Multiple Moon activities

This article describes several activities that the author uses to teach students about the Moon, it's phases, the timing of its movement, as well as resources to use with students. It is a c... See More

This article describes several activities that the author uses to teach students about the Moon, it's phases, the timing of its movement, as well as resources to use with students. It is a capsule unit for teachers able to fill in the details about how to complete each of the activities.

Understanding Moon Phases

What middle school student struggles to memorize the phases of the moon? That is the problem. Memorizing is not the answer. Understanding is the answer and this article is the path to use ... See More

What middle school student struggles to memorize the phases of the moon? That is the problem. Memorizing is not the answer. Understanding is the answer and this article is the path to use to help students achieve that understanding. The explanation is very good and there is the construction of a moon clock which is easy to do and very visual for students and sometimes teachers. Furthermore there is a kinesthetic trick with your arms that will help as well. This is a must read article.

Moons Stories

This article gives a good overview of how to teach moon phases to students. It gives some history about the names for a full moon which makes a nice link to literature. The moon clock is v... See More

This article gives a good overview of how to teach moon phases to students. It gives some history about the names for a full moon which makes a nice link to literature. The moon clock is very useful also. Some of the descriptions about the moon phases would have been clearer with diagrams rather than words.

When can you see the moon and phases

This activity includes a pape rmanipulative that shows phases of the Moon on a disk that can be positioned to show where the Sun and Moon phases are located relative to the horizon. Usin... See More

This activity includes a pape rmanipulative that shows phases of the Moon on a disk that can be positioned to show where the Sun and Moon phases are located relative to the horizon. Using this model students fill in a data table. Helps students to see times of day and night moon rises and sets. Can be used with sky observations to verify. For timing in three hour intervals this Moon Clock works best around equinox.

Deepen students understanding of moon phases

This author focuses not only on how to teach the sequence of moon phases, but goes to a deeper understanding of relationship between direction, general time of the day and the phase. The m... See More

This author focuses not only on how to teach the sequence of moon phases, but goes to a deeper understanding of relationship between direction, general time of the day and the phase. The moon clock from the Lowell Observatory is a great took. It took me a while, though, to figure out the author's description of his way of modeling the relationship between the phase , direction, and time. A picture would have been worth the hundreds of words he used to describe it! Overall, a very useful article with some great ways to assess student's understanding.