Activity 10:  Phases of the Moon (GLEs:  1, 2, 4, 20, 64, 67)

CC:  Ask students to look for the Moon every day for the next few weeks. They should draw what they see and record the time on the calendar square. For those students living in areas where it is difficult to observe the sky because of street lights or poor weather conditions, a newspaper, weather website, or at http://imagiware.com/astro/Moon.cgi or other sites suggested in the resources can be used to record the Moon phase. The students should also prepare a classroom Moon calendar as a visual record that all might share and use to make predictions the following month. Compare what is drawn daily on the individual Moon calendars to the identified Moon phases on a store bought calendar, what is observed in the sky, or to the newspaper or web resources above. Students should begin to look for monthly patterns. Have students notice the number of days in a complete cycle of phases. They should conclude that a calendar month is based roughly on the Moon cycle.

Sample worksheets are attached for the students to use for the calendars.

MS Word Blank Calendar Template

Weekly Calendar.pdf