Grade Five Science

Hello Boys and Girls!

How was your past week? How was the National Grade Five Assessment that you wrote on Wednesday and Thursday? I’m sure you did your best. Just keep working even harder and you’ll continue to succeed.

We have been working hard for these past few weeks on finding out as much as we can and understanding the Solar System. This week we will look at what is there beyond our Solar System and our galaxy, then we’ll revise by looking at some summary points and by answering a number of questions.

Stars group together to form galaxies. Our sun is one star in a very large group of stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is huge! There are about 200 billion other stars like our sun in the galaxy. Can you imagine that! The Milky Way galaxy is shaped like a spiral. Our sun is positioned in one arm of the spiral. The Milky Way is so big that it takes light 100 000 years to cross from one side to the other. Telescopes have been getting better , helping us to see farther into space. Scientists estimate that there are billions of other galaxies like the Milky Way galaxy. Each one has billions of stars. Well the Universe is made up of all the galaxies and of course, the empty space between them. Phew! That was a lot to imagine! Let’s get back to Earth!

Let’s summarise what we have learnt so far.

● The Earth is a sphere that moves around the Sun in a path called an orbit. The shape of the orbit is that of a slightly stretched-out circle called an ellipse.

● The Sun is a star and the earth is a planet. ● The Solar System is made up of the Sun and all things that orbit around it. ● It takes the Earth 365.25 days to orbit the Sun, so 365.25 days is one year. ● The Earth spins once on its axis (imaginary) every 24 hours, so 24 hours is one day. ● The imaginary line around the middle of the Earth is called the equator. ● The half of the Earth above the equator is called the northern hemisphere, and the half below the equator is called the southern hemisphere. ● The Earth’s axis is tilted, so when one hemisphere points towards the Sun the other hemisphere points away from the Sun. ● It takes the Moon about 28 days to orbit the Earth. ● It takes the Moon exactly the same time to spin once on its axis as it takes for it to orbit the Earth. This means the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. ● Our Sun is one star in the Milky Way galaxy. There are billions of stars in the galaxy.

Here are some questions for you. The questions require short answers, explanations, and the choice of one correct answer (multiple choice). Note that some questions may be quite similar. You may return to your notes/previous articles when you are checking your answers. This week’s article has been planned with revision in mind.

Answer all questions as best as you can. 1. How long does it take the Earth to spin around once on its axis?

2. When it is daytime on one side of the Earth, why is it night time on the other side?

3. 4. About how long does it take the Moon to orbit the Earth?

Why the Earth? does the Moon look different on different nights as it orbits

5. Why do we always see the same side of the Moon? 6. What is a galaxy? 7. What is the name of the galaxy we are part of? 8. What is the shape of our galaxy? 9. What shape are the Sun, the Earth and other planets?

10. What does the Earth orbit around, and how long does it take to make one orbit?

11. Put these planets in order of size, with the smallest first: Earth Mars Jupiter

12. It takes the Earth 24 hours to spin once on its axis. What do we call this length of time?

13. What does the Moon orbit around?

14. When no part of the Moon reflects light towards Earth, how much of the Moon can we see?

15. What is the Milky Way?

16. How many days does it take the Earth to make one complete orbit of the Sun?

17. What is the name of our galaxy?

18. Which is the largest planet in the Solar System? A. Mercury

B. Jupiter

C. Earth

D. Mars

19. Which of these is a galaxy?

A. The Sun and all the things that move around it B. The orbit of the Moon around the Earth C. Billions of stars grouped together

D. The distance from the nearest star to Earth

20. What is the biggest object in the Solar System? A. Earth

B. Jupiter

C. The Sun

D. Saturn

21. The Sun and all things that orbit around it together are known as: A. The Universe

B. The Galaxy

C. The Milky Way

D. The Solar System

22. Which of these is the name given to the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth?

A. Equator

B. Hemisphere

C. Orbit

D. Arctic circle

Work as hard as you can. You can check your answers from the work of the past weeks.

Until next week, goodbye, Boys and Girls, be safe!