Year 5 - Earth & Space

Year 5 Science unit offers five dynamic outdoor lessons designed to bring the wonders of the cosmos to life. From modelling planetary orbits and moon phases to explaining day and night and even building sundials, your class will actively explore fundamental astronomical concepts.

Lesson Plans

Describing the movement of planets

Get ready for an out-of-this-world adventure as you explore the solar system! This lesson plan helps Year 5 pupils describe the movement of Earth and other planets relative to the Sun, culminating in creating their own solar system models.

Learning objective:

To describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the Sun.

Investigating a planet’s length of orbit

Embark on a cosmic journey to investigate the secrets of planetary orbits! This Year 5 science lesson challenges students to uncover the captivating relationship between a planet’s distance from the Sun and the time it takes to complete an orbit, culminating in creating and analyzing their own scientific graphs.

Learning objective:

To investigate the relationship between the distance of a planet from the Sun and its length of orbit.

Describing the movement of the moon

Discover the mesmerising dance of the Earth and Moon in this captivating lesson! Year 5 pupils will investigate how the Moon’s movement creates its changing phases, culminating in a hands-on activity to model these celestial transformations.

Learning objective:

To describe the movement of the moon and understand the phases of the moon.

Explaining day and night

Unravel the mystery of day and night in this engaging outdoor science lesson! Year 5 pupils will model Earth’s rotation to explain the apparent movement of the Sun and compare times across the globe using a giant playground map.

Learning objective:

To model, describe and explain day and night.

Exploring the apparent movement of the Sun

Explore the apparent movement of the Sun and the concept of time in this practical outdoor lesson! Year 5 pupils will create their own sundials and use them to tell the time, connecting their observations to the Earth’s rotation.

Learning objective:

To explore the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky.

Before you get started

Safety and suistanability is super important!