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Turning Once a Day is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on explaining day and night and the sun's daily path by Earth's spin, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-ESS1-2. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 21 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Turning Once a Day

5-ESS1-2

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

1.Why is it night in Australia while it is day in Britain?
  • A.Australia is further from the sun
  • B.The sun switches off over Australia
  • C.They are on opposite sides of the spinning Earth, so one faces the sun and one faces away
2.Why are some star patterns seen only in winter?
  • A.Clouds hide them all summer
  • B.As Earth travels around the sun, its night side faces different stars
  • C.Those stars switch off in summer
3.Why does the sun seem to cross the sky from east to west each day?
  • A.The sun travels around Earth each day
  • B.Earth spins toward the east, once about every 24 hours
  • C.Clouds push the sun along
4.How long does Earth take to spin around once?
  • A.About a year
  • B.About 24 hours
  • C.About a week
5.The stars seem to move across the sky during the night. Why?
  • A.Earth is turning, so the stars appear to move
  • B.The stars are blown by wind
  • C.The stars orbit Earth every night
6.If Earth spun around faster, what would happen to the length of each day and night?
  • A.Nothing would change
  • B.Days and nights would be shorter
  • C.They would be longer
7.Why is a shadow shortest around the middle of the day?
  • A.The sun is at its highest in the sky
  • B.The sun is furthest away
  • C.The sun is smallest then
8.In the evening, which way does a stick's shadow point?
  • A.Straight up
  • B.Toward the east, away from the setting sun
  • C.Toward the west, at the sun

LessonPrint · 5-ESS1-2 · Set 21 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Turning Once a Day

Set 21. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.They are on opposite sides of the spinning Earth, so one faces the sun and one faces away
  2. 2.As Earth travels around the sun, its night side faces different stars
  3. 3.Earth spins toward the east, once about every 24 hours
  4. 4.About 24 hours
  5. 5.Earth is turning, so the stars appear to move
  6. 6.Days and nights would be shorter
  7. 7.The sun is at its highest in the sky
  8. 8.Toward the east, away from the setting sun

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-ESS1-2 of the Next Generation Science Standards.