Oreo's Don't Phase Me: Phun with Moon Phases

We started out asking the kids what they already knew existed in space. 

Then we played a game that allowed every child to tell us what they already knew about space - and wrote it on post it notes and stuck them to our Guinea Pig - I mean...happy volunteer. 

She was covered so we knew a lot of things that existed in space. One prevalent answer was the moon. We talked about each how the moon's appearance change during the month and the names of each phase, after we drew them on the board. 

The changing shape of the bright part of the moon that we can see is called its phase. The moon is illuminated because the light from the sun is reflecting off the moon. Each month our Moon passes through eight phases - named for how much of the moon we can see, and whether the amount visible is increasing (WAXING) or decreasing (WANING) each day. 

The 8 phases of the moon depend on its position in relation to the Sun and Earth and we see the bright parts at different angles. It takes our Moon about 29.5 days to completely cycle through all eight phases - a lunar month. Occasionally (about every 2.7 years) there are two Full Moons in the same month. This is referred to as a Blue Moon. Hence the saying "Once in a Blue Moon".

1. New Moon - The side of the moon facing the Earth is not illuminated. 
2. Waxing Crescent - During this phase, part of the Moon is beginning to show. 
3. First Quarter - During first quarter, 1/2 of the moon is visible/
4. Waxing Gibbous - When most of the Moon is visible we say it is a Gibbous Moon.
5. Full Moon - When we can observe the entire face of the moon, we call it a Full Moon. 
6. Waning Gibbous - Like the Waxing Gibbous Moon, during this phase, we can see all but a sliver of the Moon.
7. Last Quarter -  During a Last Quarter Moon we can see exactly 1/2 of the Moon's lighted surface. 
8. Waning Crescent - Finally, during a Waning Crescent Moon, observers on Earth can only see a small sliver of the Moon.

Them we carved them out of Oreos! 

After we got to eat our moons and enjoy!

Vocabulary used waxing, waning, the moon phases (full, new, first quarter, third/last quarter, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, waxing crescent, waning crescent), lunar/solar eclipse,  and tides.

Fun Fact: Did you know when the shape of the moon looks like a "C" it is a WANING moon - getting smaller as in "C" ya later - or Ciao. When it is in the shape of a "D" it is Developing (WAXING).