Lesson Plan

1. The MOON & ITS PHASES

2. The moon changes visible shape each night. Follows a predictable pattern The shapes are called phases The phases last 27 days and 8 hours

3. The Phases Begins with NEW MOON (not visible) WAXING CRESCENT

4. FIRST QUARTER WAXING GIBBOUS

5. FULL MOON WANING GIBBOUS

6. LAST QUARTER WANING CRESCENT

7. Goes back to new moon and repeats We all know… The Earth revolves around the Sun The moon revolves around the Earth

8. When rotating… The moon always has the same side facing Earth This is because… It takes an equal amount of time to rotate on its axis…

9. …as it does to rotate the Earth The phases we see are the same because of our view point from Earth

10. What makes the moon visible to us? The Suns reflection The moon does NOT make its own light

11. Depending on what position the moon is in… …it determines what phase we see

12. If the moon is on the opposite side of Earth from Sun… …the sun reflects entire moon on the side we can see

13. If the moon is between the Earth and Sun… …the sun’s light hits the moon’s side we can’t see

14. All the phases This includes all 8 named phases, plus the shapes in-between the named phases.

15. Questions to think about What are all the phases? How long does it take for all the phases to happen? What makes the moon visible to us?

16. Citations Irargerich, “Big Full Moon”, April 21, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons License. Minds-eye, “Crescent Moon 7-26-09”, July 26, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons License. Dcysurfer, “First quarter luna (with Apollo landing sites)”, February 3, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons License. Olibac, “lune/moon”, September 7, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons License. Waifer X, “081106-1060460”, November 11, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons License. Brron, “13,09,09”, September 13, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons License. DraconianRain, “Lunar Dreams (5th to 18th March 2007)”, March 16, 2007 via Flickr, Creative Commons License.