The Summer Space Project - The Moon

We have been busy investigating our Summer Space project and it occurred to me that despite me telling you that it was our topic that I haven't posted all of the fun that we have had!

 

We started with the moon.

 

William had been asking lots of questions about the moon, why it is so large and yet smaller than the earth and why it changes shape.

 

After searching on YouTube I found this great video which discusses the phases or the moon.

After watching the video we went over the different phases and the terms used:

		Phase 1 - New Moon - The side of the moon that is facing the Earth is not lit up by the sun. At this time the moon is not visible.
		Phase 2 - Waxing Crescent - A small part (less than 1/2) of the moon is lit up at this point. The part that is lit up is slowly getting bigger.
		Phase 3 - First Quarter - One half of the moon is lit up by the sun at this point. The part that is lit up is slowly getting bigger.
		Phase 4 - Waxing Gibbous - At this time half of the moon is lit up. The part that is lit is slowly getting bigger. Waxing means to slowly get bigger.
		Phase 5 - Full Moon - The side of the moon that is lit up by the sun is facing the Earth. The entire moon is lit up at this point.
		Phase 6 - Waning Gibbous - The moon is not quite lit up all the way by sunlight. The part of the moon this is lit is slowly getting smaller. Waning means to slowly get smaller.
		Phase 7 - Last Quarter - Half of the moon is lit up but the sun. The part that we can see lit up is slowly getting smaller.
		Phase 8 - Waning Crescent - A small part of the moon is lit up at this point. It is getting smaller by the minute.

It was then our turn to create some of the different phases:

Materials

 

A Cup

Plain Paper

Black Card

Scissors

White Chalk

Pen

 

Method

 

 

We started off by placing a cup upon the plain piece of paper.

 

Using a pen the boys drew around the cup and created two circles.

 

 

They then cut the circle out creating a circular hole and a white circle; both of these needed for the next stage.

 

Placing the white sheet of paper over the black card the boys then used the white chalk to fill the circle. This then created the "Full Moon" phase.

 

 

Now, using the white circle the boys placed it in position over the hole in the plain paper covering it partially. In this instance the boys created a crescent moon.

 

This carefully placing and positioning can create each phase of the moon.

 

 

I decided to only create 4 phases with the boys as it was easier and more age appropriate in completion. We did discuss the other phases and how we can recognise them and I can't see why we could replicate this and do all 8 phases later on.

 

Learning about the different phases of the moon was really engaging and interesting. The video showed and spoke about the phases at an age appropriate for most primary school aged children.

 

The little craft was great fun and really easy to replicate.

 

 

 

 

After posting our pictures on social media everyone quickly told me of this above video!

 

I have no idea how or why I hadn't seen this before but it is a perfect excuse to get the Jaffa cakes out at the end of the craft and replicating the different phases!

 

 

What do you think? Would you give this easy craft a go? Or just find an excuses to get the Jaffa cakes out? ;)