Winter Solstice 2023

The Winter Solstice will be here Thursday, December 21 at 10:27 PM (US Eastern Time) for the Northern Hemisphere.

Equinoxes and solstices have inspired people's curiosity and helped them organize their lives since before history was recorded.  Your students are likely no exception.

Here are some basic facts to share:

• The Winter Soltice occurs twice each year - once in each hemisphere.

• December for the Northern Hemisphere and June for the Southern Hemisphere.

• It is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year.

Want to dive a little deeper? NJCTL invites you to use our free, editable course materials to help your students understand the big picture. The Earth-Moon-Sun System chapter in our Physical Environment course is a great place to start. We’ve created a shortened version of this presentation. You can click here to download it as a PDF and use it as a conversation-starter for your classroom!

You can also find this presentation in our Middle School Course Physical Environment, in the Global Climates Unit and in the Earth-Moon-Sun Chapter.

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