Developmental Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Rachel Serfass Date: 11/6 and 11/9/2020

Group Size: Whole Class (20) Allotted Time: 40 minutes each (two days) Grade Level: 4

Subject or Topic: Phases of the moon

Common Core/PA Standard(s):

Standard - 3.3.4.B2
SCALES

Know the basic characteristics and uses of telescopes.

PATTERNS/PHASES

Identify major lunar phases.

PATTERNS

Explain time (days, seasons) using solar system motions.

Learning Targets/Objectives:
The fourth grade students will be able to identify the phases of the moon by exploring how
light reflects off the surface of a sphere.

Assessment Approaches: Evidence:

1. Turn and talk 1. Observation
2. Exit ticket 2. Responses on the exit ticket.
…. …
Assessment Scale:

Subject Matter/Content:
Prerequisites:
- Know what “phases” are
- Understand fractions, and simplifying fractions
Key Vocabulary:
crescent - the shape of the visible part of the moon when it is less than half full
gibbous - a moon in between a half-moon but less than a full moon
waxing - to appear to become larger or more full
waning - to appear to become thinner or less full

Content/Facts:
- The moon is a sphere.
- The moon gets its light from the sun.
- The shape of the moon depends on where the moon is in reference to the Earth.
- The moon has 8 phases in its cycle.
Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies:
Give all the students a piece of blank paper, and ask them to draw a picture of the moon.
Have them share their drawings and talk about how some of them look different, but the
different ones aren’t wrong.
Ask: How could you have drawn different shapes and still have drawn an accurate picture of
the moon?
Allow the students to discuss the reasons for this, until reaching the conclusion that the
moon appears to change shapes.

Development/Teaching Approaches
DAY ONE
- Give each student a piece of aluminum foil. Ask: So what shape actually is the moon?
Answer: A sphere or a ball. Have the students crumple the sheet of aluminum foil into
a ball to model the moon.
- Explain that we are going to explore the different shapes of the moon by modeling
the relationship between the sun, the Earth and the moon by using our balls of foil, a
projector and ourselves. Say: We know that our ball of aluminum foil represents the
moon. Ask: What do you think the projector represents? Answer: The sun. Say:
Correct, the moon gets its light from the sun, and reflects it back to Earth. Ask: And
what do we represent? Answer: The Earth.
- Turn on the projector, turn off the lights in the classroom, and invite all the students
to the front of the room where the projector is shining, make sure they are far
enough away from the projector, and spread out so that all students can fit their ball
of aluminum foil into the light.
- First, have the students face away from the projector, and put the ball of aluminum in
the light in front of them. Ask: How much of the ball that you can see is lit up by the
light from the projector? Answer: All of it. Ask: Does anyone know what phase this is?
It’s a pretty popular one. Answer: Full moon.
- Have the students turn their body so that one shoulder is facing the projector, and
put the ball in the projector light. Ask: How much of the ball that you can see is lit up?
Answer: Half of it. Ask: Why do you think only half of the ball that you can see is lit
up? Turn to a partner and discuss why you think that is. The teacher should listen to
the students as they discuss, to see if they hear the right reason. Have students share
 that either had the right answer or had interesting answers that are on the right track.
Answer: Because we are looking at it from the side, so even though one whole side is
lit up, there is still a whole other side that isn’t lit up, so we’re seeing half the side that
is, and half the side that isn’t.
- Next, have the students turn to face the projector light, but not look directly into the
light, and place the ball in the light. Ask: How much of the ball that we can see is lit
up? Answer: None of it, the whole side is dark. Ask: Why can’t we see any part of the
ball lit up? Is the light just not working anymore? Answer: We’re looking at it from the
back, so that part that is facing away from us is lit up.
- Have the students turn again so that the opposite shoulder from last time is facing the
light, and put the ball in the light of the projector. Ask: Now how much do we see lit
up? Answer: Half. Say: Right! Just like that other time.
- With chalk, on the board, draw four circles, spaced far enough apart that another
circle will fit between each (this is for later). Say: So, we just observed four different
phases of the moon. Ask: What was the first one we saw? Answer: Full moon. Color in
the whole first circle and write “full moon” underneath it. Ask: What was the second
phase that we saw? How much of the moon was lit up? Answer: Half of it. Color in the
left half of the circle. Ask: What about the third one we saw? Answer: It was all dark.
Say: Right, so I’m going to leave this circle not colored, and this phase is called a new
moon. Write “new moon” underneath the circle. Ask: And finally, what did the fourth
one look like? Answer: Half the moon was lit up again. Color in the right side of the
circle.
- Say: So we saw four different phases of the moon modeled here, but what about that
shape of the moon that we always see in pictures that looks like this? Draw a picture
of a crescent moon on the board. Say: This is called a crescent moon. Ask: How do you
think that shape is made? Let’s see if you guys can figure out which way to face the
projector and put the ball in the light to find this shape? Allow them a few minutes to
experiment with the position of their bodies to the projector before showing them.
The crescent shape happens between the new moon and the half-lit phases, so their
body should be facing towards the light, turned slightly to the side, but not fully.
- Turn off the projector and have the students return to their seat. Give them the
foldable at this point so that they can record the information. Say: We observed five
different moon phases today, but there are actually three more. Let’s look at the four
we have drawn on the board. Each of the other phases fall in between these phases.
Draw the last four circles, one between each circle already on the board, and then
draw an arrow from the last moon back to the first one to indicate the cycle(The
fourth circle can either go after the fourth one or before the first one) . Ask: Where do
you think that the crescent moon we saw would be? Answer, between the new moon
and the half-lit moon. On the right side of the new moon, drawn a crescent on the
right side of the circle. Say: And did you know that there is another crescent moon
before the new moon? Draw the crescent moon on the left side of the new moon.
- Ask: So how can we tell the difference between these two phases? Students answers
might be: the lit up part is on a different side of the circle OR one is before the new
moon and one is after. Introduce the words “waning” and “waxing”. Waning means
 getting bigger and waxing means getting smaller. Ask: Which one looks like the lit up
part is getting bigger? Anwer: the one after the new moon. Write “waning crescent”
under this circle. Ask: So that would make this moon what? Answer: waxing crescent.
- Ask: What about these other two circles we haven’t talked about yet? Point to the
empty circles (not the empty new moon) What do you think these circles would look
like? Allow them to make guesses. Say: So this is gonna look like the reverse of the
crescent moon, where everything but the crescent is lit up. It kinda just looks like a big
oval. Color in a little more than half of the right side of the circle to the right of the 1st
quarter moon, and a little more than half of the left side of the circle to the left of the
3rd quarter moon. Assign waning and waxing titles to these. The one to the right of
the 1st quarter is waning, and the one to the left of the 3rd quarter is waxing.
- Ask: What do you think these half-lit circles are called? (Students will probably say
half moon) Say: These are a little confusing. They are actually called quarter moons,
because the cycle of the moon is 8 phases, and these happen at a quarter of the way
through the cycle and three quarters of the way through the cycle. Point to the new
moon. Ask: If this is the beginning of the cycle, what is the half-way point? Answer:
The full moon. Say: Right, and half of a half is a quarter, right? Ask: So where is half-
way between the new moon and the full moon? Answer: Where the half-lit moon is.
Ask: so is this the first quarter or the third quarter? Answer: First. Label it “1st
quarter”, and the other half-lit moon “3rd quarter”.
DAY TWO
- Start the day off by pulling up powerpoint on the phases of the moon, and using it to
review the phases of the moon from the previous day.
- On each slide, ask the students what the phase shown is, and then ask the students to
come up to the board and show you where the sun and earth would be located to
create that phase.
- After they show you on the slide with just the image of the moon, switch to the next
slide which contains the name of the phase, along with a visual of where the sun,
moon, and earth would be during that phase of the moon.
- Allow them to use their foldables to answer the review questions.
- After reviewing, get out the oreos and explain that in partners, the students will be
modeling the phases of the moon using the oreos.
- Model how to create the phases of the moon by splitting the oreo into the two sides,
so you have two circles. Using the cream from the inside of the oreo, create a
crescent moon, and ask them what phase of the moon it is.
- Split the class into groups of two (allow a group of three if necessary), and then give
each group an individual pack of oreos and a plate to work on.
- Allow the students time to work together to create the phases of the moon.
- Walk around the classroom, observing the students working together, and assist if
necessary, asking them questions to get them thinking such as “what phase comes
next?” or “what does a gibbous moon look like?”
- When the students have finished creating their models, have them present their work
and explain their process, how they started, and how they decided how to represent
the cycle. It could be in a straight line, two lines, or in a circle on the plate.
 - After the oreos activity, have the students clean up whatever mess they made, and
wash their hands before moving onto the final activity.
- Using the exit slip, have the students use their foldables or refer to the oreo activity to
answer the questions on the exit slip.

Closure/Summarizing Strategies:
- Say: You all did a wonderful job exploring the phases of the moon today, scientists!
Tomorrow, come prepared to learn about the other planets in our solar system, and
explore how they are similar and different from our planet. Spend some time tonight
thinking and talking to your friends and family about this question: Do you think other
planets could support living things?
- give the students time at this point to talk with a partner about the idea of if other
planets could support living things and why they think that?
- Have a short discussion on their ideas of what they discussed and their reasons.
- Say: Well, scientists, we are going to find out tomorrow if you were right, because we
are going to explore the other planets in our solar system!

Accommodations/Differentiation:
- Student with slight visual impairment
- larger text on slide show,
- larger paper for foldable so they can write the information in larger print
- enlarged print on the exit ticket

Materials/Resources:
- Sheet of paper (1 per student)
- Projector
- Aluminum foil (1 sheet per student)
- Moon Phase Powerpoint
- Individual packs of oreos
- Exit Ticket

References:
Blanchard, Pam. Phases of the Moon. Science 4 Inquiry, 18 May 2015.

Reflective Response:
Report of Student Learning Target/Objectives Proficiency Levels

Remediation Plan (if applicable)

Personal Reflection Questions

Additional reflection/thoughts