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The Earth completes one rotation every 24 hours to give us day and night. When Britain faces the Sun it is daytime, but the other side of the world is in darkness. So in Australia it is the middle of the night.

Split the board or a large piece of paper into two columns, one titled day and the other night. Ask students to fill each column with words, phrases and images that come to mind for each time of day. Students should note that it is light during the day and dark at night, or we see the sun during the day but not at night. They could then be asked to consider, where does the sun go at night?

A kinaesthetic demonstration of the rotation of Earth could then be conducted in the classroom. The windows in the classroom could be blacked out with black paper, blinds or curtains, the room could be darkened and a lamp switched on. The lamp will represent the sun. Students could then be given large copies of a map of the world which they could wrap around their wrist, head or waist. They should then stand with Scotland facing the sun (lamp), this could be marked with a sticker or circled. Ask students what it would be like in Scotland when the earth is in this position and they should note that it will be daytime. Students could then be asked to mimic the movement of the earth by turning anti-clockwise a half turn. What would it be like in Scotland now? It is night-time. Is it night-time everywhere? Students could explore where it is daytime whilst we all sleep. They could also consider what time of day it is if we complete a quarter turn. Complete their anti-clockwise turn and discuss what has happened. We are back to daytime, one day is complete.

The lamp could then be placed in the middle of the classroom and students could explore how the earth moves around the sun whilst still rotating.