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This photo shows a closup of the Moon during one of its phases.

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DIY | Phases Of The Moon For Kids (3 Ways)

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Outer Space: "Time to Shine," The Moon Song by StoryBots

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Educational Videos and Games for School Kids

The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth, and the second brightest object in the Earth's sky after the Sun. Its diameter is around one-fourth that of Earth and its volume is 2% that of Earth. The Moon completes an orbit around the Earth in 27.3 days in an elliptical orbit at an average distance of 384,403 km. Moon is the only celestial object to which humans have traveled and landed.

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Topic : Moon

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Educational Videos and Games for School Kids The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth, and the second brightest object in the Earth's sky after the Sun. Its diameter is around one-fourth that of Earth and its volume is 2% that of Earth.

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Introduction:

Thus far, our Moon is the only location outside of our planet that human beings have personally visited and set foot. Our moon is the largest and brightest object in our sky, and it's thanks to the moon's gravitational pull that causes Earth's axis to wobble that we have a fairly stable climate.

The moon's gravity pulls on our oceans giving us our tides, and is believed to be a major reason why life has thrived so well on Earth. Our moon is one of 190 or more moons that are orbiting in our solar system and is the fifth largest of all.

The effect of Earth's gravitation pull on the moon causes the mass of the moon to be pulled towards the center. When we see the moon in the night sky our view is dependent upon the orbit of the Earth around the sun and that casts shadows on the moon.

There are eight moon phases involving these shadows: Full Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, and Waning Crescent.

The Moon Statistics:

Discovered by: Known by Ancient Humans

Average Orbit Distance: 238,855 mi/384,400 km

Mean Orbit Velocity: 2,287.0 mph/3,680 km/h

Orbit Eccentricity: 0.0554

Equatorial Inclination: 6.68 degrees

Equatorial Radius: 1079.6 mi /1737.5 km

Equatorial Circumference: 6,783.5 mi/10,917.0 km

Volume: 21,971,669,064 km3

Density: 3.344g/cm3

Mass: 73,476,730,924,573,500,000,000kg

Surface Area: 14,647,439.75 sq mi/37,936,694.79km2

Surface Gravity: 5.328ft/s2 /1.624m/s2

Escape Velocity: 5,314mph/8,552km/h

History of the Name:

Throughout most of history, no one ever thought there were any other moons, so they simply called ours "the moon." It wasn't until 1610 when Galileo Galilei discovered Jupiter's four moons that astronomers and society realized that there could be others.

Formation:

Scientists have a popular theory that our moon came into creation when a large body the size of Mars collided with Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. The collision caused massive impact changes to Earth and the debris that was left over wound up collecting in space to create our only satellite.

The new moon was 239,000 mi/384,000 km away from Earth but it was in a molten state. Within around 100 million years a majority of the "magma ocean" had become crystalized and the rocks that were less dense floating towards the top and eventually creating the crust of the lunar surface.

Structure and Surface:

The Earth's moon has three major areas: a core, a mantle, and a crust. The core of the moon is considered to be smaller than the core of other terrestrial bodies. It has a solid, iron-rich inner core that is around 149 mi/240 km in radius and is surrounded by a liquid iron shell that is 56 mi/90 km thick.

There is a layer that is partially molten that surrounds the iron core that is 93 mi/150 km thick. The mantle continues from the top of the partially molten layer to the bottom portion of the crust of the moon. It's most like made up of minerals such as pyroxene and olivine, which are in turn made up of iron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen atoms.

The lunar crust is about 43 mi/70 km thick on the near-side of the moon's hemisphere, and 93 mi/150 km thick on the far-side of the hemisphere. The crust consists of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminum, with small amounts of thorium, titanium, potassium, uranium, and hydrogen.

During the early part of the moon's life it once had active volcanoes but they are all dormant now and haven't erupted in millions of years.

Over billions of years, the moon has had an incredible volume of impacts from asteroids, meteoroids, and comets. Without an atmosphere to protect it, the impacts have left craters of all sizes.

The Tycho Crater is over 52 mi/85 km wide. The impacts have had another effect in that they ground up the moon's surface so that pieces are as small as powder all the way to huge boulders.

Almost the entire surface of the moon is covered in charcoal-gray debris, powdery dust, and rocks that are referred to as "lunar regolith." The area directly under the fractured bedrock is called the "megaregolith."

We have had a lot of time to investigate and study the moon and scientists have defined the lighter areas as highlands and the darker areas as marias (Latin for seas).

The marias are impact basins that were once filled with lava between 4.2-1.2 billion years ago. The dark and light areas show rocks that are made up of different elements and are of different ages and offer an explanation as to how the early lunar crust may have crystallized from the lunar magma ocean.

Since there isn't any weather on the moon to change them, the craters have been preserved for billions of years and give scientists a good idea of the moon's history.

Since we have had a few manned missions to the moon we have also left some evidence that we were there. Astronauts left equipment, including a camera, and American flags. The moon's gravity is one sixth of that on Earth and there are many footprints left by the Astronauts as well as tire tracks from their rovers.

There are varied temperatures on the moon ranging from 260 degrees F/127 degrees C when in full sunlight all the way to -280 degrees F/-173 degrees C during the darkness.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

The moon does have an atmosphere, but it's very weak and thin. The atmosphere is called an "exosphere" and doesn't offer any protection from the radiation from the sun or meteoroid impacts.

In the early years of the moon it might have had an internal dynamo, which is a mechanism that terrestrial planets have to generate global magnetic fields. However, today our moon has only a weak magnetic field, just strong enough to affect the tides for water on the Earth.

The moon doesn't have a moon of its own and it doesn't have any rings.

Could Life Exist?

Earth's moon has been visited by humans many times and throughout the explorations we have found no evidence that indicates life as we know it could thrive, adapt, and live. However humans will probably use the moon in the future as a base for colonization.

Interesting Information:

Our moon has the unusual property of having a diameter that is one quarter of Earth's diameter. There aren't any other planets in our solar system that have a moon as large as the one that orbits Earth.

Even though it is large, the moon has a low density and its mass is low for its size. The unique balance between the size of the moon and its distance from Earth allows us to have one of the only moons that has both lunar and solar eclipses.

In 2024 NASA plans another mission to the moon.

Although American astronauts do have six American flags on the surface of the moon it doesn't mean that the U.S. has any claim on it. In 1967 an international law was written that prevents any single nation from owning the moon, planets, stars, or any other natural space object.

Space Visits:

With the exception of our Earth, we have explored our moon more than any other body within the solar system. Thus far, 24 human beings have made the trip from Earth to the moon and 12 have walked on the surface of the moon. We have sent dozens of robotic spacecraft from many different nations to explore and collect data on the moon. We have also collected moon rocks on numerous occasions to bring back to Earth and study.

Important Events:

1959: Luna 1: Soviet Union. This was the first successful flyby of the Moon at a distance of about 3,700 miles (6,000 km). There had been 7 previous mission attempts launched by both the Soviets and the U.S.

1959: Pioneer 4: The goal of the Pioneer 4 was to do a flyby of the moon and take photographs. Although the second stage of the rocket failed to cut off within the correct time and it was too far away to take pictures, it was the first U.S. spacecraft to leave the orbit of the Earth and a lot of useful data was collected.

1959: The Soviet Union's Luna 2 spacecraft impacts the moon and is the first human-made object to touch the surface of another world.

1959: The Soviet Union's Luna 3 is the first to do a flyby on the far side of the moon.

1964: Ranger 7 is the first U.S. success to explore the moon. 13 previous attempts had been made and failed. Ranger 7 was sent back incredible images just prior to impacting the moon's surface.

1965: Ranger 9 sends back live television images just before it impacts the surface of the moon at the Alphonsus crater.

1965: The Soviet Union's Zond series was originally supposed to involve quite a few missions that were interplanetary. Zond 3 continued to map the far side of the moon.

1966: The U.S. robotic Surveyor 1 successfully soft lands on the Moon and transmitted over 11,000 images as well as data about the lunar soil, temperature, and radar reflection abilities.

1966: NASA's robotic Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft became the first of five missions that maps the moon's surface from space.

1968: Surveyor 7 is the last robotic mission to preview the moon's surface in preparation for the Apollo landings.

1968: Apollo 8 is the first mission to take human astronauts to the moon's orbit.

1961-1968: The U.S. Ranger, Lunar Orbiter, and Surveyor robotic missions act to prepare the upcoming Apollo missions for human astronauts to land on the moon. The Lunar Orbiter 1 sent the first images of the Earth from the moon.

1969: Apollo 11 mission: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first human astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon. There would be 10 more astronauts that would land on the moon before they ended the program in 1972.

1970-1973: The Soviet Union lands the first of two robotic rovers that drove over the surface of the moon.

1994-1999: Clementine and Lunar Prospector data study gives scientists the theory that the moon's poles may contain water ice.

2003: The (ESA) European Space Agency's SMART-1 lunar orbiter takes an inventory of key chemical elements on the moon.

2007-2008: Japan's sends its second lunar spacecraft, Kaguya, and China sends its first lunar spacecraft, Chang'e 1. Both have missions to orbit the moon for one year. Later, India sends the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft for lunar orbit.

2009: NASA launches the LRO and LCROSS together. The LCROSS mission was to impact a shadowed are in the south pole of the moon which resulted in the confirmation of the discovery of water ice.

2011: Twin GRAIL spacecraft launched with the purpose of mapping the moon's interior from crust all the way to the core. The ARTEMIS mission was designed to study the moon's interior and the composition of it surface.

2013: China lands the Yutu, the third wheeled rover, for the purpose of exploring the moon's surface.

Facts about The Moon for Kids:

The moon is covered in craters from impacts from meteors and comets. The lack of an atmosphere on the moon gives scientists an in-depth detailed view of the history of impacts on the surface. The moon also doesn't have any tectonic activity or weather that would cover or resurface the craters.

The term "the dark side of the Moon" relates to the fact that even though both sides of the moon get the similar sunlight, the moon is tidally-locked so that only one of its side face the Earth.

It's estimated that there are about 500,000 craters on the surface of the moon.

Our solar system has many planets with moons, but our moon is the fifth largest satellite within our solar system.

Almost everyone is familiar with the image of "the man in the moon." However, the optical illusion is based on craters combined with light and dark contrasts on the lunar surface.

Our moon has a gravitation pull on the Earth that creates a bulge. This bulge moves around as the Earth rotates, causing the low and high tides of the oceans.

The moon is actually drifting away at around 3.8 cm per year. Scientists believe that in 50 billion years it may be far enough from the Earth that it will take the moon 47 days instead of the current 27.3 days to orbit the Earth.

If you watched any of the space missions with the astronauts walking on the moon you may have noticed that they "bounce" from one place to another when they walk. This is because the moon has 1/6th of the gravity that we have on Earth.

There have so far been 12 astronauts that have walked on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 was the first, with Neil Armstrong being the first human to set foot on the moon. The last mission was the Apollo 17 in 1972, with Gene Cernan as astronaut. All missions after 1972 involved unmanned spacecraft.

NASA and other organizations are planning additional moon missions in the hope that they can set up a permanent moon space station.

The diameter of the moon is the same distance in miles from Phoenix, AZ to New York City.

Believe it or not, the moon does have moon quakes. These are due to the gravitational pull by the Earth causing ruptures and cracks beneath the surface of the moon.

There are two kinds of eclipses that involve the moon. When the moon passes between the sun and the Earth it's called a solar eclipse. When the Earth passes between the sun and the moon it's called a lunar eclipse.

Pop Culture:

From ancient times, human beings told stories about the moon. When we look up at the moon many have seen the image of a face, also known as "the man in the moon," or even animals, and throughout the centuries tales have been made up to try to explain our lunar neighbor.

As telescopes were designed, even the simplest of those were able to observe the craters on the moon and some invented stories of the moon being made of cheese as an explanation.

Although written about in a number of books in history, it was the 1902 black and white silent French film called "Le Voyage Dans la Lune" (a Trip to the Moon) that it made its first appearance in film. 1968 was a year before the astronauts took their first walk on the moon, and yet this was also the year for the film "2001: A Space Odyssey." The storyline included the fact that there was a moon outpost that discovers evidence of ancient aliens that left a message for humanity in the form of an obelisk. It remains one of the best science fiction movies ever created.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/overview/ Coolaboo Kids astronomy website
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Moon Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about the Moon

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Thus far, our Moon is the only location outside of our planet that human beings have personally visited and set foot. Our moon is the largest and brightest object in our sky, and it's thanks to the moon's gravitational pull that causes Earth's axis to wobble that we have a fairly stable climate.

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Kids aren't the only ones who go through phases: The moon has a few of its own. Waxing and waning you might have heard of, but what's a gibbous moon?

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Kids Science Website: Phases of the Moon

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Kids Science Website: Phases of the Moon

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Kids learn about the science of the phases of the moon. Full, Gibbous, Quarter, and crescent.

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- please read © Copyright
All the materials on these pages are free for homework and classroom use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from the author Mandy Barrow.

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please read© Copyright All the materials on these pages are free for homework and classroom use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from the author Mandy Barrow.

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The following questions were answered by astronomer Dr. Cathy Imhoff of the Space Telescope Science Institute.

How big is the moon?
The moon is about 2,000 miles across.

How far is it from Earth to the moon?
It is about 250,000 miles from Earth to the moon.

How old is the moon?
The moon is the same age as the Earth and the rest of the solar system - about 4.5 billion years. Our solar system was all formed at that time.

How did the moon form?
We think that the moon and Earth formed at about the same time, back when our whole solar system was formed. Earth was forming from many chunks of rock and icy material. Possibly a big chunk hit the new Earth and knocked loose a big piece, which became the moon.

How hot and cold does it get on the moon?
As you may have learned, the moon doesn't have any air around it. The air that surrounds our earth acts as a nice blanket to keep us warm and comfy! But the moon, since it doesn't have this blanket, gets much colder than the earth - and much hotter than the earth. On the side of the moon that the sun is shining on, the temperature reaches 260°Fahrenheit! That is hotter than boiling. On the dark side of the moon, it gets very cold, -280° Fahrenheit.

What is the surface of the moon like?
The surface of the moon has about two inches of dust. Much of this dust has fallen to the moon from the spaces between the planets over the last several billions years. It probably feels pretty soft. You can see this in some pictures taken by the astronauts of their footprints on the moon.

How many holes are in the moon?
We call those holes "craters." They are the places where many years ago meteors hit the surface of the moon and put dents into it. There are thousands of big craters, but even more little ones. There are probably millions of little craters on the moon! Some are only an inch or so across.

Why does the moon have big rocks?
The moon is made up of various kinds of rocks. These rocks are fairly similar to the rocks on earth. But on earth, we have wind and rain that help wear the rocks down into sand and dirt. There is no air or wind on the moon, so the rocks don't get worn down as they do on the earth.

How many moons are there all together?
Earth has only one moon. If you count all the moons around all the planets in our solar system, there are 61 (Earth has one, Mars has two, Jupiter has 16, Saturn has 18, Uranus has 15, Neptune has 8, and Pluto has one). There may be more that we haven't discovered yet!

Why does the moon change its shape (as in full, half, and quarter moon)?
The bright part of the moon is the part that the sun is shining on. This is like daytime on earth. The dark part is in shadow, like night on earth. Now the moon goes around the earth once every 29 days (approximately).

At new moon, the moon and the sun are on the same side of Earth. We see the part of the moon that is in shadow, so the moon is dark. Then the moon moves around in its orbit. At first quarter, it has gone one-fourth of the way around Earth. Now we can see part of the moon that is sunlit, but part still in shadow. Note that if the sun is setting in the west, the bright part of the moon is on the side toward the sun and the dark part is away.

About a week later, the moon has moved halfway around its orbit. Now it is on the opposite side of Earth, away from the sun. Now we see only the sunlit side - that is the full moon. Note that if the sun is setting in the west, the moon is just rising in the east.

About a week later, the moon has moved now three-fourths of the way around in its circle around Earth. Once again only part of the moon is sunlit and part is dark. Now you can see the moon in the morning, and note that once again the sunlit side is on the side towards the sun, and the shadow side away. Another week and we are back to the new moon.

It's easier to demonstrate if you have a ball to represent the moon and a flashlight for the sun. Have someone stand several feet away, holding the flashlight so it shines on the ball. Hold the "moon" ball and slowly turn around, watching the moon go around you (you are Earth). Do you see the moon's phases?

What is a lunar eclipse? What is a solar eclipse?
Anytime there are three bodies (the sun, the moon, or planet) lined up so that one blocks the light from another, we call that an eclipse. During a solar eclipse, our moon moves between us (on Earth) and the sun and blocks the sunlight. During a lunar eclipse, Earth blocks the sun's light that normally lights up the moon. Since we are standing on Earth, what we see is that the moon gets dark. Other kinds of eclipses happen too. For instance if you were standing on the surface of Jupiter (kind of hard, but we can imagine) you might see one of its moons eclipse the sun!

How come we can sometimes see the moon during the day?
The reason that you don't see the stars during the day is that the sky is too bright. Sunlight scatters around in the air and makes the sky look bright blue. But if you had a telescope and pointed it at a bright star you could still see it during the day! The stars are still there, just hard to see. The moon is bright enough that we can see it during the day or night. It orbits Earth once every 29 days. So during some of that time, it is easiest to see during the day and sometimes during the night.

Does the moon really have volcanoes?
Yes, the moon has some volcanoes. But as far as I know they are all "dead" volcanoes that have not erupted for millions of years. Most of the craters on the moon are from the surface being hit by asteroids and comets billions of years ago. The moon is a very "quiet" place. There is no air or water to erode the surface, and there are no earthquakes or volcanoes to change the surface. Only the smallest rocks may still hit the surface. So it has not changed much in billions of years! Probably the biggest changes recently are the footprints from the astronauts that visited the moon about 30 years ago!

Does it ever rain or snow on the moon or the other planets of our solar system?
To have rain or snow, we need to have water and an atmosphere of some kind. The moon has no atmosphere, so it has no weather at all! Mars has only a very thin atmosphere but it does have weather. Strong winds can blow up big dust storms. Pictures from the Mariner spacecraft show that sometimes thin frost forms on the surface of the planet. Sometimes just after Martian dawn, we see an icy fog rising from the craters! I believe that it is too cold for rain, but frost and icy fogs have definitely been seen. And of course, Mars has polar caps of frozen water and carbon dioxide ("dry ice"). Perhaps it snows at the polar caps. The atmosphere of Venus is very thick and very hot. There is a little water in its clouds, but I don't believe it ever rains. Mercury has no atmosphere. The outer planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto - are extremely cold. Their atmospheres are mostly made up of methane, ammonia, nitrogen, and stuff like that. There are probably some ice crystals in their atmospheres too, but they probably just blow around in the strong winds. So there might be a sort of "snow" but not very much like what we are used to on Earth.

Is there really water on the moon?
Water that would be found on the moon may have existed from the days when our solar system was formed. Comets that may have hit the moon could also be a source of water. Generally we think water, that was part of the moon as it formed, would have probably evaporated away. Water from comets would have evaporated too. However, the area where Clementine found the possible signature of water is at the very cold south pole of the moon, in a dark, cratered area where the sun never shines. So it seems possible that the water (or ice) has survived there. We are hoping that other observations can be made with other satellites that can confirm whether this is really water on the moon. If so, it would be a great help for manned space travel in the solar system!

Can you plant something on the moon?
You could plant something, but it would die. There is no atmosphere (it needs carbon dioxide) and no water. The sunlight would burn it during the lunar day, and in the nighttime it would freeze. I don't know if the soil would provide the nutrients that it would need, because it is just rock dust; there are no organic components that earth plants need to fix nitrogen, and so on. Life on earth is very special and very precious!

If there is no weather or atmosphere on the moon, then where does the ice come from?
We think that the ice on the moon came from comets! Comets are made up of mostly ice with some rocks and dirt mixed in. We think that most of the water on the earth probably came from comets that crashed into the earth when the earth was very, very young. The ice on the moon may have come the same way. Most of the water on the moon evaporated away a long time ago. But the ice at the South Pole stayed there because it is very, very cold and is in a dark area where the sun never shines.

Is the moon moving away from Earth?
Yes, it is! But it is moving only about an inch farther away each year.

Do you think it is possible that the moon was once a star and is now a black dwarf?
No, I don't think so. The moon is way too small in mass (too little material) to have ever been a star.

Why are parts of the moon called seas?
Galileo was responsible for naming the major features on the moon. You may know that he was the first person to study the night sky using a telescope. He thought the dark, smooth areas were seas, and called them "maria" (Latin for seas; "mare" is the singular). For instance, the first Apollo landing occurred in Mare Tranquilitatis (the Sea of Tranquility). Of course we know now that there are no seas. The "seas" look flat from ancient lava flows. But the names stayed.

If a man was walking on the moon and he picked up a rock and threw it really hard, would it go past the moon's atmosphere?
The gravity on the surface of the moon is one-sixth of Earth's, so the astronaut could certainly throw that rock a lot farther. Did you know that one of the Apollo astronauts took a golf club to the moon and hit a golf ball a really long way? Even so, the gravity is strong enough that the ball or rock would not go into orbit or leave the moon. But it would go six times as far.

How long would it take to fly in a 747 to the moon?
Of course we know that this can't happen, because there is no air and a plane couldn't fly fast enough to escape the earth's gravity. But we can pretend. A 747 airplane normally flies at about 400 miles per hour. The moon is about 250,000 miles away. So if we divide 250,000 by 400, we find that the plane would take 625 hours - or 26 days - to fly to the moon! Boy that would be a looong trip! Twenty-six days of eating airline food - yuck!

In a spaceship, how long does it take to get to the moon?
It depends on how fast the spaceship can travel. When the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, it took about two days.

What is "the man in the moon"?
Have you looked at the moon and noticed the dark patches? Some people think that they make the moon look like it has two eyes and a big smile. The next time the moon is nearly full, it would be a good time to look in the early evening at the moon and see if you can see the "face." In other cultures people see different things on the moon. The Japanese people talk about the rabbit on the moon. I have looked at the moon and seen the "rabbit" too - it looks like a rabbit is walking up the left side of the moon. You might want to look for the rabbit too.

How did the moon get its name?
The moon is something that even the cavemen must have seen and given a name to. Maybe something like "big light in the sky at night when the sun isn't around." According to my dictionary, the Old English word for the moon was mona. In Latin it was mensis. In Greek it was mene (mee-nee). The words moon and month come from the same roots. That is probably because a month was originally measured by the phases of the moon. It takes 29.5 days for the moon to go from full moon to full moon. But there have been many changes to the calendar since that was true, so now months are a little longer and people don't pay too much attention to the phases of the moon anymore.

In what year will man be able to live on the moon?
Right now there are no definite plans by NASA to go back to the moon, even just for a visit. NASA scientists and engineers have been studying how to live on the moon, so it is probably possible. But so far, no plans.

If we are going to have space probes on the moon, should they be on the light or dark side of the moon?
Some people talk about the Dark Side of the moon as if it is a specific place, but this isn't correct. As the moon orbits Earth, different parts are in sunlight or the dark at different times. It takes roughly 29 days for the moon to circle Earth. Since it keeps the same side toward Earth, this means that the moon turns once every 29 days. This is hard to visualize, but you can try it with a ball (for the moon) and a flashlight (for the sun, and you as Earth), perhaps with some help from your teacher. This is also why the moon has phases.

When the astronauts went to the moon, they wanted to be on the side facing Earth so they could communicate with us, and also they wanted to be in the sunlight so they could see and also get power to their solar arrays. So they went around the full moon. They stayed only a few days. If they had stayed for two weeks, they would have ended up in the dark during the new moon!

If we sent a space probe, we would have to decide where to put it based on what kind of studies it would be doing. For instance, if you wanted to study radio waves from the stars, you might want to be on the far side of the moon so you wouldn't get any interference from Earth's TV and radio waves. But you would also have to set up a communications relay station so you could communicate with the probe.

Why does the moon affect the tides?
The moon actually CAUSES the tides. If there were no moon, we would have no tides. The tides arise due to the pull of the moon's gravity. On the side of Earth nearest the moon, the moon's gravity is the strongest and it pulls up the water slightly (high tide). On the side of Earth furthest from the moon, the moon's gravity is the weakest and the water can move a little away from the moon (which is also high tide). This also affects Earth itself. During high tide Earth rises by an inch or two, not enough for us to notice.

How come the moon reflects the sun's light and things on earth (like rocks) don't reflect the sun's light?
Actually everything DOES reflect sunlight. If something doesn't reflect light, it looks completely black. There aren't many things like that around. If you stand outside in the sunlight, you are seeing because the sun's light is bouncing off of everything and your eyes see that light. When you are inside, you see things because the light from the lamps or the fluorescent lights bounces off things in the room.

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The following questions were answered by astronomer Dr. Cathy Imhoff of the Space Telescope Science Institute. How big is the moon? The moon is about 2,000 miles across. How far is it from Earth to the moon? It is about 250,000 miles from Earth to the moon. How old is the moon?

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Phases of the Moon  Explanation for kids -Animation Lesson Unit

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Students write different activities that they perform during the day versus during the night.

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FREE Sun Activities and Classroom Resources! | Teacher Planet

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Have you been muddling through the Next Gen Science Standards this year? I'm not going to lie: they can be a little difficult to understand...but I love a lot of the new content for first grade! My favorite addition is sun, moon and stars! This content meshes perfectly with my i ntegrated science unit on weather and has made this already popular unit an even better 6 week unit! Here's a look at some of the activities from this Sun + Moon + Stars Mini Unit.

Anchor Charts

Anchor charts are a HUGE part of learning new content for young learners. My firsties use our anchor charts all. the. time. I especially love finding ways to make each anchor chart unique by using coordinating colors or shapes so that it's easy to remember and easy to find in our room.

Each anchor chart can be printed and posted around the room...

Or you can fill it out on your Smart Board if you're short on space!

Sun Science

One of my favorite science experiments in first grade is our shadow experiment. You can read about it in detail here, but the look on my firsties' faces when they see their shadow change is priceless every single year!

Moon Science

Brand new to the weather unit this year is phases of the moon! After charting our learning about the moon, we sequence the phases of the moon using the interactive powerpoint from the mini-unit...

Then, we work at stations to sequence moon phases using the sequencing cards.

And later we work independently to sequence the cycle of the moon!

Stars Science

The last part of this mini-unit is all about stars! I love tying in some literacy by reading Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with this study. It's a simple nursery rhyme, but perfect for deepening our discussion on stars with questions like, Why does the author say stars are like diamonds in the sky?
Then, during our science time we research facts about stars and chart our learning on stars in a can-have-are chart.

The next day, we use the slideshow from the unit (seen in the youtube video earlier) to talk about 5 famous constellations, what they look like and how they got their constellation. Then, for a STEM connection, we work in productive groups to build our own constellations with marshmallows and toothpicks. The groups name their constellations and tell the story of how it landed in the sky!

These activities and more can be found in this Sun + Moon + Stars Mini Unit!

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Have you been muddling through the Next Gen Science Standards this year? I'm not going to lie: they can be a little difficult to understand...but I love a lot of the new content for first grade! My favorite addition is sun, moon and stars!