Step One:
Take your materials outside on a sunny day and put your pencil or stick upright. You can do this (with an adult’s help, if necessary) by sticking it into the ground or, if you don’t have soft ground nearby, by making a disk with clay as a base.
Step Two:
You will notice that your pencil casts a shadow. Mark where the shadow lands with a small rock.
Step Three:
Check your sundial every hour, marking where the shadows land with a rock each time. Once the first hour passes, try and predict where the next hour markers will fall!
Try this project at different points during the summer, spring, fall, and winter and make notes in your Nature Observation Journal about how long the shadows are, if there’s any difference in the space between the hour markers, or any other changes you may find!
