The summer solstice is just a couple of days away. Many refer to this as the “longest day of the year” when they really mean “longest period of daylight in a day.” But that’s beside the point of this post which is to share a few handy resources that can help kids understand the summer solstice.

National Geographic offer this hands-on activity designed to help students understand the changes in intensity and duration of sunlight on their part of the world throughout the year. Before the activity you could show students National Geographic’s video What is a Solstice?

Mechanism Of The Seasons is a YouTube video that I found years ago when looking for a video to use in a flipped lesson on the topic of solstices. The six minute video could be helpful in a flipped classroom environment as it covers the same information that your students will review in the National Geographic materials mentioned above.

And here’s a great side-by-side time-lapse of the winter and summer solstices in Manchester, UK.