Using thisMoon Song (Animated Music Video), students learn about the phases of the moon through catchy, interesting lyrics.
This solar system activity is a Space Race game where 2nd to 5th Grade students spin, write and color the eight planets in order. Includes trivia cards, practice and answer key.
This Moon Writing Worksheet gives 2nd grade students five short facts about the Moon, four questions to answer on the lines, and space to write two sentences of their own. An answer key is included for quick checking.
Using thisMoon Song (MP3), students learn about the phases of the moon through catchy, interesting lyrics.
Send students on a read-the-room moon activity with 12 fact cards, a recording sheet and a Yes or No practice page for 1st and 2nd grade, answer key included, so learning about the moon feels like an adventure.
The Beautiful Moon Reading Comprehension Worksheet gives 2nd grade readers a short non-fiction passage about the moon, four multiple choice questions, a written response, and an answer key, so comprehension practice stays quick and clear.
This Solar Eclipse Word Scramble Worksheet gives second grade students six scrambled science words and a word box to unscramble them. An answer key is included, so checking eclipse vocabulary takes only a moment.
Our nearest neighbor in space
Second graders learn that the moon travels around Earth about once a month and doesn't make its own light. It reflects light from the sun. As it moves, we see different amounts of its lit side, which gives us the phases: new, crescent, first quarter, gibbous, full and back again. They learn the moon has craters, no air and much less gravity, so astronauts bounced when they walked on it. Some classes also learn what happens in an eclipse. The click moment is when a child shines a flashlight on a ball, walks it around their head and sees the phases appear.
The moon is right there for kids to watch. These moves turn looking up into real science.
Darken the room, set a lamp as the sun and give each child a foam ball on a pencil. As they turn slowly, they watch the lit part grow and shrink. Then they sort phase cards in the order they saw.
Why it works: the U.S. Department of Education's guide for teaching elementary math recommends moving from hands-on objects to drawings to numbers.
Try it withIts Just a Phase Phases of the Moon ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Play a moon music video and pause after each verse to talk about the fact in it. By the third listen, kids are singing the vocabulary on their own.
Why it works: a catchy, repeating tune gives the brain a hook to hang words on, so sung text is remembered better (Wallace, 1994).
Try it withMoon Song (Animated Music Video)SongsOpen it →Read a short moon passage, then kids close it and tell a partner two facts they remember before answering the questions. Recall first keeps the reading in their heads.
Why it works: researchers who compared ten study methods found practice testing is one of the two that work best (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it withThe Beautiful Moon Reading Comprehension WorksheetAssessmentsOpen it →Moon learning that is out of this world.
WorksheetsKids write about what they would do on a trip to the moon using three real moon facts.
Open Moon Writing Worksheet →
ActivitiesDrop marbles into a pan of flour and cocoa to make your own craters. Bigger drop, bigger crater?
Open Moon Activity →
WorksheetsUnscramble space words, then act out an eclipse with three classmates.
Open Solar Eclipse Word Scramble Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Moon Song (Animated Music Video), Solar System Activity and Moon Writing Worksheet.
It doesn't really change. As the moon circles Earth, we see more or less of the side lit by the sun, and that makes the phases.
No. The moon reflects sunlight, the same way a mirror reflects a flashlight.
About 27 days to circle Earth, and about 29 and a half days to go through all its phases.
The moon is often above the horizon in daytime, and it is bright enough to see even with the sun out.
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