Earth's axial tilt

Imagine you have a toy globe (the round ball that has a map of the world on it). Now, hold it up straight and imagine a straight line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line is like a big stick that is sticking out of the globe. You can try to wiggle the globe around by moving the stick from side to side, but the globe always stays straight up and down.

Now, pretend that you are the Earth, and your head is at the North Pole and your feet are at the South Pole. Your head is a little tilted, so you are not standing straight up and down like the globe. This is because the Earth's axis (the stick that goes from the North Pole to the South Pole) is not straight up and down. Instead, it is tilted at an angle.

This tilt is important because it affects the way the sun shines on different parts of the Earth at different times of the year. In the summer, the Northern Hemisphere (where North America, Europe, and Asia are) is tilted toward the sun, so it gets more direct sunlight and is warmer. In the winter, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, so it gets less direct sunlight and is colder.

The Earth's axial tilt is also why we have seasons. As the Earth orbits (moves around) the sun, the tilt makes different parts of the Earth face the sun more or less directly at different times of the year. That's why it's colder in the winter and warmer in the summer in most places.

So, to sum it up, the Earth's axial tilt is like being a little bit crooked, and it makes the sun shine on different parts of the Earth at different times of year, which gives us seasons.