Lesson Class #: Moon Phases II Cours Science 6

Title/Focus e

PROGRAM OF STUDY OUTCOMES

AB.SCI06:3.1.7 Recognize that the Moon’s phases are regular and predictable, and describe
the cycle of its phases.
AB.SCI06:3.1.8 Illustrate the phases of the Moon in drawings and by using improvised
models.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Students will be able to identify the phases of the moon, and in what order they occur

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

 Table lamp (remove shade)
 Sponge balls and skewers
 Drama stage
 Science & math booklets
 Extra math sheets

PREPARATION AND LOGISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

 Account for time transitioning to and from the classroom
o For 6C I will have to take a little extra time to bring half of the students down to
the foyer and bring them back up to collect the other half

 Pay very close attention to the time

 Make sure students are listening, and those in the foyer are doing the proper tasks

PROCEDURE
Introduction Time

 Get students organized 10 min

 Take science and math booklets out of binder
 Sharpened pencil
 Washroom or drink now
 Experiment video one last time
 Set expectations
 No goofing off
 Move counterclockwise when doing the moon phases, and
 do so slowly
 No fooling around with the equipment
 No pushing

Body Time

Topic: First  6A: 15 min (10 min

group doing  Half the class will come with me to the for activity, and
experiment drama stage, and the other half will stay 5 min total for
with the EA in the class to work on pages in moving to and
their booklets (Venn diagram for science, from classroom)
[ask TA about which math pages], do some
extra math problems, or study for the
upcoming quiz

 6B & 6C:
 All students will come with me to the foyer
and bring their math and/or science
 Half of the students will work on their
math/science in the foyer under supervision
of TA and/or EA
 Other half will do the moon phases
experiment with me on the drama stage
 10 min total per group on stage
 Divide this group in half so students
get roughly 4 minutes to do the
experiment so the other students in
the group can follow along
 During this time, I will reinforce
behavioral expectations
 I will do a demo in front of the
students, making sure that everyone
is listening closely
 I will ask for students to go
counterclockwise and try it out on
their own, and then I will ask them
all to form different kinds of moon
phases

 I will set my expectations very clearly in the

beginning
 I want to be able to do something like this
with them again, so I want to know that I
can trust them to behave correctly
 No goofing around with the sponge balls
and skewers
 If students are not following the rules, they
 will sit out and just have to watch their
classmates do the experiment

Topic:  Same process 15 min (10 min

Second for activity, and
group doing 5 min total for
experiment moving to and
from classroom)

Conclusion Time

 Reflect on the activity 5-10 min

 “Did this experiment give you a good idea of how the moon
phases happen?”
 Ask about moon phases
 Use illustrations on board to ask which part of the moon I
would shade in
 Hand out marked integer quizzes if there is enough time

Assessment
 I will use this experiment as a way for students to show me their understanding of the
phases of the moon, and since I have only a few doing the activity at a time, I can
make keep track of which students may be confused, and which students understand
how to follow the instructions and show me the correct phase
 I will also keep track of behavior
 I have split the class into two groups in such a way that will hopefully mitigate
the possibility of disruptions
 Either way, I will keep a close eye on students (who are seated as well) to see
if they are following along and understanding how to form the correct moon
phase
 Reflection:
 What worked well and what didn't?

Lesson II (6B):
 My UC observed this lesson
 I had a lot of help from the EA again
o 6B does not usually have an EA, so I was grateful to have the EA from 6A
assist with this lesson
o She helped me run the experiment on the drama stage while my TA stayed
with the students who were in the foyer
 This was good because my TA was able to assist students with their
math and science and catch them up
 Earlier in the day, I spoke with a couple students who have exhibited problematic
behaviour during lessons
o I told them that I wanted then to participate in the experiment and that I wanted
to be able to trust them with handling it, and for the most part they were well
behaved
o I had to remind one of the students a few times to stop talking with his friends
during the experiment
 I handed the marked integers quizzes back at the end of the period

 I knew this was going to be a challenge with some of the students

o I had a difficult time managing to get students to stay on task, and I was
surprised to see which students I had to remind to concentrate
 I think I should have spent another minute or so with each class on the stage since we
got back to the class with about 10 minutes left
o The students had lots of very interesting questions, so this took up some of the
time, and I was really interested to see what they had to say
 My UC reminded me to tell the students the behaviour I want to see from them, and
why they should follow these rules, instead of telling them what I don’t want to see and
what will happen if they don’t follow my expectations
o I will do this better next time and come up with ways to state my expectations