Phases+of+the+Moon

A great way to start this topic and to get children thinking about the subject is to watch this video.... media type="youtube" key="EG10fxvMjAA" height="315" width="560" There are eight phases of the moon. These phases take place over a period of approximately twenty nine days, also known as a Lunar Month.
 * Phases of the Moon by Jamie Royle, Rachel Hoather, Sarah May and Ben Meaton.**
 * The Lunar Cycle**
 * Lunar Glossary:**
 * Orbit - ** The path of the Moon around the Earth.
 * Rotate - ** The Earth spins around, like a top, about its axis once each day.
 * Waning ** - Shrinking.
 * Waxing - ** Growing
 * Gibbous - ** Swollen on one side


 * The phases are as follows:**
 * 1. New Moon:** This occurs when the moon is lying between the Sun and the Earth. Its alignment with both of these bodies means that only one side of the Moon is exposed to the Sun's light. However, this is not the side of the Moon that is visible from the Earth, meaning that no Moon can be seen and thus a New Moon is formed.


 * 2. Waxing Crescent:** The Moon has continued to rotate and here on Earth we are now able to see a small portion of the side that is exposed to the Sun. This small section is shaped like a crescent (hence the name).


 * 3. First Quarter:** The Moon has completed one quarter of it's orbit around the Earth at this point, and half of the Moon's surface is visible from Earth, so it is often called a half Moon.


 * 4. Waxing Gibbous:** Almost half of the Moon's circuit around the Earth has been completed, and so almost all of the Moon is visible. However there is still a small slither in darkness before the Full Moon stage is reached.


 * 5. Full Moon:** Around 2 weeks after the new moon has occurred, about half way through the lunar cycle, the moon becomes full. Here the moon appears as a whole illuminated circle in the sky as the sun illuminates the full face of the moon. The full moon is visible all night long, rising when the sun sets and only setting around the same time as the sun rises again the next morning.


 * 6. Waning Gibbous:** Waning gibbus appears to be a strange word but it can be broken down to easily understand the appearance of the moon during this part of the lunar cycle. Waning simply means decreasing, so the illuminated face of the moon begins to get smaller. Gibbus refers to the size of the illuminated face of the moon, meaning it is more than a quarter illuminated but less than full. Thus, the waning gibbus is a decrease of the illuminated face, but not so there is less than one quarter illuminated. This stage of the lunar cycle lasts for nearly a week and during its early stages it is often mistaken for a full moon.


 * 7. Third Quarter: (Last Quarter Moon)** The last moon quarter is when the moon has completed one quarter of an orbit around the Earth, one quarter of a full circle (90 degrees) away from the sun. Half of the moon's surface is visible from Earth and so sometimes this phase is called **half moon**. Last quarter A third or last quarter moon shows the sunlit side of the moon on the left. (This would be on the opposite side for Australia) The last quarter moon rises around midnight and sets around mid-morning. So unless you're a late-owl, you've probably never even seen this moon.


 * 8. Waning Crescent:** The waning crescent moon rises a couple of hours before the sun rises and is barely visible all day long and then sets a couple of hours before the sun. (The best time to see it is just before sunrise.)

The Moon is 4.5 billion years old! The Moon travels around the Earth counterclockwise. So looking down from the north pole we would see the Moon orbiting **counterclockwise** from west to east! The moon moves toward the east in our sky by about 12 degrees each day. The Moon is about 250,000 miles (384,400 kilometres) from Earth. The moon orbits Earth at an avaerage speed of 2,288 miles per hour (3,683 kilometres per hour). The Moon has a diameter of 2,000 miles ( 3,476 kilometres). Footprints left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts will remain visible for at least 10 million years because there is no erosion on the Moon.
 * Fun Moon Facts:**

Phases of the Moon is often a very difficult concept to explain to children, as it is hard to demonstrate. The link below from the Children's University has an animation of the Moon's orbit around the Earth which would be an excellent teaching resource for this topic: @http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/phases.asp
 * Phases of the Moon internet resources:**

The below link is enables the user to change the perspective of which the phases of the moon are seen. This is often what makes this topic difficult for children, and so could prove very useful: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPhase.html

McVities making teaching easy..... media type="youtube" key="QBnMdJimDU0" height="315" width="420"

Also a brilliant example of making science relevant to your class!!

Here is another fun way to learn the phases of the moon, by way of....RAPPING......

media type="youtube" key="AQRNzepe4wI" height="315" width="420" You always learn best when learning is different and made fun. This is both. Waning gibbus appears to be a strange word but it can be broken down to easily understand the appearance of the moon during this part of the lunar cycle. Waning simply means decreasing, so the illuminated face of the moon begins to get smaller. Gibbus refers to the size of the illuminated face of the moon, meaning it is more than a quarter illuminated but less than full. Thus, the waning gibbus is a decrease of the illuminated face, but not so there is less than one quarter illuminated. This stage of the lunar cycle lasts for nearly a week and during its early stages it is often mistaken for a full moon.

Here are some pictures for the visual learners so they can see the exact transformations that occurs to the moon.
 * Moon Pictures**



Here is another wiki page on the Lunar Month....Lunar Cycle If you are interested in planets take a look at this page...Planets