Moon Phases Book Making Day

Standard 2:
- Earth and Space Science. Students will gain an understanding of Earth and Space Science
through the study of earth materials, celestial movement, and weather.
Objective 2:
- Observe and record recognizable objects and patterns in the night sky.
Strand a:
- Observe, describe, and record patterns in the appearance and apparent motion of the
moon in the night sky.
Objective:
- Students can recognize there are 8 different phases of the moon as well as name and
describe each of them.
Student Friendly Objective:
- I can name and describe the 8 different phases of the moon.
Materials:
- pre-made paper books, construction paper, glue, phases of the moon worksheet, pencil,
Moon Phases Diagram Sheet
Vocabulary:
- new moon, waxing gibbous, first quarter, waxing crescent, waning gibbous, waning
crescent, third quarter, sphere, phase, orbit, rotate, reflect, axis
Essential Question:
- What are the 8 phases of the moon?
Engage:
- Previously we looked at a model of how the moon appears in its 8 phases. We stood in
the middle of the diagram, pretending to be the earth, and turned on our axis to see how
the moon’s appearance changed as our perspective of it changed. Today, we are going to
make our own individual books about the 8 phases of the moon. But first, let’s review
some of the facts we know about the moon and its orbital pattern.
Explore:
- Why is the moon referred to as a natural satellite?
- Because it orbits the Earth and it is not man-made.
- How many days does it take for the moon to complete one full cycle of its 8 phases?
- 27.3 days
- That’s right, 27.3 days for the moon to orbit the Earth.
- Does the moon make its own light?
- No, the moon reflects the light from the sun. That light reflects back down onto
earth and that is why the moon appears to be glowing at night.
- The moon constantly seems to be changing in appearance. In the beginning of its cycle,
the moon appears to be growing until it reaches a full moon. Then the moon appears to be
shrinking. Why does the moon’s appearance seem to grow and shrink throughout its
cycle?
 - Depending on the position of the sun, the moon is reflecting different amounts of
light down on to Earth.
- There are two specific terms we use to describe the growing and shrinking of the moon’s
appearance. Can anyone tell me what those are?
- Waxing and Waning
- Which word describes the shrinking appearance and which word describes the growing
appearance?
- Waxing is growing (like maxing out or adding wax to something to make the
object larger)
- Waning is shrinking
- Ok great job on that review. Now I need you all to take out your moon worksheets from
the previous lesson. We are going to use those books to help guide us while creating our
phases of the moon books.
- I made an example book for you all. It looks like this. I put the title of my book on the
front of the book, as well as my name. The book opens up like an accordion, and each
page has a pocket with a white card in it. On the white card where the black square is,
that’s where we are going to put the images of the moon.
- Your first set of directions are this:
1. Wait at your desk until I call your row up to grab materials. The first set of
materials you will need are 8 strips of the white paper (the black square is already
glued on), the pre-made model of the 8 phases of the moon, and 1 glue stick.
Once you have these materials return to your seat.
2. Your next step is to use your moon diagram sheets you created previously to
create the 8 different phases of the moon on your 8 sheets of paper.
3. Once you have glued on every moon piece to your strips of paper, try to place
each sheet in the correct order of the moon’s cycle, starting with the new moon.
Raise your hand when you think you have the sheets in the right order.
- (I will be circulating the room at this time to answer any questions and to check that each
student is working and completing this first task. I anticipate that the students will work
at different paces so I will provide the next set of instructions to students as they finish).
- The next set of instructions are:
- Get a blue book from me and write the phases of the moon in order from left to
right starting with the new moon phase. If you need a reminder of what this will
look like, I will leave my example on the white board.
- Early finishers may write down some facts about the moon on the back side of their book.
Explain:
- Why do we call one of the phases the first quarter and another phase the third quarter?
- Does the side of the moon that is facing away from the sun ever face the sun?
Extend:
- If the moon’s orbital path grew bigger, would the amount of time it takes for the moon to
orbit the Earth change? Why or why not?
Evaluate:
- I will collect the books that the students made and evaluate their understanding of the
moon’s different phases by the books they wrote. I will give the students their books back
as soon as I have had the chance to observe their work.
- If there is enough time at the end of this lesson, I will administer the Post-Test to students
to show their growth. If there is not enough time, this test will be administered the next
day at the beginning of the science period.