How To Make A Life-Size Sundial

Next Friday is the Summer Solstice, aka the longest day of the year, so being the self-respecting homeschooler that I am, I decided to turn this into a learning opportunity by making our own sundials. (Well, actually I had another project planned that went totally awry but ended in a good place. You can read about it at Creative Cynchronicity today!) –Erin

Supplies

• a bit of concrete that gets full sun all day long
• chalk
• string
• clock

Directions

If you want to make this easier on yourself I would strongly recommend doing this project at either 9 a.m., noon, or at least at the top of an hour.

Pick a center for your sundial and mark it (for reference sake). Tie the chalk to one end of your string and holding the other end tightly on that center point pull the string taunt. Use the chalk to draw your circle.


Look at where your shadow falls and mark the hour. From there you can use whatever method you’d like to mark the rest of your sundial/clock. We choice to stand opposite each other and worked our way around the circle, but only after jumping the gun and putting the first 12 in the wrong place.


For the record, the purpose of this sundial was to teach the kids about how ancients used the sun to tell time. If you have older kids you could get much more technical with this project.

Don’t forget to head over to Creative Cynchronicity for another summer fun project!