Modeling Moon Phases - Part 2

Guiding Question:  How is a New Moon different than a Full Moon?

Objective:  Students will be able to describe why we see a full moon, and why we see a new moon.

Materials: 

  • Sun ball
  • Earth ball
  • Pictures of Moon Phases: Full, New, Quarter, Crescent, Gibbous

Vocabulary:  Full Moon, Quarter Moon, Half Moon, Gibbous Moon, Waxing, Waning

Activity - Prior Knowledge:

  1. Review previous lesson
  2. Ask students, "How often do we expect to see a full moon?" 

 Activity - New Knowledge:

  1. Give a student the big yellow ball and put them in the front of the room (this student is the sun)
  2. Give another student the blue ball, and position them at the center of the room (this student is the earth)
  3. Hand out a full moon picture to a student.  Ask that student to go to where they need to be in relation to the earth and sun.  Tell the student that he/she can ask other students for assistance.
  4. Conduct a Turn and Talk - Why does the moon appear full from Earth when it is on the opposite side of the sun?
  5. Hand out a New Moon picture to a student.  Ask that student to go to where they need to be in relation to the earth and sun.  Tell the student that he/she can ask other students for assistance.
  6. Conduct a Turn and Talk - Why does the moon appear black (New) from Earth when it is between the earth and the sun? 
  7. Complete this process for the remaining moon phases

Wrap-Up: 

Revisit the guiding question and have a discussion and/or record observations in notebooks using claims and evidence.  EX:  "I claim that ____________________ because I observed that ____________________.

Assessment: 

Have the students sketch "why we have a full moon" and "why we have a new moon" in their science notebook.

Extension 1:   Look out your classroom window.  Can you see the moon?  What phase is it.  If you can't see the moon...why not?  If you can't see the moon...then where is it?

Extension 2:  Have your students watch this video.  Then ask the students what they notice...what they think they are seeing.  It may be necessary to point out that the object in the video is the moon, not the sun (because the video was shot at night with very long exposures, the moon appears very bright).  Ask the students why the moon is bright, then gets dim, then gets bright again.  What do we call this?  What phase of the moon are we looking at?