Autumn 1 

This half-term in science, the children will be exploring Earth and space. They will learn about the movement of the Earth, Moon and planets, describe them as spherical bodies, and use the Earth’s rotation to explain day, night and the Sun’s movement across the sky.

The children have started their learning by exploring the two theories associated with our solar system, the heliocentric and geocentric  theories. They explored both models and why people believed in the geocentric theory to begin with and how over time, with new technology, people began to change their mind and begin to understand that the heliocentric theory was correct. 

The children drew both models and explained what they represented. 

This week the children were thinking about the different planets in our solar system and their size in comparison to each other. The children followed instructions to construct the solar system using playdough.

The children were exploring and describing the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system. They identified the distance of the planets from the sun and concluded that the further a planet is from the sun, the longer its orbit and therefore its year.