We the end of the term, we Google Earth from out in the Universe into a little closer to the planet. The next science unit will be on Moon Phases and Seasons. As we begin moon phases tomorrow, I will giving the students a month long assignment. Now I know that sounds rough, but seriously, the assignment will be about 3 minutes a night for 28 days (or as many of the 28 days that you can actually see the moon….hopefully the weather cooperates some.)
They will be bringing home a paper that looks like this:
Here’s a digital copy of it, if necessary for anything: Moon Calendar
They’re assignment will be to fill in the circles for how the moon looks each day, leaving the lit parts the color of the paper, and shading the shadowed parts. So, if the moon looks like this:
Then their drawing should look like this:
Notice, I didn’t necessarily worry about making sure the space was all the way shaded in. The important thing is that I can see a clear distinction between the light side and the dark side. On days that you can’t see the moon because it’s cloudy, just make note of that by writing cloudy or overcast.
These will be assigned Monday, November 4. I will check them every Wednesday:
November 6
November 13
November 20
November 27
I will be checking them this first Wednesday to make sure they’re off on the right foot, and then they will be due Monday, December 2, where we will take class time to fill in the back side of the paper.
If you have any questions, please ask. Otherwise, happy moon gazing!