THE SUN:
OUR LOCAL STAR

THE SUN - STAR LESSON

Directions:

Print the Our Local Star reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Have students take turns reading the passage aloud, discussing questions and interesting points.

Put students in pairs and have them complete questions 1-5 together.

Assign the last two questions as homework.

Lesson Excerpt

Have you ever counted the stars? How many did you count? Do you know what stars are made of? Do you know why they are bright and why they twinkle?

A star is a massive body of gas that emits light because of its high level of heat. According to astronomers, there are at least 70 sextillion (that's 70 with 21 zeros after it) stars in the universe! Stars are grouped into galaxies. The Milky Way Galaxy, home to planet Earth and our sun, is home to 300 billion stars!

Stars can be as small as a city (dwarf stars) or as 1,000 times larger than our sun (giant stars). They can live for billions of years. Astronomers believe that our sun is 4.5 billion years old and that its lifetime will be 10 billion years.

Our sun, which has a diameter of 109 times that of Earth, is the star nearest to us. It takes 24 hours for the earth to complete a full revolution on its axis, and 365 days to complete one orbit around the sun. (continued...)