equinox Story Paper

Equinox Story Paper

Use this equinox story paper to describe what an equinox is, or as inspiration for some creative story writing or poetry...

Label The Seasons Worksheet

Label The Seasons Worksheet

We've got a challenging worksheet to test how much the kids know about seasons - can they label the Summer Solstice, Vernal Equinox, Winter Solstice and Autumnal Equinox on the diagram?

Orbit Model

Orbit Model

Make your own model to show how the Earth orbits the sun while the moon travels around the Earth. Print onto some card, and cut out the sun, moon and Earth and the two strips.

Seasons - The Earth's Orbit Cloze

Seasons - The Earth's Orbit Cloze

The aim of this cloze is to use the words in the box to fill in the blanks in the text below. It's a fun way to test how much the kids have learnt about seasons and the Earth's orbit. We've also asked the children to label the seasons on the diagram. 

Seasons - The Earths Orbit Poster

Seasons - The Earth's Orbit Poster

Use our poster illustrating the effect of the Earth orbiting the sun as part of a classroom display.  We have Northern and Southern hemisphere versions, you could display them side by side for comparison.

Seasons - The Earths Orbit Writing Worksheet

Seasons - The Earth's Orbit Writing Worksheet

We experience four seasons on our planet every year: autumn, winter, spring, and summer. This worksheet asks children to describe the changes in the Earth's seasons as the Earth orbits the sun.

Spring Equinox Word Search

Spring Equinox Word Search

Can you find the words relating to the Spring equinox in the grid? If you get stuck we have the solution to help.

Spring Equinox Worksheet

Spring Equinox Worksheet

Are you learning about the different seasons at the moment? If so, ask the kids to try and complete this Spring Equinox Worksheet, which has questions all about the Spring Equinox, and space to draw and label a picture too.

The Earth's Orbit Worksheet

The Earth's Orbit Worksheet

Here's a worksheet aimed at older children, all about the Earth's orbit. Can they find out the information needed to answer the questions, then draw a picture of the Earth's orbit and label the equinoxes and solstices? 

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