Earth, Sun, & Moon

Objectives

To understand how the moon is seen in phases, and to name and describe these phases.

Resources

Device to take photographs | Biscuits and buttercream (or Oreo cookies) | Assignment 6

Today's Lesson

Main Activity

Discuss what was learnt in the previous lesson, then ask your child to use the 3 balls to explain the process.

Watch the Phases of the Moon video.

Discuss the length of time it takes the Moon to orbit the Earth and look at the different apparent shapes of the Moon at the various times. It would be ideal for your child to create a month-long chart and (as long as there is a clear sky) to go out each night to draw the Moon as accurately as possible, to observe how its shape changes over the course of a lunar month.

However, if this proves difficult, use Oreo cookies (or if not available, you could use buttercream and add this to plain biscuits!) to demonstrate the phases of the moon as follows:

Assignment

Please ask your child to complete Assignment 6.

Citations

[1] www.youtube-nocookie.com