Moon Unit: Getting Started and Resources

B4FIAR Go-Along Book: Goodnight Moon (separate post to come)

Introducing The Moon:

~ To start our unit on the moon, I made a “moon book”. It had three pages in it with lines: (in italics are Treyton’s answers)

Page 1: What do I know about the moon? It spins around the sun. It comes out at night. It is a circle.

Page 2: What do I want to know about the moon? Where the dots come from.

Page 3: Look at a picture of the moon. Describe what it looks like. Why does it look like this? The moon is white and dark and has holes it. The holes from from sparkles, like bubbling up. What do you think the moon feels like? I think it feels cold.

~ Flashlight & Mirror Example: MFW had a great idea of going into a dark room with a mirror and a flashlight and discussing the fact that the mirror has no light of it’s own, but when the flashlight is shown on to it it reflects the light of the flashlight, in the same way, the moon reflects the light of the sun (and as Christians we reflect the light of Jesus). We also grabbed our globe and showed how/why we see the moon at night while we usually don’t see the moon during the day. The kids got a real kick out of this… then again they usually get a thrill out of going into a dark room with a flashlight for no good reason at all :)

~ We read lots of moon books, for some reason I was able to find a lot more books on the moon than I was the sun.

Phases of the Moon:

On day 2 we talked about why the moon seems to change shape.

~ I printed off some phases of the moon pages. I cut them out and pasted them on black paper – we used these “cards” throughout the day as we talked about the different phases of the moon. At the end of the day we put them on the wall in order of biggest to smallest.

~ We took a white foam ball and colored half of it black. We talked about why half the moon was always black (just like the earth). We then talked about how it rotates around the earth. We took our ball (on a stick) and rotated it around our globe. We have our “house” tacked onto our globe so I had Treyton tell me with his moon phase flashcards which phase of the moon we would see as I rotated it around. He would lift up the card as I moved the moon around… then it was my turn, he rotated the moon and I lifted the cards. ~ We read the book “Papa Get the Moon for Me” which Treyton then illustrated in his art book and narrated back to me. He did a great job.

  ~ For snack time we took crackers and ate away to different stages of the moon.

  ~ By the end of the day, Treyton was able to name a full moon, quarter moon and new moon. (Good enough for me!)

Surface of the Moon:

~ I kept this simple explaining that the moon gets hit by large rocks leaving holes on the surface on the sun called craters. We went out to our sandbox took a couple of rocks and dropped them in. A fun experiment.

~ We also did a wax paper craft. I cut circles out of wax paper, we talked about how the surface of the moon wasn’t smooth, but rough. The kids crumpled up their wax circles. we attached them to a piece of black paper, then we took a white crayon and drew on some stars. This was Treyton’s first time drawing stars, we spent extra time and attention working on it, we were both very proud.

 Resources:

Printable Lunar Tracking Calendar

Moon Lapbook at The Girlies Mt. Hope

Creation Day 4 Information

DLTK – Phases of the Moon

Preschool Post Moon Activities

Learning Pages Solar System, worksheets, lesson plans, book recommendations, etc.

Squido – Space Lapbook – TONS of links and resources (INCREDIBLE, many of my other resources came from here plus they have many more)

LiveandLearn Astronomy PDF – part of apologia’s astronomy unit

Online Videos at Space Place

Online Video at the Phases of the Moon

Nasa’s 3,2,1… liftoff Educator Guide

Kid’s Astronomy – Solar System

Pre-Kinders – space unit

Preschool Education

Little Teacher – space themed unit

4KraftyKids – outer space crafts

Moon Cake Recipe

Moon Sand:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 T. cocoa

Form 3 craters in the moon sand, one large crater in the center and one medium crater and one small crater anywhere on the moon sand.

Add 1 tsp. baking soda to the medium crater.
Add 5 T melted butter to the large crater.
Add 1 tsp. vanilla to the small crater.
Pour 1 T. vinegar into the medium crater and watch it bubble like a volcano.

When foam stops, add 1 c. milk and mix together to form moon mud.
Sprinkle with 3/4 c. miniature marshmallows (moon rocks).

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean.