Yummy Moon Phases

I can't think of a better way to learn about the phases of the moon than by using Oreo cookies!  We twisted open our cookies and used spoons to scrape off the filling to model each phase.  We learned  the difference between a Waxing Gibbous and a Waning Gibbous.  Waning means to get smaller, so this phase is when the "lit" part of the moon is getting smaller after a full moon!

Space Reports

Each of the kids were assigned something in space to do a research project on.  They either had the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto.  Yes, I know it's technically not a planet any more and the kids learned about the multiple dwarf planets in the Milky Way Solar System.  Each report had to have a minimum of 5 fun facts, a drawing or print out, diameter (we learned about this in math), distance from the sun, how many moons and the temperature.

I had a substitute during the 2nd day of reports.  Hopefully I'll get the photos that she took up on the blog soon!

Moon Phases

We're in the middle of one of our last Science Units of the year- Space and the Moon Phases!  We have been watching a few videos talking about how the Earth is tilted, the moon orbits the sun, and the moon has 8 moon phases.  This is an extremely difficult concept to understand- how the moon orbits the Earth and has different amounts of views from the sun's light reflection.  In order to explain it better, the kids were able to put it to work.  The bright light is our sun, the glob is the Earth and the foam ball is the moon.  The kids moved the moon around the globe to simulate the moon orbiting the sun.  As we moved the moon around, we were able to see that most of the time only part of the moon is "lit" up by the sun's reflection.  Other times, the moon is completely black (new moon) and completely lit up (full moon).

What does the clock say?!?

We recently started our Telling Time Unit in math!  The kids enjoy playing "Bump the Alarm Clock" during their center game.  We've been doing a lot of work in our math journals with building clocks, labeling the parts of the clocks, counting the minutes, etc.  We also start each session by building a class size clock and working on telling time to the hour and 1/2 hour.

This is our NEW favorite video to play during math!