Moon Phases

To complete our unit on Spinning in Space our class spent a month studying the Moon and its phases.

The Moon

The Moon was probably made 4.5 billion years ago when a large object hit the Earth and blasted out rocks that came together to orbit round the Earth.  They eventually melted together, cooled down and became the Moon.  From the Earth we can only see one side of the Moon; the other side is always turned away from us.

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We each had a Moon journal to complete and over the four weeks we had to draw what the moon looked like each evening/day and what time we viewed the Moon.

Here are some examples below.

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At times it was difficult to see the Moon because of the weather. When this happened we used a website called time and date which would clearly show us what the moon looked like each night in Adelaide and what the phase of the Moon was called.

When we completed the journal we answered some questions by reflecting on our findings. We discovered that sometimes the Moon would not rise until after midnight and it would still be in the Sky until early the next morning!

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All parts of the Moon are lit in turn by the Sun.  As it rotates round the Earth we see different fractions of the Moon that is illuminated.  These are known as the phases of the Moon, or lunar phases.   The Moon changes from a thin crescent to a full moon and back again to a crescent in one month (actually 29 days, which is a lunar month).

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In total there are 8 phases of the Moon which can be seen on the diagram below.

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As a class we watched this video below to help us make sense of why the Moon changes shape.

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Can you explain how the moon changes shape in your own words?

What did you learn or find interesting about the Moon and its phases from completing the Moon journal?

What did you enjoy the most about completing the Moon Journal?

What else would you like to find out about the Moon?

 

3 thoughts on “Moon Phases

  1. To Mrs Baldwin

    I would like to learn more about how it moves even know we’ve learnt a bit about it we haven’t learnt it all!! :):):):):):)

    from lachie

  2. Dear everyone in the class, I thought everyone did a great job on the moon project i thought it was a fun task and also frustrating if you couldn’t see the moon and thanks to Mrs Baldwin for printing all the sheets.
    From FATE

  3. Dear mrs Baldwin I really had fun learning about how the moon moves because when I was small in year two I knew nothing about it and even in year three I did not no as much as I do now from Luis

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