edHelper.com Geography

What Are Time Zones?

---

What Are Time Zones?
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.85

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		ante-meridian, contiguous, post-meridian, zone, based, continental, midday, rotation, nighttime, position, directly, alaska, gain, time, lines, divide
	content words:		North Pole, South Pole, International Date Line, Date Line, New York City, United States, North America, South America

---

Print What Are Time Zones?

Print What Are Time Zones?  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format

	Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
	Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format

Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity

Print a proofreading activity

---

Feedback on What Are Time Zones?

Leave your feedback on What Are Time Zones?  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

What Are Time Zones? By Cindy Grigg

---

¹     Time zones are based on the position of the sun. We say that 12 o'clock noon is midday. The sun is at its highest point, directly overhead. The Earth spins or rotates on its axis, like the spinning of a top. As the Earth spins, the sun looks like it moves across the sky from east to west.
 
²     It takes the Earth about 24 hours to make one rotation. This causes day and night. When one side of the Earth is turned toward the sun, it is day. On the other side of the Earth, it is nighttime.
 
³     The Earth's surface can be thought of as a giant circle. Circles can be measured in degrees. One whole circle is made up of 360 degrees. It takes the Earth 24 hours to turn in a circle. So when we divide 360 degrees by 24 hours, we see that the Earth rotates about 15 degrees each hour.
 
⁴     Each time zone is set up having 15 degrees of longitude. Longitude lines are the LONG lines you see on a globe. They run from the North Pole to the South Pole. They are like the LONG sides of a ladder. There are twenty-four time zones around the world.
 
⁵     Lines of longitude are also called meridians. This word came from the Latin word for midday. The sun crosses the meridians or lines of longitude at midday, or halfway between the times of sunrise and sunset. This is where we get the abbreviations for time of A.M. and P.M.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Geography

Geography

---

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets

Back to School Graphic Organizers Alphabet Worksheets Sight Words Math Worksheets Mazes 50 States Monthly Themes January February March April May June July August September October November December

Fractions Place Value Time and Calendar Money Earth Day Solar System Analogies Nouns Following Directions Listening Capitalization Cursive Writing Patterns and Sequencing Dinosaurs All About Me Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade

Multiplication Division Main Idea Cause and Effect Measurement Decimals Rounding Order of Operations Verbs Community Helpers Adjectives Plants Grammar Addition and Subtraction Contractions Bulletin Board Ideas Word Searches Crossword Puzzles Printable Puzzles Reading Comprehension Reading Skills English Language Arts

Copyright © 2011 edHelper