The Delicious Phases of the Moon

The fourth grade curriculum standards for Georgia require me to know the phases of the Moon and to understand why there are phases.  My Mom decided this was best learned with Oreos.

We started by drawing the Sun and the Earth.  Then we drew the Moon's orbit around the Earth and divided it into quarters.  This was handy because I'm learning about fractions right now too.  The Moon rotates around the Earth every 29.5 days.  We rounded down for easier math to 28 days, so each quarter represents approximately one week.

Did you know that we always see the same side of the Moon?  And the Moon is a thief because it doesn't make its own light, but reflects the light of the Sun.  The Moon appears to change shape, but it doesn't - we see different amounts of light being reflected on the Moon based on the angles created by the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.

The beginning and end of the cycle start with a New Moon, when the Moon is directly between the Sun and the Earth.  The Moon looks dark and we see no reflected light.

The light from the Sun that we can see from Earth begins to wax - or grow - to create a crescent shape. The first quarter ends with The First Quarter Moon.  The Moon looks like a half moon, not a quarter moon.  The quarter part of the First Quarter Moon refers to its travel in orbit, not the shape we see in the sky.

The Moon continues to wax into a Waxing Gibbous Moon.  Then, halfway through its orbit, the Moon is full.  About two weeks have passed since the New Moon, and now the entire face of the Moon shines in the sky.

The second half of the cycle is the same as the first, except it's waning instead of waxing.  Waning means going away.  (P.S. My Mom is totally helping me write this!)

I'm not really that interested in the phases of the Moon, but I had to learn them.  So it was fun that I got to eat some Oreos along the way.  Now I understand that the phases of the Moon are created by the Sun's light and the angle created by the Moon depending on its position in orbit.  

I also want to share this super cool, awesome, and amazing phases of the Moon video we found on You Tube.  I have watched it about 15 times.

Signing Off,

Evalynn and Mom