January Kids’ Corner
from the Gale River Cooperative Preschool
What is the Winter Solstice?
In this Kids Corner you’ll:
- Learn what the term “Winter Solstice” means, and why we have a shortest and longest day of the year.
- Model how the tilt of the Earth causes longer and shorter days throughout the year.
Did you know that by the time you’re reading this the shortest day of the year will already have gone by? Saturday December 21st was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day (and longest night) of the year, and the calendar start of the winter season.
Why is there a shortest day of the year?
Even though we can’t feel it, you probably know that the Earth is spinning all the time. This is why we have day (when we are facing the sun) and night (when we are facing away from the sun).
The invisible line that the Earth spins around is called its axis. Earth’s axis runs from the north pole to the south pole. As you can see in the picture, Earth’s axis doesn’t run straight up and down; it’s angled. This means that the Earth spins at a tilt, either towards the sun or away from the sun.
Earth’s tilted axis is what gives us the seasons! The northern hemisphere (where we are in New Hampshire) is tilted towards the sun during the summer (left picture below), and away from the sun in the winter (right picture below). This means we get more sunlight and longer days in the summer, and less sunlight and shorter days in the winter.
The picture to the right shows why the seasons change as the Earth makes its way around the sun. Remember, it takes one year for the Earth to make one lap around the sun. Because the Earth is tilted, different parts of the Earth get more or less sunlight at certain points during that trip.
The Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (leftmost image in the picture) is the day that the North Pole reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. This means that the sun has the shortest path across the sky of the year, giving us our longest night.
Now that the winter solstice has passed, every day is getting a little bit longer and every night is getting a little bit shorter! This will continue until the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year) in June.
While January 1st probably comes to mind when you think of the start of a new year, people around the world have celebrated the winter solstice for thousands of years as a time when light starts to take over dark.
SSSSSTTTTTRRRRREEEEETTTTTCCCCCHHHHH Your Knowledge
The Winter Solstice happens in December in New Hampshire because we live in the Northern Hemisphere (north of the equator). If you lived below the equator, say in South America, your seasons would be the opposite! The December solstice would be your Summer Solstice, and your winter would start in June. Can you use the pictures above to explain to someone why winter and summer are opposite in the different hemispheres?
Your Turn! - Visualizing the Seasons
You’ll need:
- Flashlight
- Spherical Object
- Marker or push pins or stickers
Find a spherical object to represent the Earth and a flashlight to represent the sun.
Use pushpins, markers, or stickers to represent the north and south poles on your model Earth.
Next, put a mark or sticker somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere of your Earth (this demonstration will work best if the mark is closer to the north pole than the equator).
Hold your model Earth straight up and down in the beam of the flashlight and rotate it in a circle. When the sticker faces away from the sun it is ‘day’ and when the sticker faces away from the sun it is ‘night’. Notice how days and nights are roughly equal when your Earth is straight up and down.
Next, tilt your Earth away from the sun. Keeping the tilt constant, spin your Earth in circles. Note that your mark or sticker is now spending more time at “night” than “day”. This represents winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Now do the opposite. Tilt your Earth the same amount, but toward the sun and spin. Notice that your mark or sticker is spending more time in “day” than “night”. This represents summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Now that you have visualized both winter and summer, walk in a circle around your flashlight (the sun) holding your Earth at a constant tilt. Practice stopping at the point when your north pole is angled away from the sun the most. This represents the Winter Solstice in New Hampshire.
Share your Knowledge
A lot of people get confused about winter and think that winter happens when the Earth is farthest from the sun (which is incorrect). How can you use this demonstration to explain that winter happens because of the tilt of the Earth?
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/science/solstice
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/axis/
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/the-reason-for-the-seasons/
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/winter-solstice
