Phases of the Moon Learning Pack

The changing of the moon’s shape has fascinated Vito.  Early this year, we’ve been seeing the moon as early as 1 pm in the afternoon, so he gets to identify and describe its shape.  He would call the shapes “small moon”, “half moon”, and “circle moon”.  With the knowledge that the moon changes its appearance, I read a few books to Vito to explain why this is happening.

Now, this post contains some of the activities we did to learn about the moon phases.  These are hands-on activities, and we used most of our printed materials from my shop.  Continue reading the post to learn more about it.


SEQUENCING CARDS
Vito can’t read yet, so we are just focusing with pattern recognition type of activities.  We read all the books I listed below and the sequencing activity is a perfect opportunity to extend his learning from the books.  Here I presented the moon phase chart (as seen in the books) and I showed Vito how we can arrange the cards based on the stories that we read (moon gets bigger and smaller).  This is a great opportunity to introduce names like “new moon”, “full moon” and “crescent moon” as he would often call the moon big, small or half.




Then he worked on matching the picture cards to the sequencing cards.  This is a good practice for language skills, pattern recognition and vocabulary.


Vito connected the sequence to the Papa Can You Take The Moon For Me.  He kept on saying that this is how the girl played with the moon, when it was “crescent”.  These learning cards worked perfectly with moon books and concrete materials as this moon cards helped with retention of ideas and gave the child the opportunity to work on hands-on learning.


MOON PHASES DIAGRAM
Speaking of hands-on, this is what Vito did in this activity!  I asked him if he would like to recreate the diagram and he was delighted.  The material that was used here are the picture cards from the 3 part cards set of our learning pack. The image of the sun and earth are also included in the pack.




It was a fruitful activity for Vito learning that the sun affects the moon’s appearance or phase.  And I am quite contented that he’s able to call it “full moon” and “crescent moon” now, rather than calling it the other way (small, big, half).

BOOKS WE ARE READING

• The Moon My First Discovery Book
• The Moon Seems to Change
• On the Moon
• Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
• On the Launch Pad
• Raccoon on the Moon

I have done several versions of moon phase activities with my boys.  I don’t mind doing it every year as repetition is one of the best ways to learn.  Here are some “moon” related activities that you might want to consider:

• The Moon
• Phases of the Moon
• Teaching Phases of the Moon
• Papa Can You Get The Moon For Me Story Basket
• Moon and Planets
• Moon Phase Painting
• Perfect Moon Cloud Dough

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