The Earth is a planet that is over 4 billion years old. It is round and covered mostly with water. The Earth has an atmosphere made up of nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases. It revolves around the sun once every 365 days and rotates once every 24 hours, causing day and night. The tilt of the Earth on its axis causes seasons. The Earth has one moon and a diameter of about 8,000 miles. Its surface is mostly ocean with continents and polar ice caps. The Earth is constantly changing through geological processes like erosion and volcanism.

1. The Earth
By Megan Duhamel
Scholastic Vocabulary Readers

2. What is the Earth?
A planet
It is round
It is beautiful
It is more than four billion years old
Most of it is covered with water
The only planet where living things have
been found
There are more than six and a half billion
people inhabit (live) the Earth.

3. What is an ATMOSPHERE?
It is a thick blanket of air that surrounds
the Earth.
78% nitrogen
21% oxygen
1% other

4. REVOLUTION
365 days
You cannot feel it, but the Earth is
always moving
It travels around the sun on an invisible
path
It takes about one year to go all the
way around

5. ROTATION
The spinning of Earth as it travels
around the sun
When one part of the Earth faces the
sun, another part faces away.
This is why we have days and nights.
It takes 24 hours for the Earth to rotate
around the sun.

6. DAY AND NIGHT
24 hours

7. ROTATION
23 hours and 56 minutes or 24 hours

8. ROTATION

9. SEASONS
When the Earth is tilted as it moves
around the sun.
When the U.S. is tilted TOWARD the
.
sun, it is summer.
When the U.S. is tilted away from the
sun, it is winter.

10. ROTATION

11. DISTANCE FROM THE SUN
• 150 million kilometers
•93 million miles

12. DIAMETER
12, 800 kilometers
7,900 miles

13. TEMPERATURE
Varies with location

14. HOW MANY MOONS?
One!

15. SURFACE AREA
• It is mostly blue with brown
and green continents and
white ice-capped poles
• Three fourths is covered with
water

16. THE CHANGING EARTH
Earth is always changing.
Wind and water carve deep CANYONS.
It took millions of years to make the Grand
Canyon.
Lava comes from deep inside the
Earth.
Lava flows from volcanoes, cools and hardens, and
can build tall mountains.
People can change the Earth too (build
farms, towns and big cities.