Describe and explain common observations of the day and night skies. Turn on the model sun and turn off the other lights in the room. Have students stand. Tell them that in this system, the lamp is sun and their head is the earth. Their nose is their hometown on the surface of the earth.
Counterclockwise rotation simulates the direction as seen from the North Pole.
Students can also rotate to show dawn and dusk in their hometowns and get an idea why the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. Allow students to figure out how to rotate to simulate the phases of the moon as they viewed them during the previous month-long observation. As students watch their moons, they will see that it goes through phases similar to those of the real moon. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the earth's shadow. Have students simulate this event.