Sun, Moon and Stars: Patterns in the Sky

Every morning the Sun comes up, and every evening it goes down. At night, the Moon and the stars light up the dark sky. The sky changes all day long, but it changes in the same way again and again. Let’s look at these patterns and learn to predict what we will see.

This lesson takes about 15 minutes. You can take a break after each part.

Before you start

Sun, Moon and Stars: Patterns in the Sky

Learning objectives

  • I can tell how the Sun seems to move across the sky during the day.
  • I can tell that day and night follow each other, again and again.
  • I can tell that the Moon seems to change shape, and that its shapes come back.
  • I can tell when we see the stars, and use patterns to predict what the sky will look like.

The Sun in the day sky

Up, across and down

In the morning, the Sun comes up on the east side of the sky. During the day, it seems to move across the sky. In the evening, it goes down on the west side.

Every day the same

The Sun is low in the morning, high at lunchtime and low again in the evening. It does the same thing every day: this is a pattern.

Above a house and three trees, a dashed arc shows the Sun low on the left (1), high in the middle (2), and low on the right (3). Below, three pictures of the same tree: (1) morning, low Sun, long shadow; (2) midday, Sun high above, short shadow; (3) evening, low Sun on the other side, long shadow.
1. Morning: the Sun is low and the shadow is long. 2. Lunchtime: the Sun is high and the shadow is short. 3. Evening: the Sun is low again on the other side.

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Day and night

Day, then night

It is daytime when the Sun is in the sky. When the Sun has gone down, the sky gets dark: it is night.

Again and again

Day and night follow each other in the same order: day, night, day, night. The Sun does not go out at night. It comes up again the next morning.

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The Moon

Night and day

Like the Sun, the Moon comes up, moves across the sky and goes down. We often see it at night, but sometimes we can also see it in the daytime sky.

Shapes that come back

The Moon seems to change shape: sometimes it is big and round, sometimes it is a thin curve. The same shapes come back in the same order, about every month.

Eight pictures of the Moon in a night sky, in two rows. The Moon starts dark, becomes a thin curve, then half, then almost round, then fully round, and then gets thinner again until it is a thin curve.
Read the pictures in order: the Moon grows from dark to round, then gets thinner again. Then the same shapes come back.

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Stars and patterns in the sky

Stars at night

On a clear night, we can see many stars. In the daytime, they are still there, but the light of the Sun is too bright for us to see them.

Watch and predict

To find a pattern, look at the sky again and again and write or draw what you see. When something happens the same way every time, you can predict it.

Three panels. (1) The bright, glowing Sun. (2) Sunlight shines on the Moon, and the Moon's light goes toward the Earth. (3) A house at night under a dark sky full of stars, with one star circled.
1. The Sun shines by itself. 2. The Moon shines because the Sun lights it. 3. At night, we can see many stars.

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Review game

Final assessment

To master the lesson, you need at least 60% correct answers.

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Summary

  • The Sun comes up in the east, seems to move across the sky and goes down in the west, every day.
  • Day and night follow each other, again and again; the Sun does not go out at night.
  • The Moon can be seen at night and sometimes in the day; its shapes come back about every month.
  • We see the stars at night; in the day, the Sun is too bright.
  • Watching the sky again and again shows patterns that help us predict.

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